Nutella, sesame and hazelnut rolls

Possibly the most wonderful Nutella sweet rolls! Their flavour is enhanced with toasted sesame seeds, hazelnuts and freshly grated orange zest… They are absolutely delicious! These sweet rolls are quite small, so I’ve doubled the original quantity of ingredients for you, so that you’ll have more of them. I suspect you have a jar of Nutella hidden away somewhere ;), but of course you can also use the one from my homemade recipe. These sweet rolls are easier to make than they look, although the yeast dough may surprise you slightly – it has a somewhat different consistency from traditional yeast dough. You simply have to try this recipe this autumn!

Makes 20 mini sweet rolls.

Ingredients for the yeast dough:

• 300 g strong white bread flour
• 1½ tsp dried yeast (7 g) or 15 g fresh yeast
• 3 tsp sugar
• 60 g butter, melted, or 4 tbsp vegetable oil
• ¼ tsp salt
• 130 ml lukewarm water

Mix the flour with the dried yeast (if using fresh yeast, prepare a yeast starter first). Add the remaining ingredients and knead, adding the melted and cooled butter or oil towards the end. Knead the dough for long enough to make it soft and elastic. Place it in a lightly floured bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place until doubled in size (about 1½ hours).

After this time, divide the dough into 2 equal portions. Roll the first portion into a rectangle measuring 40 x 30 cm. Spread the rectangle with softened Nutella (using half of the Nutella), sprinkle with half of the grated orange zest, then sprinkle with half of the nut and sesame mixture (reserving 2 tbsp for sprinkling over the sweet rolls). Roll up tightly along the longer side to form a log. Brush with a little extra oil and sprinkle with the reserved sesame and hazelnut mixture, pressing it gently into the dough so that it sticks. Using a sharp knife, cut the log into 10 pieces. Arrange them on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for about 20–30 minutes. Repeat with the remaining portion of dough.

Place the risen Nutella, sesame and hazelnut rolls in an oven preheated to 200ºC and bake for about 8–12 minutes. Remove from the oven and dust the still-warm rolls with icing sugar.

Ingredients for the filling:

• 80 g hazelnuts, skinned, toasted and chopped
• 40 g sesame seeds, toasted
• 300 g Nutella, at room temperature
• freshly grated zest of 2 small oranges

Mix the hazelnuts and sesame seeds together. Reserve 2 tbsp of the mixture for sprinkling over the sweet rolls.

Additionally:

• oil, for brushing
• icing sugar, for dusting

Method for bread machine users:

Place all the yeast dough ingredients into the bread machine in the following order: liquid ingredients first, then dry ingredients, and finally the yeast. Select the ‘dough’ programme (kneading and first rise). Once the programme has finished, remove the dough, knead it lightly, and continue according to the main recipe above.

* Toast the hazelnuts and sesame seeds in a dry frying pan over low heat, stirring occasionally. Take care not to burn them – burnt nuts and sesame seeds will taste bitter!

Enjoy!

Recipe source: Yotam Ottolenghi.