Grovboller

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Large mixing bowl
• •Two baking sheets
• •Parchment paper
• •Wire cooling rack
• •Small oven-safe dish for steam

Instructions

1. 1

   Soak the grains overnight

   The evening before you bake, combine the rolled oats, sunflower seeds, flaxseeds, sesame seeds, and pumpkin seeds in a large bowl. Pour the buttermilk over them and stir until everything is wet. Cover the bowl and leave it on the counter overnight, at least eight hours. The buttermilk does two things while you sleep: its acid softens the tough seed coats, and its moisture swells the oats into a thick porridge that will give the rolls their dense, lasting crumb. By morning the mixture should look like a heavy, spoonable paste. That's exactly right.

   Don't refrigerate the soak. Room temperature keeps the buttermilk active and gives the seeds a better texture by morning.
2. 2

   Mix the dough

   In the morning, add the whole wheat flour, bread flour, rye flour, yeast, salt, and honey to the soaked grain mixture. Stir everything together with a wooden spoon or your hands until you have a heavy, shaggy dough. It will be much wetter than a white bread dough. That's correct. The seeds and oats have absorbed moisture overnight, but they'll keep releasing it slowly during baking, which is what makes these rolls stay moist for days instead of going stale by afternoon. If the dough feels too stiff to bring together, add the warm water a splash at a time. You want a dough that's sticky and heavy, not dry and crumbly.

   Add the salt and yeast to opposite sides of the bowl before mixing. Salt slows yeast if they sit together directly. Once everything is stirred in, it doesn't matter.
3. 3

   Let the dough rise

   Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and leave the dough in a warm spot for one to one and a half hours. It won't double the way white bread dough does. Whole grain and rye are heavier, with less gluten to trap gas, so expect a rise of about fifty percent. The surface will look slightly domed and you'll see small bubbles forming at the edges. That's the yeast working through a dense environment, and it's enough.

4. 4

   Shape the rolls

   Wet your hands thoroughly. This is not optional. The dough is sticky and will cling to dry hands and fight you. With wet hands, pull off pieces of dough about the size of a tennis ball and shape them into rough rounds. Don't overwork them. A few quick turns between your palms is enough. Place them on two baking sheets lined with parchment, leaving a few centimetres between each one. They'll spread slightly as they proof.

   Keep a bowl of water next to you and re-wet your hands between every two or three rolls. The moment your hands go dry, the dough sticks and the shaping turns into a struggle.
5. 5

   Top and proof the rolls

   Brush the tops of the rolls with beaten egg. The egg does two things: it gives the crust its deep colour during baking, and it acts as glue for the topping. Scatter generously with rolled oats and a mix of whatever seeds you have. Press the topping gently into the surface so it stays put. Cover the rolls loosely with a cloth and let them rise for thirty to forty minutes. They should look visibly puffed but not billowy. You'll know when they're right.

6. 6

   Bake with steam

   Heat the oven to 200C. Place a small oven-safe dish of water on the bottom rack. The steam keeps the crust from setting too fast, giving the rolls time to rise fully in the first few minutes of baking. Slide the trays in and bake for twenty to twenty-five minutes until the tops are deep golden brown and the rolls sound hollow when you tap their bottoms. That hollow sound is how you know the interior has set. If the tap sounds dense and dull, give them five more minutes.

   Rotate the trays halfway through if your oven heats unevenly. The rolls at the back will colour faster than the rest.
7. 7

   Cool and serve

   Transfer the rolls to a wire rack and let them cool for at least fifteen minutes before splitting. This is hard. They smell extraordinary. But the interior needs time to finish setting, and cutting too soon gives you a gummy centre that sticks to the knife. Once cooled, split one open. The inside should be dense, moist, and flecked with seeds throughout. Spread it with good butter, lay a slice of aged cheese on top, and serve alongside a soft-boiled egg. This is how Danes greet the morning, and now you know why. Tak for mad.

Chef Tips

• •Use stone-ground whole wheat flour if you can find it. The coarser grind gives the rolls more texture and a nuttier flavour than finely milled whole wheat. You can taste the difference.
• •The overnight soak is not a step you can skip. Without it, the seeds stay hard, the oats stay dry, and the rolls taste like effort instead of breakfast. The buttermilk is doing the work for you while you sleep. The joy of waiting.
• •These freeze beautifully. Cool the rolls completely, then freeze in a bag for up to two months. Reheat from frozen in a 180C oven for eight to ten minutes. They come back almost as good as fresh, which is why Danish families bake a double batch and eat all week.
• •If you can't find buttermilk, stir a tablespoon of lemon juice into regular whole milk and let it sit for ten minutes. It won't be identical, but the acid does the same work on the seeds and grains.

Advance Preparation

• •The grain and buttermilk soak must be started the evening before. Plan for at least eight hours, though ten or twelve is fine and won't harm anything.
• •Baked rolls keep well in a bread bag or wrapped in a clean cloth for three to four days at room temperature. Their high moisture content from the overnight soak means they stay fresh far longer than most homemade bread.
• •Freeze fully cooled rolls for up to two months. Reheat directly from frozen in a 180C oven for eight to ten minutes. No need to defrost first.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 100g)