Ostesnurrer - Danish Cheese Twists #BreadBakers

Lovely little rolls full of two kinds of cheese, crushed red pepper, black pepper and garlic, these ostesnurrer or Danish cheese twists are great for breakfast, snack time or dinner. 

The name for these savory buns is a combination of two Scandinavian words, ost which means cheese, inherited from the Old Norse ostr, and snurrer, meaning twirls, twists or spins, referring to the method of cutting strips of dough, twisting them, and knotting them into intricate shapes.

The interwebs has soooooo many great recipes for ostesnurrer but they all contain at least one kind of cheese and are made either with wholemeal flour or a mix of wholemeal and bread flour. 

Ostesnurrer - Danish Cheese Twists

For the sugar, I used golden caster but white works just fine too. My recipe is adapted from one on Det Sote Liv and another on Skandi Baking, just two of the myriad I perused. 

Ingredients

For the dough:

1/2 cup or 120ml milk

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast 

1 large egg

1 egg yolk (save the white for egg wash before baking)

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon fine sea salt

3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons or 100g whole wheat flour

2 cups or 250g bread flour

¼ cup or 57g butter, softened

For the filling:

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 cloves garlic, finely chopped or grated on a microplane

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper

Freshly ground black pepper

1 cup, grated, or 120g extra sharp cheddar cheese

1/2 cup, grated, or 60g mozzarella cheese

For egg wash before baking:

1 egg white, lightly whisked

Method

Warm the milk in the microwave or on the stovetop until it is lukewarm. If you are a thermometer using person, you are looking for somewhere between 105° to 115°F or 40.5° to 46°C. It should feel warm to the touch but not hot. 

Add your yeast to the milk and stir. Leave it for 5-10 minutes until the mixture starts to bubble up. 

Whisk the egg, egg yolk, sugar and salt together in a large mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer. 

Add your yeast and milk mixture to the egg mixture and mix together then add the whole wheat flour and mix to combine. 

Add in the softened butter and mix until it’s completely incorporated. 

Measure out your bread flour in a separate bowl. Add about half of it to the dough.

Mix the dough and add more flour as needed. 

After half: 

And then a quarter more. 

And that’s it. I ended up with about 30g of flour left and switched to the bread hook for kneading. You want a soft dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl when kneaded. 

Either by hand or using a stand mixer, knead the dough for 10 minutes until it passes the window pane test. Cover your dough with a shower cap or cling film and leave it to rise for about an hour or until doubled in size.

Right before your dough is ready, you can make the filling. Mix together your olive oil, garlic, crushed red pepper and a few generous grinds of black pepper in a bowl.

Prepare two baking pans by lining them with baking parchment or silicone liners.

Once the dough has doubled in size, turn out it out onto a floured surface and roll into a rectangle, about 12x16 inches or 30x40cm.

Spread the garlicky olive oil mixture all over your dough.

Distribute your cheeses over the top half of the dough.

Fold the bottom half of the dough over the top and press down gently. 

Cut your dough into 12 equal sized strips (about 1 inch or 2.5 cm in width).

To make the twists, start by holding one end of the dough down and twist the strip while it is still on the surface.

Once twisted, lift the strip and twist it around your index and middle finger about one and a half times. Tuck the end up through the middle of the twist. This will help keep the twists from opening as they rise then bake.

Place the twists on the prepared pans as you make them. Put any cheese that has fallen out – AND IT WILL – back on top of each twist.

Cover the twists with plastic wrap or a damp dish towel and let them rise for a second time, about 45 minutes. 

Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

If any of the twists have come undone, tuck the ends back in and reseal in the center of the twist. Whisk the egg white with a little water to create an egg wash. 

Gently brush the egg wash on your twists. When this knocks some cheese off, just stick it back on. Dab a little extra egg wash in the middle and in the overlapping bits to help “glue” it all together during baking.

Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. The ones I cut from the middle of the folded dough were bigger, so they took longer. The ones I cut from the outside were smaller so they didn’t take quite as long, hence the time difference.

Let cool slightly on a wire rack. Enjoy warm!

It’s the second Tuesday of the month so that means it’s time for me and my Bread Baker friends to share our “dinner rolls with a twist,” both literal or recipe-wise. Many thanks to our host Swathi from Zesty South Indian Kitchen. Check out the links below.

• Beetroot Honey Oats & Semolina Bread Rolls from Sneha’s Recipe 
• Cranberry Cream Cheese Sourdough Dinner Rolls from Zesty South Indian Kitchen
• Fluffy Spelt Dinner Rolls from A Messy Kitchen 
• Lussekatter from A Day in the Life on the Farm 
• Ostesnurrer - Danish Cheese Twists from Food Lust People Love 
• Pumpkin Milk Bread from Passion Kneaded 
• Small Batch Parker House Rolls from Karen's Kitchen Stories

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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