Soft St. Martin’s goose-shaped yeast rolls, even without a cookie cutter

Tip: tap a step to mark it as done.

1. Activate the yeast

   10 min

   Pour 100 ml of the lukewarm milk into a cup, crumble in the yeast, and add a teaspoon of the granulated sugar. Stir and leave in a warm place for 10 minutes, until foamy.

2. Mix and knead the dough

   10 min

   Sift the semi-coarse wheat flour into a bowl and add the remaining granulated sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, and lemon zest. Add the yeast mixture, remaining milk, egg, and lukewarm melted butter. Knead for about 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and no longer sticks to your hands. It should be slightly firmer than dough for sweet buns so the geese hold their shape during baking.

3. Let the dough rise

   1 hr

   Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let the dough rise in a warm, draft-free place for about 60 minutes, until doubled in size.

4. Cut out the geese

   20 min

   Briefly knead the risen dough on a floured work surface and roll it out to a thickness of 1 cm. Cut out geese with a goose-shaped cookie cutter measuring 12–14 cm long. If you do not have a cutter, draw a goose about 14 cm long on parchment paper, cut it out, place it on the dough, and cut around it with a sharp knife. Gather the dough scraps, let rest for 5 minutes, then roll out again and cut out more geese. You should have about 12 in total.

5. Decorate and let rise again

   20 min

   Transfer the geese to two baking sheets lined with parchment paper, leaving about 3 cm between them. Press a raisin deep into each one for an eye. Using sharp scissors, make 3 shallow diagonal snips in the center of each body to suggest a wing. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rise for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 °C (350 °F).

6. Brush and bake

   30 min

   Whisk the egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of milk and gently brush over the geese. Bake one sheet at a time in the center of the oven at 180 °C (350 °F) for 13–15 minutes, until golden brown.

7. Let cool

   10 min

   Transfer the baked geese to a wire rack and let cool. Serve on their own or with milk or hot cocoa.

Tip: Draw the goose template with a thick neck, since a thin one would lose its shape during rising and baking, and press the raisins deep into the dough so they are not pushed out as it rises. To keep the rolls softer the next day, store them in a bag once cool. Read more: Frozen lemons: why to freeze them and use the peel

This recipe was translated from the Slovak original: Mäkké martinské husičky z kysnutého cesta: pečivo na svätého Martina aj bez vykrajovačky