Mosbolletjies

Cape Dutch grape must bread rolls: the bread of the South African wine harvest, leavened with the vineyard itself

Origin: Stellenbosch, Western Cape, South Africa

From the journey of Grapes.

Mosbolletjies, from Afrikaans: mos (grape must) and bolletjie (small ball or bun), are the traditional harvest bread of the Cape Winelands, made each autumn when the must runs freely from the press and the air of Stellenbosch, Franschhoek, and Paarl carries the sharp, sweet scent of fermenting grapes. The bread's leavening agent is the must itself: fresh, unfermented or lightly fermenting grape juice carries wild yeasts from the vineyard that, when incorporated into a dough, provide a slow, fragrant rise. The result is a bread that could only be made at harvest time, in a wine-growing region, and that tastes of the place that made it. The Dutch East India Company established the Cape Colony in 1652, and within three years Jan van Riebeeck had planted the first vines at the foot of Table Mountain. When French Huguenot refugees, expelled from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685, arrived at the Cape in 1688, they brought with them a century of accumulated French winemaking knowledge and established the farms of Franschhoek (the French Corner) that would define Cape viticulture for the next three centuries. By the late 18th century, the Constantia estate's sweet wine was one of the most celebrated in the world, exported to London, Amsterdam, and the courts of Europe, drunk by Napoleon on St. Helena, mentioned by Jane Austen in Sense and Sensibility. Mosbolletjies are the domestic, kitchen-table expression of this grand wine heritage: the bread baked in farm kitchens while the winemaker tended the fermentation vessels. The rolls are flavoured with aniseed: a distinctly Dutch addition, reflecting the spice traditions of the Netherlands and its East India Company heritage. The combination of grape must sweetness, yeasty fermentation, and anise creates a flavour that is immediately identifiable as Cape Dutch and has no precise equivalent in any other baking tradition. The rolls are baked touching each other in a large tin, rising together in the oven and pulling apart at the table; this is not incidental but deliberate, a style of bread that requires communal tearing, suited to the long, convivial table of the Cape farm kitchen. In the Boland wine region today, mosbolletjies are still made at harvest time by farming families who have made them for generations. The recipe is one of the most direct links between modern South African baking and the 17th-century Dutch colonial kitchen; a bread whose character is inseparable from the landscape, the season, and the annual rhythm of the vine.

Ingredients

Dough

  • 600 g strong white bread flour
  • 300 ml fresh grape must or dark unsweetened grape juice, warmed to 37°C
  • 7 g active dry yeast (one standard sachet)
  • 3 tbsp caster sugar
  • 2 tsp aniseed, lightly crushed in a mortar to release their oil
  • 60 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
  • 1.5 tsp fine salt

Glaze

  • 1 egg, beaten, for glazing

Method

  1. Warm the grape must or juice to 37°C (body temperature; it should feel warm but not hot on your wrist). Add the sugar and yeast, stir briefly, and set aside for 10 minutes until the surface is foamy and active. If the yeast does not foam, it is not active; start again with fresh yeast.
  2. Combine the flour, salt, and crushed aniseed in a large bowl and mix well. Make a well in the centre.
  3. Pour the yeast mixture and melted butter into the well. Mix with a wooden spoon until a rough dough forms, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes until the dough is smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky. It should spring back when pressed.
  4. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a damp cloth or cling film, and leave in a warm place for 1.5 hours until doubled in size.
  5. Knock back the dough and divide into 18 equal pieces (approximately 50g each). Roll each piece into a tight, smooth ball by cupping your hand over the dough on the work surface and rolling in a circular motion with firm pressure.
  6. Arrange the balls touching each other in a large lined baking tin or two smaller tins; they should be placed in a grid, just touching, so that they rise into each other and form a pull-apart sheet of rolls. This is the traditional mosbolletjies format.
  7. Cover and leave for a second rise of 45 minutes to 1 hour until noticeably puffed and the rolls are pressing firmly against each other.
  8. Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F). Brush the rolls generously with the beaten egg glaze. Bake for 20–25 minutes until deep golden-brown and the rolls sound hollow when tapped on the base.
  9. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack. Serve warm, tearing apart at the table, with generous amounts of salted butter.

Notes

Mosbolletjies are best eaten on the day they are baked; warm from the oven with cold salted butter. They stale more quickly than plain bread due to the grape sugar content. Day-old mosbolletjies are excellent split and toasted. For the most authentic version, use genuinely fermenting fresh must (the must that has been fermenting for 1–2 days, just beginning to develop some CO2 and yeast activity) in place of commercial yeast; reduce the commercial yeast to 3g if doing this, as the wild yeast in the must will supplement it. The aniseed is the characteristic Cape flavour and should not be omitted or reduced.

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