Kaiser Rolls (Homemade Bread Buns)

Growing up in a Jewish household, we never had white sliced bread.
No. Seriously. Never. We had challah. Or onion rolls. Or pumpernickel. But white sliced? Never. The first time I tried white sliced bread was at a non-Jewish friend’s house. Slathered with mayonnaise and bologna… I really didn’t get the appeal.

30 years later, and I am still a rather large bread snob. The thing is, we’ve now moved to a predominately Italian area – which is an amazing place to be if you’re looking for pizza, but not the best place to find a babka, let alone some kosher bread.

Good thing I like to cook.

Bread baking really isn’t my forté, but I never stop trying new recipes and new techniques. It turns out that some of my favourites are actually some of the easiest to make. I recently started to perfect my pumpernickel, and last week I came across a really awesome Kaiser roll recipe. Slightly dense inside, crisp outer crust, bathed in a cornstarch wash and poppy seeds – they are incredibly reminiscent of the ones that I had in my school lunches as a kid.

These make excellent burger buns, or hearty sandwich bread alternatives. They are slightly dense and are a great base for something saucy, like a lentil sloppy joe or some pulled-pork style jackfruit.