Kaiser Rolls

Back in 1960s and 1970s, corned beef was the king of the Jewish deli. Pastrami was just too fatty. To be honest though, corned beef wasn’t something we ate very often growing up. Probably at a fancy Bar Mitzvah or a wedding. That’s about it.

On some Sunday nights, on the way home from Bear Mountain, we would stop at Schild Brothers in Washington Heights. It was a Kosher German delicatessen that sold aufschnitt, cold cuts. My mom would jump out of the car and would return with a bag full of meats wrapped in wax paper, liverwurst, and rye bread.

It was probably in the 80s and nineties that I experienced Stage and Carnegie Deli. By then, I had moved into the world of kosher style. Non-kosher beef was okay. Pork or mixing milk with meat was not which is how I live to today.

And I’m not exactly sure when pastrami became the meat of choice. It was probably around the time of the 1980s Billy Crystal movie, Harry Met Sally, when he orders a pastrami sandwich at Katz’s.

I also suspect that eventually the delis became more aggressive about trimming the fat from the sandwich. These days, the pastrami sandwiches, are much more lean than what one would have gotten in the 1970s. They’re no corned beef but they certainly ain’t the fatty sandwich they used to be.

We always ate corned beef/pastrami sandwiches on rye with mustard. That was it. The Jewish comedians back then would always be making jokes about the goyim with corned beef on white bread with mayonnaise. Jokes that were so common back in the immigrant Jewish world just don’t exist anymore. I doubt an episode of Seinfeld about chocolate babka or the black and white would have much meaning anymore.

The other thing is that in my world of the 1960s and 1970s it was common to see Holocaust survivors with numbers tatooed on their forearm. It wasn’t ever spoken about, but it was just there. In the background.

Although back then we always called it the kosher deli. I guess that all changed when kosher delis turned treif style to expand their market and reduce their costs. There was something strange about going into Max’s deli in San Francisco for the first time in the 1990s and seeing this goyishe corned beef sandwich covered with cheese. Even as a kid, Katz’s deli on the lower east side wasn’t a place I could ever eat in because it wasn’t kosher.

Store bought Kaiser Rolls are dreck.

They are nothing like the real thing.

The kaiser rolls you can bake at home can look like the picture above.

I baked those. And you probably have never seen kaiser rolls like those in your life.

The secret is:

Learn how to fold the dough.

Use a lower hydration dough, around 60%, so that the folds don’t disappear.

Use a lot of flour with the dough so the folds don’t disappear.

Use all-purpose flour so the dough isn’t too tough.

Ingredients

This amount of dough, 100 grams or about 2.25 pounds, will make about a dozen rolls.

Ingredient Amount Baker’s %
Water 365 grams 60%
Salt 12 grams 2 %
Sugar * 12 grams 2 %
Flour ** 600 grams 100 %
Yeast 6 grams 1 %

* The old time Bronx bakeries used diastatic malt rather than sugar. The diastatic malt helped with the browning and rise. You can use sugar in its place or leave it out all together.

** Bread flour or all-purpose flour can be used. Bread flour has a higher protein level which means more gluten which means it can stretch more. It’ll also make a more chewy kaiser roll. I use all-purpose flour because I don’t like it too chewy.

Weigh the ingredients. No volume amounts because you might wind up in the seat behind the pillar at Yankee Stadium. Not a good place to be. You want volume? Go ask an AI.

Steps To Make Dough

Put the water, salt, and sugar in a bowl.

Stir to dissolve.

Add the flour. And let the flour sit in the water for about thirty minutes.

Then add the yeast.

With a fork, mix the flour with the water mixture until it comes together.

Knead for a few minutes.

First Rise

Put in oiled bowl that is covered until the dough is risen (I hate that expression “doubled in size”). It’ll take about 1 - 3 hours.

Shaping before Second Rise

Divide the dough into a dozen or balls.

Flatten and let rest.

Here’s short video on folding.

Short Second Upside Rise

After you fold, you put the kaiser roll upside down. The folds are faced down on the baking sheet that was covered with parchment paper.

Don’t let them rise too long. No more than 20 to 30 minutes.

Flip and Spray With Water

Before putting the rolls into the oven, flip them over so that the folds are now on facing up.

Spray all the tops of the rolls with water.

Bake

Preheat oven to 400-425. Make sure its is preheated. You want some steam when the rolls go into the oven.

Bake at about 400F-425F for about 10 minutes.

Rotate the tray and bake for another eights minutes or so, until the rollss are lightly browned.

Enjoy!!!

For history of this family, visit Emlekezik.com