Recipe: Semmel
Semmel (pronounced Zemmel) is a traditional Mennonite hard roll. They're delicious hot, with butter and honey. This is my dad's recipe.
Semmel, pronounced zemmel, is less a recipe and more a method for making what we might call hard rolls. But since you asked for a recipe, I'll give you the recipe I always used; sometimes verbatim and sometimes as a starting point.
Zemmel
12 cups flour (For a long time I used unbleached flour, but started using 50% whole wheat and recently have used 100% white whole wheat.)
5-6 cups lukewarm water (5 cups is a good starting point, but especially in the winter, the flour may be so dry you need to add more)
2 pkgs. yeast (This is about 1 1/2 T.)
2 T. salt. (I usually cut this back to about 1-1 1/2 T.)
Dissolve the yeast with water in a large bowl. (Tupperware is great since it needs to be covered while rising.) Add salt and and about half the flour. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Add the remaining flour cup by cup, stirring it in as you go. By the time you add the last cups, it will be pretty hard to stir. Don't worry about having it all perfect just get all the flour moist. If it's too hard to stir just call it good.
Cover and wait for the yeast to do its job. If you seal it totally, the gas build up will eventually pop the lid open. When it is ready, the bowl will be full and the dough will be shiny and full of large and small bubbles. I usually let it rise overnight (in the fridge), but it will be ready in 3-4 hours in a warmer environment. Lightly stir the dough and it will deflate.
Turn on the oven to 450. To form the semmel use two soup spoons (or an ice cream scoop) and a cup of water. Moisten the spoons in the water between each semmel. Dip a spoonful out with one of the spoons and use the other to push it onto a greased cookie sheet. Smooth the blobs with the moistened back of the spoon. I usually put 12 on a typical cookie sheet. Don't make them to large or they will grow together in the oven and not get the nice crust all around. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the crust is just slightly browned.
Traditionally semmel is sprinkled with poppyseed before being baked. Some people add a bit of oil to the recipe, but that softens the crust which I don't like. Others add a tablespoon or two of sugar, which makes them rise faster and brown more. Whole wheat semmel lacks the chewiness, but I like it anyway.
Edited to add:
Recently, I got some interesting history associated with this. Warren wrote me to say:
I was VERY excited to come across your recipe for Semmel, posted to your blog on 11-29-11. The recipe you described as your father's is exactly what my grandmother used - and the recipe I've used for some 30 years. You describe it as a "traditional Mennonite hard roll." That's true EXCEPT that semmel seems to be limited to a very small group of Mennonites - those who came directly from Danzig Germany to Beatrice, Nebraska in the mid 1870's. (The majority of Mennonites who settled in the Midwest at that time - the "Low Germans" - came from colonies in the Ukraine and they don't make semmel - they have another traditional roll that they call "tweback". There was another group - the Volhynian Swiss Mennonites - who settled in Freeman SD and Moundridge, KS. And the Volhyninas don't make semmel either.)
I hope that wasn't too much Mennonite history for you. (It's kind of a hobby of mine but I suspect it can get tiresome for others.)
Anyway ... I've recently become a professional baker - at the St. Peter Food Coop southwest of the Twin Cities. And I've always been curious if ALL of the Mennonite semmels made in the US trace back to Beatrice. Beatrice was where my mother grew up. I recognize "Wiens" as a fairly common name among the Beatrice Mennonites - in fact I think I may have an ancestor by that name. (We might be distant cousins!) So this is what I'd like to know: does your father hail from Beatrice or someother Mennonite enclave of which I am unaware?
I'd really appreciate it if you could give me that information.
Best,
Warren
P.S. By the way, I've found quite a few recipes for semmel on German language websites. ("Semmel" is dialect for the High German "Broetschen" but the word is used rather broadly - i.e. Austria, Bavaria and Saxony.) The thing about the Beatrice recipe - and your father's - is that the hydration is so high. Since the weight of flour is roughly half that of water, bakers would describe this recip ase "100% hydration." That's almost unheard of! Even a ciabata recipe - which is generally considered a very wet dough - is only about 85% hydration.
