Kaiser roll dough calculator
Deli-style kaiser rolls with malt, egg and an overnight preferment — stamped, seeded, baked hot.
6 × 125 g · 69% hydration
Type how much flour you have — the portion weight recalculates.
Kaiser rolls the serious-bakery way — Reinhart’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice formula: a lean-ish dough with egg, a little oil and diastatic malt, powered by an overnight pâte fermentée. Crusty deli rolls with the stamped rosette, not the soft supermarket kind.
How it works
The pâte fermentée
About a third of the total flour ferments in advance as old dough — an hour at room temperature, then overnight in the fridge. It brings the fermented depth a same-day roll cannot fake, while the final dough stays quick to handle.
The formula
Water ~60%, oil 5%, egg 12%, diastatic malt 1.2%, salt 2% and 0.93% instant yeast across both doughs. The malt feeds the crust’s color and sheen — reviewers of malt-less versions notice exactly what is missing.
Stamp, flip, bake with steam
Divide at 125 g for full-size rolls (83 g for smaller), round tightly, and cut the rosette with a kaiser stamp — or knot the rope by hand, the older way. Proof stamped-face-down, flip for the last half hour, then bake hot with steam: 230 °C at first, finishing around 200 °C.
FAQ
Why proof the rolls face-down?
The stamp’s creases fuse if they proof upward. Face-down, the cuts set and dust lightly with flour; flipped for the final rise and bake, they open into the sharp rosette instead of a blur.
How does King Arthur’s kaiser differ?
KA publishes a softer, same-day version: straight dough with butter and a little sugar, no malt, more yeast. Fine rolls — but closer to a bun. The Reinhart build here is the crusty deli standard.
No kaiser stamp?
Knot it: roll each piece into a rope, tie a loose overhand knot and tuck the ends — the traditional method predates the stamp and looks even better slightly irregular.