Mosbolletjies

Delicious, buttery morsels of bread with hints of aniseed

Mosbolletjies are another South African classic which are best served with thick lashings of butter and a warm cup of tea. Mosbolletjies were initially introduced to South Africa by the French Huguenots who settled in Franschoek in the mide 1600’s.

When I first had mosbolletjies, they actually reminded me a bit of naan. Not the naan which is a flatbread, but instead the warm, pillowy loaves which are found in most Durban, Indian bakeries. I think it is the flavour of the aniseed within the mosbolletjies which smacks of similarities to the naan loaves.

Mosbolletjies however have a more brioche-like texture and a light and airy texture. Traditionally, the leavening comes from the use of grape must, which was harvested during wine-making season. I really struggled to get a hold of grape must and have found many recipes which now use grape juice to speed up the fermentation of the yeast. 

Not meaning to disrespect the flavours of the traditional mosbolletjie, I wanted to put my own spin on things. Leveraging off from the nuanced flavours of the Naan bread, I decided to add a sprinkling of poppy and sesame seeds before baking.

This loaf is best eaten on the same day, but given that I gobbled half of it in one go, that really does not seem problematic 🙂

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MOSBOLLETJIES

• 200g cake flour
• 250g white bread flour
• 5g instant yeast
• 75g sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 teaspoons aniseed
• 2 teaspoon fennel
• 100ml full cream milk, lukewarm
• 50ml water, lukewarm
• 75ml white grape juice
• 2 large eggs
• 90g salted butter, at room temperature
• milk for brushing before baking
• poppyseeds and sesame seeds for sprinkling

METHOD

1. Place the cake flour, bread flour, aniseed, fennel, sugar, salt and yeast in a bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a dough attachment.
2. Mix the grape juice, water and milk together. Heat in the microwave until luke-warm but not boiling, as it will kill the yeast.
3. Begin to mix the dry ingredients and slowly add the milk and juice mixture to it to begin to form a dough.
4. Add one egg at a time and let it fully incorporate before adding the next one.
5. Knead for five minutes until you have a smooth and elastic dough. The dough will not be too soft at this point.
6. Add the butter, about a tablespoon at a time and knead into the dough before adding the next tablespoon. Make sure that your butter is soft, else it will not easily knead into the dough.
7. Knead for about three to five minutes more until the dough is soft and elastic. If you take a piece of dough and stretch it, it should not tear about, but should allow light to shine through like a window pane (hence called the window pane test).
8. Place in a bowl, cover the bowl with cling wrap and let it prove in the fridge overnight.
9. The next day, bring to room temperature before continuing. It should sit out for about an hour and a half.
10. Line a 900g loaf tin with a baking paper, allow any excess to hang off the sides. Divide the dough into about 95g pieces and roll into balls. Place about 5 balls, in two rows into the lined tin. It is ok if they slightly squeeze together.
11. Let the dough rise for anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour, until doubled in size. I usually pop it into my oven, with the light on and the door slightly ajar. My oven heats to 40 degrees celcius which allows the dough to prove in 45 minutes.
12. Brush the the top of the dough with a bit of milk, and sprinkle some sesame and poppyseeds on top.
13. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees celcius and bake for 35 to 45 minutes, until fully baked. This is quite an enriched dough, so the top turns brown very quickly whilst the inside is not baked yet. After 15 minutes, cover the top with a piece of foil, the shiny side down and continue to bake. If you insert a skewer in between the balls of dough, it should come out clean. If there is still dough sticking to the skewer, then you need to bake it for longer.

SYRUP

• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 2 tablespoons of water
• 2 tablespoons of butter

METHOD

1. Whilst the bread is baking heat the sugar, butter and water together until the honey melts slightly and turns into a loose syrup.
2. When the bread comes out of the oven, brush with the syrup and sprinkle with the poppy and sesame seeds.
3. Let cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Recipe by adventureswithsugar.com