The Botanical Kitchen

Recipes, travel and the occasional rant

Apricot and Pumpkin Seed Rolls

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I have been looking into making this recipe since a recent visit to Amsterdam.  I tasted these amazing rolls called ‘Speltboletje’ made with spelt flour, figs and apricots covered in pumpkin seeds.  These aren’t quite like the ones I tasted but their are close.

I bought Doves Farm Wholegrain Spelt Flour and it was lovely.  A nutty smell as soon as I opened the packet. I felt healthy just sniffing it!  I haven’t used it before so I followed the basic dough recipe on the back but needed 50g more water than advised and that was backed up with a reassuring tweet from Mr Hobbs at Hobbs House Bakery!

These tasted amazing with Stilton and Cheddar Cheese but equally lovely with apricot jam for those of you with a sweet tooth.

pumpkin seed and apricot rolls

Lovely healthy bread rolls

You’ll need

  • 500g spelt flour
  • 1 sachet dried yeast
  • 8g salt
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • 350g lukewarm water
  • 200g chopped apricots – I used dried but I think fresh would work just as well
  • 50 ml orange juice
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 200g pumpkin seeds

To make them

  1. Pop the dried apricots into a bowl with the orange juice and leave to soak.
  2. Mix all the other dry ingredients together and then slowly add the oil and water to form a dough.
  3. Knead for about 20 minutes until it’s smooth and elastic.
  4. Cover with a tea-towel and leave to double in size somewhere warm.
  5. Once the dough has inflated, plop it out of the bowl onto a lightly floured or oiled work surface and knead lightly for a few minutes.
  6. Spread out slightly on your worktop and work in the apricots.
  7. Cut into half and then half again and half again and so on til you have about 16 small rolls.
  8. Flatten a ball into a disc like shape and then bring the top and carry on doing this all the way around the edge.  This should give you a stronger ball for baking.
  9. Using your finger or a pastry brush, wet the surface slightly and then roll the ball in pumpkin seeds.
  10. Repeat for the rest of the balls and then pop them on baking trays lined with greaseproof paper, cover with a tea towel and leave for 45 minutes.
  11. When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 200C and bake these for about 10 minutes.