Kaiser Rolls
from http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/kaiserrolls

The Kaiser Roll, also called a Vienna roll or a hard roll, is a kind of hard, crusty bread roll, popular in the United States and Canada, originally from Austria. Kaiser rolls can be traced back to the 1700s in Austria where they were named to honor the Emperor, or Kaiser. In fact, the signature curved shape on top is said to resemble a crown.

It is typically a crusty round roll, often sprinkled on top with poppy or sesame seeds, made by folding corners of a square inward so that their points meet. It is often used as a bun for sandwiches, including hamburgers.

The older, more traditional method of forming the Kaiser roll shape first calls for a square or round of dough. The corners, or edges, are pressed into the center creating a four-petaled shape. Here a different technique is used to get that distinctive shape.

This recipe is a cross between Bernard Clayton's recipe and Peter Reinhart's recipe. Peter's recipe uses a pre-ferment, the recipe below does not. You can adjust this recipe to use a pre-ferment quite easily: simply throw in some old dough if you want to use a pate fermentee. Or pull out a cup of the flour and 1/2 a cup of the water and 1/4 teaspoon of the yeast, mix them together, and let them sit out in a covered bowl overnight to create a poolish.

Makes 8-12 rolls, depending on how large you like them

3 1/2-4 cups (1 lb.) bread or unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon malt powder (one recipe called for barley malt syrup)
1 1/4 cups (10 oz.) water
1 egg
1 egg white
1 tablespoon shortening, butter, or oil
Beaten egg wash
Poppy, sesame, or sunflower seeds

Combine 3 cups of the flour and the other dry ingredients in a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix in the water, eggs, and shortening. Knead by hand for approximately 10 minutes or 5-7 minutes in a mixer, adding more flour by the handful as necessary. The dough should still be tacky but not terribly wet. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and allow to rise until doubled in size, approximately 1 hour. Allow it to rise a second time for an hour before shaping.

To shape the rolls, divide the dough into smaller pieces (if you are particular, use a scale to get them the same size). Roll the pieces of dough into balls and cover them with a damp kitchen towel so they can relax for 5 minutes.

See the recipe for Kimmelweck Rolls for pictures showing you how to shape them (as in the following instructions).

Shaping Kaiser Rolls: Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly oiled surface. Divide the dough into 8 - 12 equal pieces, depending on the size you would like, and form into rounds. Use a rolling pin to flatten each piece into a thin circle. Fold left side to center to form a flap. Halfway down flap fold again to center to form another flap. Repeat all the way around to make overlapping flaps. Lift the first flap to ease the last flap underneath. Press center to seal the dough. Place rolls seam side down and 3 inches apart onto a well greased baking sheets. This helps the rolls to keep their shape. Let rise 30 minutes, turn right side up, let rise 15 more minutes. Cover the rolls with a damp cloth and let rise until doubled in volume, about 40 minutes.

Once they have doubled in bulk, brush the top with beaten egg and sprinkle with poppy, sesame, or sunflower seeds before baking the rolls.

There was one recipe on https://www.thefreshloaf.com/ that added the seeds on the baking sheet that they truned them upside down on. No egg wash.

Preheat the oven to 450 during the final rise. You want to have steam in the oven when you bake them, so use whatever technique you prefer: squirting them with water, squirting the oven sides with water, pouring boiling water in a preheated cast-iron pan or a cookie sheet. These rolls take around 20 to 25 minutes to bake. Rotate the pan once 10 minutes into it so they'll brown evenly.