Homemade Cheesymite Scrolls!
I am hopelessly and shamelessly besotted with Bakers Delight Cheesymite Scrolls. I love them so much, I’ll even get the imitation ones from grocery stores in the event of an emergency. They aren’t as good, but they are way cheaper, and I still enjoy them. Because even a mediocre Cheesymite Scroll is good! So why make them at home, if the Bakers Delight ones are so great? Because: They keep for days, freeze perfectly, and the dough is so friendly to work with and forgiving to make, it will surprise you. But before I continue, let me introduce Cheesymite Scrolls to non-Aussies reading this!
Tell me about Cheesymite Scrolls!
Cheesymite Scrolls are a beloved Aussie treat, known by various names including Cheese & Vegemite Scrolls or Vegemite Scrolls. These soft white rolls feature Vegemite and cheese baked in a scroll shape. Vegemite is considered by non-Aussies to be an acquired taste (we don’t understand, we are raised loving it). It’s a salty, almost-black spread made from yeast extract with an intense flavour so it is used sparingly on bread and crackers. While it’s compared to Promite, marmite and bovril, Aussies find them inferior, milder-tasting versions of our beloved Vegemite! (We are total Vegemite snobs 😇). While you can find Vegemite and cheese scrolls at suburban bakeries and grocery stores these days, Bakers Delight (a chain bakery) is famous for its Cheesymite Scrolls. It is my default food to eat-on-the-run when I’m in a shopping centre. Lightly warmed, 20 seconds in the microwave (yes, they will do it for free!). But hand on heart – this homemade versions is better. Better flavour. Better texture. And soooo much cheaper to make!
Ingredients for Cheesymite Scrolls
In addition to Vegemite, here’s everything else you need to make homemade Cheesymite Scrolls.
Dough
Milk – Full fat or low fat works fine here. Makes the bread softer than using water. I haven’t tried non-dairy. To be honest, yeast-based recipes are the sort of thing I wouldn’t test out using non-dairy milks.Warmth – The milk needs to be warm to make a nice, cosy environment to let the yeast work its magic to make the dough rise. It needs to be warm but not hot else it will kill the yeast (yeast dies at 55 – 60°C (130 – 140° F). Mind you, this is very hot – you wouldn’t want to sink in a bathtub filled with water this hot!If you want to get technical, aim for milk at 35-40°C/95-104°F which I describe as bath warm (ie you’d happily sink in a bubble bath at this temperature). I microwave the milk for 1 minute on high and it’s perfect. Sugar – Just a smidge which helps feed the yeast to activate it a bit. Salt – You need salt in bread, else it’s flavourless! Use cooking salt / kosher salt (UK: coarse grain salt). If using table salt which is much finer, halve the quantity.
FLAVOURINGS
Vegemite needs no introduction! As per above. 🙂 There is no substitute. Sorry! (Promite, marmite and bovril look but do not taste the same and I haven’t tried these scrolls with them). Cheese – In theory you can use any melting cheese you want, though I found some work better than others. Colby works best in my opinion, for flavour, how it melts and crusts on the top of the scroll. Tasty cheese (a very common Australian cheese similar to cheddar) was my last favourite. It just didn’t melt nicely on the surface, it got too cruddy and split. Cheddar worked well, as did Monterey Jack. A sharp cheddar would add a stack of flavour!Store bought pre-shredded cheese worked surprisingly well (Devondale 3 cheese blend – colby, mozzarella and parmesan – is my favourite), with the exception of tasty cheese (really not a fan for this recipe!).Mozzarella doesn’t have enough flavour so give it a miss for this recipe. Salted table butter – For spreading onto the dough. Just whatever butter you spread on your morning toast!
How to make Cheesymite Scrolls
But don’t make a special trip to the grocery store if you don’t have it. This is absolutely worth making with plain flour. Warmth – The milk needs to be warm to make a nice, cosy environment to let the yeast work its magic to make the dough rise. It needs to be warm but not hot else it will kill the yeast (yeast dies at 55 – 60°C (130 – 140° F). Mind you, this is very hot – you wouldn’t want to sink in a bathtub filled with water this hot! If you want to get technical, aim for milk at 35-40°C/95-104°F which I describe as bath warm (ie you’d happily sink in a bubble bath at this temperature). I microwave the milk for 1 minute on high and it’s perfect. Store bought pre-shredded cheese worked surprisingly well (Devondale 3 cheese blend – colby, mozzarella and parmesan – is my favourite), with the exception of tasty cheese (really not a fan for this recipe!). Mozzarella doesn’t have enough flavour so give it a miss for this recipe.
