Polish graham rolls: wholemeal, soft inside, with a crisp crust
Bakery graham rolls are sometimes darkened with caramel or malt. Homemade ones are made from half graham flour and half bread flour, with fresh yeast, with a little honey and butter. They come out dark, faintly nutty, with a soft crumb and a crisp crust split by one deep slash. Ten rolls, one rise in the bowl and one on the tray.
Your own work in that: 35 min.
- Kneading 20 min
- Rising 70 min
- Shaping 15 min
- Rising 40 min
- Baking 20 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneYeast and flours
Crumble the yeast into the lukewarm water with the honey, stir and leave 10 minutes, until foam appears on top. Mix both flours with the salt in a large bowl.
Ingredients: 250 g graham (coarse wholemeal wheat) flour · 250 g strong bread flour · 330 ml water · 15 g fresh yeast · 1 tbsp honey · 1½ tsp salt · 30 g butter
TipGraham is a wholemeal flour with coarsely ground bran. Rolls made with graham flour alone would be dense and heavy; half bread flour gives them lightness.
Graham and bread flour half and half, yeast foamingKnead the dough
Pour the yeast mixture into the flour, mix with a spoon, then knead 8 minutes with dough hooks or 12 by hand. Add the butter and knead another 3 minutes. The dough is slightly sticky and darker than white dough; don't add flour, wet your hands instead. It should be elastic and pull away from the bowl.
TipBran cuts through the gluten network, so wholemeal dough never makes as thin a windowpane as white. Smooth and springy is enough.
Sticky, dark, elastic, no extra flourFirst rise
Shape into a ball, put in an oiled bowl, cover with a cloth and leave somewhere warm 60–70 minutes, until doubled. Wholemeal rises a little slower than white.
Doubled, a dome under the clothDivide and shape
Knock back and divide into 10 equal pieces of about 90 g. Flatten each, roll into a tight log, seal the seam and roll under your palms into an oval with tapered ends. Place seam down on a lined tray, 5 cm apart.
Ten oval rolls, seam downSecond rise and slashing
Dust the rolls with graham flour, cover and leave 40 minutes. Meanwhile heat the oven to 220 °C with an empty tray on the bottom shelf. Slash the risen rolls with a razor in one deep lengthwise cut, 1 cm deep, at an angle.
Ingredients: 1 tbsp graham flour for dusting
TipA classic graham roll usually has a single lengthwise slash that opens wide in the oven. Cutting at a 30° angle gives a handsome 'ear'.
Flour on top, one deep cutBake with steam
Put the tray in the oven, pour a cup of boiling water onto the bottom tray and shut the door quickly. Bake 18–20 minutes, until the rolls are deep golden and sound hollow when tapped underneath. After 10 minutes you can open the door briefly to let the steam out: the crust will be crisper.
Steam below, 220 °C, twenty minutesCool
Cool on a rack 20 minutes: a hot wholemeal crumb is still moist and gums up when cut. Best the same day with butter and honey; the next day toast them or refresh 5 minutes at 180 °C. They freeze perfectly.
With butter and honey, still warm
Before you start
With seeds
Add 50 g of mixed sunflower and linseed soaked overnight in 50 ml water to the dough. Before slashing, wet the tops and roll them in rolled oats.
Overnight in the fridge
Cut the yeast to 10 g. Cover the shaped rolls on the tray with film and refrigerate 8–12 hours. In the morning slash and bake straight from the fridge, 2 minutes longer. Deeper flavour, shorter morning.
The rolls came out dense
Too much graham flour or too little kneading. Keep the half-and-half ratio and don't cut the kneading short; wholemeal dough needs those 10 minutes for the bran to absorb water.
