Rye Bürli rolls with the Thermomix® are our weekend breakfast when we have ten minutes spare the evening before and want fresh rolls in the morning. The dough does the real work overnight, completely on its own.
Bürli are a classic from Swiss bakeries: small, crusty rolls with a rustic crumb and a sturdy crust. We make ours with a proportion of rye flour, because that deepens the flavour and keeps the crumb a little moister. The key is not the kneading and not the baking, but the long, cold overnight prove.
Rye Bürli Rolls with the Thermomix®
Ingredients 0 / 6 ✓
- 400 g plain flour, type 550 + a little extra for dusting
- 100 g rye flour, type 1150
- 1/2 cube fresh yeast
- 340 g water
- 2 tsp salt
- seeds for sprinkling (e.g. sesame, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, oats)
Instructions 0 / 3
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1
Knead the dough.
Add flour, yeast, water and salt to the mixing bowl and knead for 3 minutes / kneading mode. Cover the dough and leave to prove for at least 10 hours.
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2
Preheat the oven.
Line a baking tray with baking paper and preheat the oven to 250°C.
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3
Shape and bake the rolls.
Dust the dough lightly with flour, use a tablespoon to scoop 12 portions and place them on the baking tray. Sprinkle with seeds. Bake the rolls for about 20 minutes until crisp.
Tip: You can cover the dough with cling film and leave it to prove overnight in the fridge.
Video
Nutrition per serving
Why the overnight prove is not a convenience here, but a necessity
Rye flour behaves differently from wheat. It absorbs water more slowly and needs time for the gluten structure to become stable. If we bake Bürli after just one hour of proving, they taste flat and turn hard in the oven quickly. With ten hours in the fridge, exactly what we want happens. The yeast works slowly, the rye flour absorbs the water fully, and subtle acids develop that give the Bürli their characteristic rustic depth.
In practice our recipe uses 400 g plain flour type 550, 100 g rye flour type 1150, plus 340 g water and half a cube of fresh yeast. That gives a hydration of around 68 per cent. The dough is soft and sticky, almost wet to the touch. That is exactly how it should be. A firm, easily shaped Bürli dough is the number-one beginner mistake.
How we mix the dough in the Thermomix®
Flour, rye flour, yeast, 340 g water and 2 tsp salt all go into the mixing bowl together. We use cold tap water, because the dough will be resting in the cold for a long time anyway. 3 minutes on kneading mode is fully sufficient. The Thermomix® kneads powerfully enough to work through this soft dough thoroughly in that time. Kneading longer does not help, and can actually be counterproductive, because the dough warms up and the cold prove no longer works cleanly.
Straight after kneading, the dough goes into a large bowl with a lid or covered with cling film. Then into the fridge, for at least 10 hours, and 12 or 14 is perfectly fine too. We usually mix the dough at 9 pm and bake the next morning around 8 am. If you sleep in, just leave it in. The yeast stays stable for up to 18 hours; beyond that the acidity becomes more pronounced and the dough gets very sticky.
Scoop, do not shape: that is the Swiss Bürli way
Authentic Swiss Bürli are not shaped into rounds like ordinary rolls. We flour the work surface generously, tip the cold dough out of the bowl and use two tablespoons to scoop 12 irregular portions. The rustic shape is intentional. No weighing, no rolling, no smoothing. Every Bürli looks different, and that is exactly the charm.
If you like, sprinkle the pieces with sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds or oats. We simply scatter the seeds loosely onto the baking paper, then press the pieces sticky-side down onto them. That way the seeds stick better than sprinkling them dry from above.
Baking at 250 degrees with steam
The oven must be genuinely hot before you load the rolls. We preheat to 250°C top and bottom heat for at least 15 minutes. Fan-assisted heat is not ideal for Bürli because the crust turns thin and pale. Just before loading, we pour a small cup of water onto the oven floor or spray generously with a plant mister. The steam is the second decisive factor alongside the long prove. Without steam the crust stays dull; with steam it turns glossy and springs open beautifully in the oven.
20 minutes is usually enough. When the Bürli are a deep golden brown and sound hollow when you tap the base, they are done. Leave them to cool completely on a wire rack, otherwise the crumb draws in moisture and turns rubbery.
What often goes wrong with Bürli
The dough turned out too firm
We often hear that readers cut back on the water because 340 g for 500 g of flour sounds like a lot. That is exactly the mistake. The soft dough is part of the concept. Our solution: Next time, stick firmly to 340 g water, and if the dough feels very sticky after kneading, put it in the fridge overnight anyway. The texture improves considerably during the cold prove.
The Bürli came out pale and soft from the oven
This is almost always down to the oven. Either it was not hot enough, or there was no steam. Our solution: Check the temperature with an oven thermometer, as many ovens run 20 to 30 degrees cool. And when loading the rolls, add a proper amount of water, not just a few drops. Half a cup poured onto a hot roasting tin on the bottom shelf works reliably.
The crumb tastes bland
Here the prove was almost always too short. Our solution: At least 10 hours in the fridge, ideally 12. The acidity from the rye content develops slowly, and that is exactly what you later taste as rustic depth.
Variations we have tried ourselves
With wholegrain rye: Instead of 100 g rye flour type 1150, we use 100 g wholegrain rye flour. The Bürli develop a stronger flavour and a slightly denser crumb.
With sourdough starter: Anyone who has a sourdough starter in the fridge can replace 50 g flour and 50 g water with 100 g active starter. The flavour becomes almost bread-like, and we can reduce the yeast to a quarter of a cube.
Cheese Bürli: Just before baking, we press a small cube of Gruyere or mountain cheese into each piece of dough. During baking the cheese melts slightly and forms a small crispy crust on top.
With walnuts: Work 50 g of roughly chopped walnuts into the dough directly after kneading for 10 seconds on speed 3 / reverse direction. The Bürli take on a pleasantly bitter note that goes very well with cheese or cream cheese.
Cheese, honey or soup as accompaniments
Fresh from the oven, butter and a little salt are all you need. For weekend breakfast we add a carrot spread that takes just as little effort. If you prefer something sweet, bring out the homemade plum jam. For a Sunday table, a mild cream cheese spread works well too.
If you are looking for more roll recipes, we also have quick breakfast rolls for an unplanned Sunday, classic express rolls without any proving time, savoury hazelnut rolls, herby barbecue rolls, cosy Sunday rolls, high-protein protein rolls, and low-carb rolls without flour. For a sweet Sunday we recommend our classic braided yeast loaf.
Fresh for 2 days, 30 seconds of water for the crust
Bürli are best fresh. In a paper bag at room temperature they keep for one day; after that they go hard. In a stoneware bread crock the freshness extends to two days, because the pot balances the moisture.
Bürli freeze very well. Pop them into a freezer bag straight after cooling and put them in the freezer. They keep perfectly for three months. To defrost, take them out the evening before, or put them directly from frozen into the oven at 180°C for five minutes. Sprayed with a few drops of water they taste almost freshly baked.
Goes well with: Butter, cheese and jam.
We love to slice leftover Bürli from the day before, toast them briefly and serve them alongside soups or salads. Very old Bürli become a bread salad with tomatoes and olive oil in our kitchen: Swiss farmhouse style, you might say.
More roll inspiration from the Thermomix®:
- Quick Breakfast Rolls, Thermomix®
- Thermomix® Express Rolls
- Hazelnut Rolls
- Barbecue Rolls, Thermomix®
- Sunday Rolls, Thermomix®
- Protein Rolls, Thermomix®
- Low-Carb Rolls, Thermomix®