1. Make the SOFT WHITE bread dough
💡 Troubleshooting – If you measured out the ingredients accurately, your dough should look just like mine! But after a couple of minutes of kneading, if your dough is too dry, just add 1 tablespoon of warm milk at a time until it looks like mine. On the other hand, if yours is too sticky, add a bit of flour at a time. But don’t rush this, wait until you have kneaded for a couple of minutes as doughs tend to become less sticky the longer you knead them. Also, try to minimise the flour added as drier dough = less soft bread. 💡 What the dough is like – This is a friendly dough that’s easy to work with. It is soft and pliable, so easy to knead but it won’t stick to your hands when you handle it (see video). It’s also easy to roll out, it won’t keep shrinking back. It won’t stick to the counter, you can pick it up and handle it easily without tearing. Not all doughs are this friendly!
2. Rise #1
💡Dryer trick – Run an empty dryer for 5 minutes then put the bowl inside it and shut the door. Instant draught-free warm dough-rising environment. (Do not turn it on!). ⚠️ Don’t let the dough rise too much (eg triple in size) because this means the yeast has used up all it’s rising firepower so the bread won’t rise as much in the oven.
3. Roll out & spread
4. CUT & rise #2
5. BAKE
⚠️ Make sure there is paper overhang (see photos) as it is handy to have the excess paper to use as handles to lift the slab of Cheesymite Scrolls out of the pan onto a cooling rack (rather than turning upside down – they are so soft, you might damage them). ⚠️ Keep an eye on the scrolls for the last 10 minutes as different cheeses and even different brands of same cheese types go from melted-to-golden at different rates when baked on breads. You will cry if your cheese burns too much, after all that work. Then you’ll come here and tell me your sob story and I’ll cry too.
A theory: Why I love Cheesymite Scrolls so much
I’m so obsessed with Cheesymite Scrolls that I even enjoy the cheap grocery store versions. And as I was writing this post, I realised my obsession likely stems from my childhood. Vegemite sandwiches were a lunchbox staple for Aussie kids, and I’d eye them enviously while I shamefully pulled out my bento box with compartments filled with a dizzying array of Japanese foods. Ironically, I’d be the cool kid today, but back then, I felt weird. So yes, I blame my childhood lack of Vegemite sandwiches for my adult obsession with Cheesymite Scrolls. It’s all your fault, mum! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
Instant yeast does not need to be foamed in liquid before being used. It can just be mixed straight into the flour then milk added to form a dough. Both types of yeast make breads, rolls etc rise. But the yeast works differently on different types of dough so for some types of breads, instant yeast will work better than active dry yeast, or vice versa (ie it rises more, the crumb is softer etc). For this recipe, I tried with both instant and active dry yeast and didn’t notice a difference in the end result. So I chose instant yeast because it is easier to use ie. one less step – no need to foam it first. To test if your instant yeast is still good, mix 1/2 teaspoon yeast with 1/4 cup warm water and 1/4 tsp sugar. Leave for 10 minutes in a warm place. If it gets foamy, your yeast is fine so you can proceed with the recipe! (You can’t use the foamy water in the recipe though).
Vegemite quantity – the amount of Vegemite to use to get enough Vegemite flavour without being too salty. The quantity called for in other recipes varies so wildly it’s concerning, from 1 tablespoon to 5 tablespoons! One recipe I tried was inedibly salty; the best cheese – so it crusts nicely on the surface but melts pleasantly in the folds. Irritatingly difficult to figure out. I was so sure the Aussie staple Tasty cheese would work. Should work! I kept trying it! But sadly, it came in last. It’s just not a friendly melting cheese. Colby cheese came in first. Full list of recommendations is in the ingredients section above; butter – you need enough butter to help spread the Vegemite on the dough and make the scrolls tasty, but if you use too much you end up with a pool of butter on the base which makes them overly greasy. I was also determined to incorporate butter into mine for superior flavour. Because Bakers Delight don’t use butter, they use oil. Butter trumps flavourless oil every day! bake time – making sure the scrolls bake through properly whilst getting the right about of golden cheese on the surface. Annoyingly, I found it requires a temperature increase partway through baking. I really did try to avoid this, but kept having burnt cheese before the inside was cooked, or cooked insides with not-golden-cheese surfaces (I need golden spots for a legit Cheesymite Scroll experience!); and batch size – a strange sounding recipe development thorn, but a real one. I needed to make the right size and volume of Cheesymite Scrolls to fill a standard size baking pan just right, so the scrolls would bake snugly up against each other. I found that filling a whole pan was quite important. I tried only partially filling a pan but the unsupported line of scrolls became wonky and mostly overcooked.
I have fiddled with the dough so much and in the course of all the tweaking, I’ve come to realise it is actually a very forgiving dough. I have:
Life of Dozer
The ultimate gift for the person who has everything. Thanks Aunty Shazza! ❤️
