Cheeze and Vegemite Rolls 🥐

For those of you in the UK, you probably know that Papa John's has recently added a lot of vegan options on their menu. One of them is the scrumptious Vegan Sheese & Marmite scrolls.

We tried them a few weeks ago and they were really good even though I'm not the biggest yeast extract fan!

But I still prefer homemade pizza so I thought I'd try and recreate them :grin:

I used Vegemite because we like it better than Marmite as it's milder (don't attack please! I know it's all a matter of taste :blush: ).

For the dough:

This is the pizza dough recipe I always make. I slightly increased the quantities this time and with it I made 2 pizzas and 8 rolls. I used ~1/4 of the dough for the rolls.

1 1/2 tbsp olive oil

1 1/3 cup lukewarm water

1/2 tbsp barley malt extract

2 tsp salt

2 1/2 cup very strong white flour

1 1/5 cup wholemeal plain flour

1 1/3 tsp easy bake yeast (instant)

I use my bread machine for making dough. Just add all the ingredients in the order stated and set the bread machine on the "dough" setting. If doing manually just knead until well combined.

I usually allow the dough to stand for 2 hrs in the machine (1/2 hr mixing, 2 hrs raising), take it out, divide into however many pizzas I'm making and let it proof for 2 hrs out of the machine (4 hrs total). But with the larger quantity I didn't want to risk it overflowing in the machine. So, after 1 hr proofing in the machine, I took out the dough and divided into 2 large balls for pizza and a smaller ball for the rolls. I used fine semolina to help me work with the dough. Leave the 2 pizza balls to raise for 2-3 more hours.

My inspiration for making the rolls was to loosely follow the steps for making cinnamon rolls!

For the rolls:

1 1/2 tbsp vegemite or other yeast extract

1/2 tbsp vegan butter

Shredded vegan cheeze (I used Sainsbury's shredded cheddar)

Immediately after taking the dough for the rolls out of the machine, stretch it out using a rolling pin into a rectangular shape (~40 x 20 cm and just under 1 cm thickness).

Warm up the yeast extract and v.butter in the microwave (20-30 seconds) until melted enough to combine into a soft, spreadable mixture. Spread across the entire dough in a very thin layer. Sprinkle generously with the cheeze. Roll lengthwise away from you until you have a single, long roll. Using a knife or dough cutter, cut into 4 cm pieces. My dough made 8 rolls.

Line a tray with baking paper and place each roll with the pinwheel side showing. Don't place too close together to allow them to proof. Cover with a kitchen towel and let them rest for 2-3 hrs (same as your pizza dough). Bake at 220°C for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Enjoy warm or cold. They also reheat well in the microwave (30 secs).

I can't believe how similar they tasted to the Papa John's ones. I'm probably biased but my dough was better :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: The only difference is that it was less sweet (which is not necessarily a bad thing). I may add a tsp of agave nectar to the filling next time :grin: Needless to say they disappeared as soon as they came out of the oven :joy: