Salt Licorice & Lemon Sweetrolls
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Salt Licorice & Lemon Sweetrolls, A delicious sweet roll with a lovely licorice-lemon flavor in each bite.
The addition of the tangzhong mixture makes the dough extra soft and fluffy.
If you are not a fan of licorice, substitute them with other flavors of your choice.
Do yourself a favor and make these rolls with licorice and lemon or any other flavor today! You´re going to love it.
Before you start
Fall into the habit of reading the recipe well before you begin -start to finish, top to bottom, notes and all, and check all the step-by-step photos.
For all the step-by-step pictures, scroll to → Notes beside → click on the clickable link.
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Bakers Tip
→ The tangzhong mixture is a technique that is created by cookbook author "Yvonne Chen." She came up with the brilliant idea of cooking a part of the flour with milk prior before adding it to the remaining dough. It makes for an amazingly soft and fluffy dough.
→I use fresh yeast whenever I bake sweet rolls; fresh yeast is packaged as a block of soft, moist living cells. As a rule of thumb, to convert fresh yeast to instant dry yeast, use half the amount, for example, 20-gram fresh yeast equals 10 grams ( 2 teaspoons) of instant dry yeast.
→ Raw licorice powder, I use a crunchy licorice powder for the filling from the Danish brand → Special Moments Copenhagen. If you use another brand, you might want to adjust the amount of raw licorice powder to your taste! But always go for the good-quality stuff; it really does make a difference. I prefer using a raw licorice powder that does not have a lot of Anais in it.
→Try to find an all-purpose flour that has a higher protein. The higher the protein content, the more gluten the flour produces. And gluten is what gives these rolls structure and, together with yeast, makes these rolls fluffy.
Tangzhong mixture
- 300 gram whole milk
- 80 gram all-purpose flour
Sweet Dough
- 700 gram all-purpose flour 11 to 13 % protein content
- 125 gram sugar
- a pinch of salt
- 1 large egg, chilled
- 20 gram fresh yeast, crumbled *note
- One recipe thanzhong mixture, chilled (recipe above)
- 275 gram whole milk, chilled
- 115 gram unsalted butter, softened
Salt Licorice Filling
- 75 grams unsalted butter, melted
- 100 grams white sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons raw licorice powder *note
- Finely grated zest from 2 to 3 lemons
- 100 gram fresh or frozen raspberries, optional
Thanzhong Mixture
- In a small saucepan, combine 80 grams of bread flour (or all-purpose flour) and 300 grams of whole milk. Give it a whisk until combined and lump free and place over medium heat and cook while whisking until the mixture is very thick and very sticky; when done, the temperature of the flour and milk should be about 65C°/149F°. This step takes about 3 minutes. Set aside to chill in the refrigerator on a flat plate until no trace of warmth remains. About one hour.
Sweet dough
- There is no need to "proof" the yeast," meaning you don't have to dissolve it in milk and let it stand before incorporating it into your dough.
- Bakers Note; A pinch of salt in the dough serves a couple of important functions. It impacts the flavor and acts as a stabilizer, stopping the yeast from proving too quickly. Never sprinkle the salt straight onto the yeast, as this will kill the yeast. Instead, add the salt as the very last ingredient after you add the butter.
- Into a bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a dough hook attachment, add 700-gram all-purpose flour, 125 grams of sugar, one recipe chilled thanzhong mixture, 20 grams of fresh yeast ( crumbled), 1 large egg, chilled, and 275-gram whole milk ( chilled).
- Bakers Note; Don't forget to knead some love into the dough; it makes them extra delicious.
- Knead on low speed ( use the lowest setting) for 8 full minutes. Use a timer! Or until the dough releases from the side of the bowl. Then turn off the mixer and let the dough rest for about 1 minute.
- Start the mixer up again, still at low speed, and add 115 grams of small pieces of butter one at a time. This step takes about 2 minutes. Pull down the dough from the hook attachment and scrape the side and bottom so that everything is nicely incorporated into the dough.
- When you have added all the butter, continue to knead the dough on medium-low speed (setting 2 on my mixer) for 8 minutes. Use a timer! Then knead the dough for 2 minutes on high speed. Remove the bowl from the mixer. The dough is very sticky at this point!
- Cover the bowl and proof the dough slowly in the refrigerator for a few hours ( Cold dough is much easier to work with), or cover the bowl with plastic wrap and proof the dough at room temp until puffy and double in size approx 1 – 2 hours. It is difficult to say the exact rising time as it depends on how warm it your kitchen is. The most important thing is that the dough should be doubled in size when it is finished.
- To make the filling, In a small bowl, mix together 100-gram sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of crunchy licorice powder. Set aside for a moment while you roll out the dough and melt 75 grams of unsalted butter.
- Grease a 23 x 33 cm (9 x 13 inches) baking tray and line it with parchment paper.
- Lightly flour your work surface and roll the chilled dough into a rectangle 30 x 40 cm ( 11 x 16 inches).
- Brush the dough with melted butter ( you can use less butter if you prefer) and sprinkle the salted licorice sugar mixture evenly on top, pressing it lightly into the melted butter so it adheres. Drizzle finely grated zest from 2-3 lemons on top.
- Starting with a long side, roll the dough into a tight cylinder, and pinch the seam gently. Use a sharp knife to slice the dough into 16 same size rolls and set them in the prepared baking pan, with just a tiny little space between each bun.
- Cover the pan with plastic wrap, and allow the buns to rise till they are crowded against one another and quite puffy. It takes about 30 minutes or up to 2 hours. It is difficult to say the exact rising time as it depends on how warm it your kitchen is and how warm or cold your dough was when you rolled it out. The most important thing is that the dough should feel puffy.
- In the meantime, preheat the oven ( up and down) to 190C°/374F°. And position the rack in the lower third ( just below the center) of the oven.
- When ready, add one frozen or fresh raspberry in the middle of each roll ( optional) and bake the buns for about 18 to 20 minutes ( longer if needed) or until the rolls are golden brown.
- These buns are most delicious on the day they are baked, but still delicious for up to 3 days. Keep leftovers in a zip lock bag.
For step-by-step pictures of how to make
→ Salt Licorice & Lemon Sweetrolls
Click → here
