March is here and, with it, a new menu! For March-April, I’ll be making recipes inspired by the book HEIDI by Johanna Spyri. If you ever needed a sweet, wholesome read, this book’s for you. It’s a darling gem of a story about a little orphaned girl who goes to live with her grandfather in a cottage in the Swiss Alps, where she is a force for good in the life of everyone she meets.

If you’re familiar with the book, you know exactly what food we’re making today: the soft, white rolls! When Heidi befriends Granny, the goatherd’s grandmother, she learns the old woman cannot eat tough black bread. Since that’s the only kind of bread the family can afford, Granny hasn’t tasted bread in years. Heidi is extremely distressed by this, so when she’s served soft white rolls while staying in Frankfurt, she resolves to bring some home to Granny. At her departure, her friend Clara sends her home with a heaping basketful! The rolls are the most prominently featured food in the story–arguably synonymous with the book itself–so I knew they had to be the first item on the menu.

The rolls we’re making today are a mini version of traditional Swiss zopf bread, a braided bread made with enriched dough. It’s a bit like challah, though traditional Ashkenazi challah is an egg bread, and in zopf the egg is optional based on regional preference. The dough I’m making today, a variation on a recipe from Swiss Family Travel, does not contain egg.

These turned out exactly how I imagined Heidi’s bread rolls: soft and white, but also substantial enough to be a filling snack for Granny. According to the book, Granny has hers with coffee, but I’ve been enjoying mine with soup or with tea at breakfast. Either way, they’ll make you wish you were traipsing through alpine meadows with Heidi!

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Mini Zopf Bread: Soft, White Rolls

“There were a great many lovely things in it, but Heidi jumped for joy when she discovered a little basket with twelve round white rolls for the grandmother.”

— Heidi

 

 

INGREDIENTS:

• a little over 3 cups of flour (500g, if you have a kitchen scale)
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 packet active dry yeast (7g)
• 1 1/3 cup room temp milk
• 6 Tbsp room temp butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 egg whisked with a few drops of water, for egg wash

 

Makes 8 5-inch braided rolls

 

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. 1. In a large bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Set aside. Stir the sugar into the milk until dissolved and gently stir in the yeast. Allow to bloom for 10 minutes.
   2. Mix together the dough until mostly combined, either by hand or by using a standing mixer with a dough hook on medium speed (I used speed 4). Mix in the butter one piece at a time. Knead or mix for 10-15 minutes. The dough should be smooth and not stick to your finger when pressed. When cut in half, there should be little bubbles in the dough.
   3. Cover with a clean, damp kitchen towel and allow to rise in a warm place for 2 hours.
   4. On a clean kitchen surface (no flour should be necessary), punch down the dough and divide into 8 equal pieces.
   5. Take one piece and cut it in half. Roll each half into a 10-12 inch coil. Lay the coils in the shape of an “X” (Fig. 1).
      
   6. Take the top left portion and fold it down over the center (Fig. 2). Take the bottom right portion and fold it up over the center, taking care to have it cross beneath the portion you previously folded (Fig. 3). Take the top right portion and fold down over the center (Fig. 4). Take the bottom left portion and fold up over the center, taking care to have it cross beneath the portion you previously folded (Fig. 5).
      
      

      

      

      

   7. Repeat Step 6 until you are out of dough (Fig. 6-7). Tuck the ends under the roll and pinch to keep in place (Fig. 8). The finished braid should be about 4 inches long and slightly tapered at one end (the taper is traditional).
      
      

      

      

   8. Repeat Steps 5-7 with remaining portions of dough.
   9. Place the rolls on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brush with the egg wash. If desired, add a second coat of wash. This results in a more golden color.
   10. Place in a cold oven (DO NOT PREHEAT). Set the temperature to 390° and bake for 25-35 minutes until golden. The rolls should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
   11. Serve to Granny to help her feel cozy as the alpine winter wind blows outside her cottage.

 

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Check out my other bread recipes!

Rustic Brown Bread

Tom Bombadil’s White Bread with Basil Butter, Honey, and Berries

Miss Honey’s Honey Oat Bread from Matilda

Little Red Riding Hood’s Bread Rolls

Brimstone Bread

Secret Note French Bread