Arguably one of the best selling bakery items in Iceland is the humble cheese twist (ostaslaufa). Pillowy white bread, filled with cheese and sprinkled with sesame- and poppy seeds. I’ve certainly had my fair share of them in the past, especially in my youth and my college days. But, somehow I’ve always felt they were a bit more bland then they had to be. The bread itself never tastes of anything, the cheese is usually low quality all-purpose cheese, and they look quite pale and sad in most bakeries, as if they could have used 5 more minutes in the oven.
It gave me an idea to make my own version, using a more flavourful dough (sourdough definitely ticks the box there), more upscaled cheeses and pre-toasted sesame seeds. In this case I used Tindur – and Icelandic cheese similar to white cheddar, parmigiano reggiano, and mozzarella.
I make a bunch of these and freeze them. They are a perfect grab-and-go snack.
Sourdough cheese twists (ostaslaufur)
Ingredients
- 800 grams Flour bread flour
- 500-550 grams warm milk
- 200 grams sourdough starter fed
- 15 grams sugar
- 15 grams salt
- 1 egg for eggwash
- sesame seeds pre toasted, optional, for sprinkling
- poppy seeds for sprinkling
- 250 grams Good hard cheese, such as white cheddar, Gruyére or emmental grated
Instructions
- Miss all the ingredients of the dough batter in a mixing bowl and kneed until you have a smooth , pliable dough. This might take 10 minutes in a stand mixer with the kneeder attachment, longer by hand
- Let the dough rise until double in size (about 3-4 hours, depending on the room temperature)
- Knock the air out, and split the dough in half. and (one by one) roll each half into a long rectangle, which is about 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) in thickness.
- Spread the graded cheese cheese (remember, just half) over each half of the dough, in the center. Pinch the dough shut to seal in the cheese.
- Cut each long rectangle into 10 pieces (or less if you like them bigger, more if you like them smaller). Twist them once in the middle. And brush on the eggwash. Sprinkle all over with the seeds
- Bake in a pre-heated 200°celcius (400° farenheit) degree oven for 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown.
I appreciate you taking the time to create this post. It has long been extremely helpful to me in fact. Appreciate it.
Glad you like it, thank you <3 🙂