Semmel, pronounced zemmel, is less a recipe and more a method for making what we might call hard rolls. But since you asked for a recipe, I'll give you the recipe I always used; sometimes verbatim and sometimes as a starting point.
Zemmel
12 cups flour (For a long time I used unbleached flour, but started using 50% whole wheat and recently have used 100% white whole wheat.)
5-6 cups lukewarm water (5 cups is a good starting point, but especially in the winter, the flour may be so dry you need to add more)
2 pkgs. yeast (This is about 1 1/2 T.)
2 T. salt. (I usually cut this back to about 1-1 1/2 T.)
Dissolve the yeast with water in a large bowl. (Tupperware is great since it needs to be covered while rising.) Add salt and and about half the flour. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Add the remaining flour cup by cup, stirring it in as you go. By the time you add the last cups, it will be pretty hard to stir. Don't worry about having it all perfect just get all the flour moist. If it's too hard to stir just call it good.
Cover and wait for the yeast to do its job. If you seal it totally, the gas build up will eventually pop the lid open. When it is ready, the bowl will be full and the dough will be shiny and full of large and small bubbles. I usually let it rise overnight (in the fridge), but it will be ready in 3-4 hours in a warmer environment. Lightly stir the dough and it will deflate.
Turn on the oven to 450. To form the semmel use two soup spoons (or an ice cream scoop) and a cup of water. Moisten the spoons in the water between each semmel. Dip a spoonful out with one of the spoons and use the other to push it onto a greased cookie sheet. Smooth the blobs with the moistened back of the spoon. I usually put 12 on a typical cookie sheet. Don't make them to large or they will grow together in the oven and not get the nice crust all around. Bake for about 15 minutes or until the crust is just slightly browned.
Traditionally semmel is sprinkled with poppyseed before being baked. Some people add a bit of oil to the recipe, but that softens the crust which I don't like. Others add a tablespoon or two of sugar, which makes them rise faster and brown more. Whole wheat semmel lacks the chewiness, but I like it anyway.
Edited to add:
Recently, I got some interesting history associated with this. Warren wrote me to say:
I was VERY excited to come across your recipe for Semmel, posted to your blog on 11-29-11. The recipe you described as your father's is exactly what my grandmother used - and the recipe I've used for some 30 years. You describe it as a "traditional Mennonite hard roll." That's true EXCEPT that semmel seems to be limited to a very small group of Mennonites - those who came directly from Danzig Germany to Beatrice, Nebraska in the mid 1870's. (The majority of Mennonites who settled in the Midwest at that time - the "Low Germans" - came from colonies in the Ukraine and they don't make semmel - they have another traditional roll that they call "tweback". There was another group - the Volhynian Swiss Mennonites - who settled in Freeman SD and Moundridge, KS. And the Volhyninas don't make semmel either.)
I hope that wasn't too much Mennonite history for you. (It's kind of a hobby of mine but I suspect it can get tiresome for others.)
Anyway ... I've recently become a professional baker - at the St. Peter Food Coop southwest of the Twin Cities. And I've always been curious if ALL of the Mennonite semmels made in the US trace back to Beatrice. Beatrice was where my mother grew up. I recognize "Wiens" as a fairly common name among the Beatrice Mennonites - in fact I think I may have an ancestor by that name. (We might be distant cousins!) So this is what I'd like to know: does your father hail from Beatrice or someother Mennonite enclave of which I am unaware?
I'd really appreciate it if you could give me that information.
Best,
Warren
P.S. By the way, I've found quite a few recipes for semmel on German language websites. ("Semmel" is dialect for the High German "Broetschen" but the word is used rather broadly - i.e. Austria, Bavaria and Saxony.) The thing about the Beatrice recipe - and your father's - is that the hydration is so high. Since the weight of flour is roughly half that of water, bakers would describe this recip ase "100% hydration." That's almost unheard of! Even a ciabata recipe - which is generally considered a very wet dough - is only about 85% hydration.