Cheese rolls made with the Thermomix® rarely fail because of the dough. They fail because of the order: if you add the Gouda too early, you end up with a roll that contains cheese dust rather than chunks of melting cheese. That is why we add the cheese only after the four minutes of kneading and let it run on kneading mode for just one minute. That is enough to distribute it evenly, and it stays coarse enough to form melting pockets during baking.
We usually make these rolls at the weekend, when everyone has a lie-in and we sit down to a late breakfast around half past nine. Preparation takes about fifteen minutes, then the rolls prove for sixty minutes and bake in twenty. Once you know the timing, you start the dough straight after getting up and have warm, cheese-topped rolls on the table at exactly the right moment.
Cheese Rolls with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 8 ✓
- 300 g Gouda
- 250 g water
- 1/2 cube fresh yeast
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 380 g plain flour (type 405)
- 10 g honey
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp milk
Instructions 0 / 9
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1
Grate the cheese.
Add the Gouda in pieces to the mixing bowl and chop for 8 sec / speed 7, then set aside.
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2
Warm the yeast.
Add 50 g water, yeast and salt to the mixing bowl and warm for 3 min / 37°C / speed 1.
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3
Knead the dough.
Add 200 g water, flour and honey to the mixing bowl and knead for 4 min / kneading mode until a smooth dough forms.
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4
Add the cheese.
Add 200 g Gouda and fold in for 1 min / kneading mode.
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5
Prepare the baking tray.
Line a baking tray with baking paper.
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6
Shape the rolls.
Divide the dough into eight equal portions, shape into balls, place on the baking tray and leave to prove for about 30 minutes.
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7
Preheat the oven.
Preheat the oven to 190°C top/bottom heat or 170°C fan.
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8
Top the rolls with cheese.
Separate the egg. Mix the milk with the egg yolk in a cup. Gently press the rolls flat with your palm, brush with the egg-and-milk mixture and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
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9
Bake the Thermomix® cheese rolls.
Bake on the middle shelf of the oven for about 20 minutes.
Tip: If you like extra cheese, place a slice of Gouda on top of the rolls 10 minutes before the end of the baking time.
[caption id="attachment_29804" align="alignnone" width="1200"]
Cheese rolls topped with an extra slice of melted cheese[/caption]
Video
Nutrition per serving
Why the cheese goes in last
The quantities say it all: 380 g flour, 250 g water, 300 g Gouda. The cheese-to-flour ratio is high, almost four to five. That is intentional, because the cheese needs to be really present in the roll, not just a faint hint. That is also exactly why the order matters.
In the first step we chop all the Gouda in pieces at 8 sec / speed 7. The result is a rough grate, somewhere between crumbled and shredded. We then divide this amount mentally: 200 g will go into the dough later, 100 g stays as a topping. We then activate the yeast, knead the dough on kneading mode for four minutes, and only then add the 200 g of cheese, with just one minute on kneading mode.
Anyone who gets impatient and tips the cheese straight in with the flour and water knows the result: the kneading blade works the cheese for four full minutes and reduces it to a powder. What remains is a dough that looks yellowish and smells of cheese, but contains no chunks that will melt during baking. The characteristic marbling in the finished roll is lost completely.
Getting the yeast temperature right
We dissolve the yeast in only 50 g of water, not the full 250 g. There is a practical reason for this: bringing a small amount of liquid up to 37°C takes three minutes. With 250 g it would take longer, and the mixing bowl would be warm, which does not help during kneading.
Half a cube of fresh yeast is enough for 380 g of flour because we give the dough sixty minutes to prove. If you use dried yeast, one sachet (7 g) is about right. We use honey instead of sugar for two reasons: yeast metabolises it faster, and it keeps the dough fresher for longer. Ten grams is all you need, any more and the rolls start to taste slightly sweet.
When the dough does not rise
The yeast got too hot
At 37°C yeast works at its best. From 45°C it begins to die off, and from 60°C it is completely inactive. We have seen a case where someone set the temperature to 50°C because they thought a little warmer would be faster. It is not. The dough stayed flat. Our fix: Stick exactly to the 37°C in the recipe and check with your finger if in doubt. It should feel lukewarm, not warm.
The rolls are crispy on the outside but doughy inside
This happens when the dough has not proved long enough or the oven was too hot. At 220°C instead of 190°C the rolls develop a hard crust almost immediately, but the inside stays moist because the heat cannot penetrate properly. Our fix: Bake at 190°C top/bottom heat (170°C fan), no hotter. If you want a crispier crust, place a cup of water on the floor of the oven to create steam.
The cheese on top burns before the roll is baked through
This is the most common problem with cheese-topped bakes. Gouda has a low melting point and starts to brown from around minute twelve, sometimes turning black. The roll, however, needs a full twenty minutes. Our fix: Do not grate the cheese too finely. Coarser pieces brown more slowly than fine, powdery grating. If you want to be safe, cover the rolls with foil after ten minutes and remove it for the last two minutes.
Other cheeses, other rolls
With Bergkäse instead of Gouda: More pungent, more intense, slightly drier. We use 200 g Bergkäse plus 100 g Gouda for the topping, because Bergkäse browns quickly on top.
With Mozzarella: Makes the rolls softer and more elastic, because Mozzarella contains more moisture. In that case we reduce the water in the dough to 230 g, otherwise the dough becomes too sticky.
With bacon lardons: Knead 80 g of fried bacon lardons into the dough together with the cheese. This turns the cheese roll into a hearty snack roll that is especially popular with children.
With herbs: A teaspoon of dried rosemary or oregano kneaded into the dough adds a Mediterranean note. We keep fresh herbs for topping variations.
What to serve with cheese rolls
Plain and warm from the oven is honestly the best way to eat them. When we slice them and add a topping, we often reach for our Parmesan and walnut spread, because the nutty flavour goes well with the cheese in the dough. A sunflower seed and tomato spread or a simple avocado spread are also a great match. You will find an overview of all our homemade Thermomix® spreads in the recipe collection.
Storing and freezing
The rolls are best eaten fresh. Stored in a bread bag they keep for two days, but like all yeast rolls they firm up over time. We usually freeze them in batches of eight, wrapped individually in freezer bags so they do not stick together.
To defrost, we put the rolls in the fridge the evening before. The next morning we spritz them briefly with water and bake them for five minutes at 180°C. They taste almost freshly baked, and the cheese on top goes slightly soft again. If you are in a hurry, put them straight into the oven from frozen for eight minutes. That works too.
Frozen, they keep for three months without any loss of flavour. After that the cheese begins to turn rubbery. Defrosted rolls that have not been re-baked taste dry, so the short re-baking step is always worth it.
How other recipes approach this
Also great with: Butter, a cheese sauce and cream cheese.
You might also like: Chocolate rolls made with the Thermomix®.
Cookidoo, Rezeptwelt and eat.de almost all use Gouda in the dough and Gouda on top, with similar ratios to ours. Some recipes take a low-carb route with quark, cream cheese and psyllium husk instead of flour and yeast, using Cheddar as the main flavour. One thing we noticed is that many recipes brush the rolls with an egg-yolk-and-milk mixture before adding the cheese topping. We deliberately leave this out: the egg yolk does help the grated cheese stick better, but it also makes the crust go darker and the roll slightly heavier. Sesame seeds, poppy seeds or nigella seeds as an additional topping barely feature in competitor Thermomix® recipes, even though any of these would be a simple way to add more flavour.
More bread and roll recipes: our spreads collection for topping your cheese rolls.
