Christmas Traditions- Family Breakfast

Hey,
Generally Norwegian families will have a sit down family breakfast during weekends, and more frequently during Christmas. Bread is an important part of the Norwegian diet, and we grow up having bread for breakfast, lunch and what we call Norwegian supper. For this reason Norway has a wide range of toppings to put on their bread, such as shrimp salad, liver pate and brown cheese to name a few.During Christmas we also have a few seasonal toppings that we 'only' eat during Christmas, such as a particluar type of herring, 'julesylte' (pressed pork) and 'syltelabb' (boiled pigs feet) . There is nothing better than having a big breakfast spread, sitting around the table with your family and eating breakfast together. Hence I decided to share a roll recipe today, and show you how Christmas breakfast is served in Norway. We were so lucky we had lots of snow that fell overnight, hence it really put us in the festive season listening to Christmas carols whilst looking at the snowy landscape from the breakfast table.

Rolls with Sunflower Seeds

Makes: 16 rolls

Preparation time: 2,5 hours

Ingredients:

700ml of water

850g of plain flour

100g rye flour

300g of sunflower seeds

25g of yeast

Suggestions on what to have as toppings on the rolls:

Sliced ham

Sliced turkey

Sliced Swiss cheese

Eggs (boiled or scrambled)

Pate

Finely chopped tomatoes, cucumber and capsicum

Orange juice

Milk

Hot chocolate

(For Nowegians: juleribbe, julesylte, syltelabb, rekesalat, egg og bacon salat)

How to make the rolls:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl (except 100ml of water and 100g of sunflower seeds) and use a blender on low speed for three minutes, then increase the speed for a further 6 minutes whilst you add the remaining water. I prefer to do it the old fashioned way, and instead of using a blender I use a whisk/ big  wooden spoon to mix the ingredients, and kneed it on the kitchen bench until a smooth surface. Fill the kitchen sink with hot water, and put a rack over the water and place the bowl on it. Cover it with kitchen towels to contain the heat from the water, and let the dough raise until twice it's size. When finished, lightly flour your kitchen bench and kneed the dough until it is not sticky. Divide the dough in even shapes and use your palms to make a round shape. Pour the sunflower seeds in a deep bowl and dip the rolls in the seeds. Put them on a baking tray with baking paper on it, and let the rolls rise for 20 minutes, and bake them in the oven on 220 Celcius degrees for 15-20 minutes (or until golden).

Serve the rolls with the toppings suggested above, and decorate the table with Christmas decorations.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas, and hope the photos of the rolls and the snowy landscape in Bergen puts you in a festive mood!

Linnemoren