If you're Australian, then you've most likely tasted the heavenly combination that is a Vegemite and cheese scroll, or Cheeseymite scrolls as they're more commonly known.
There's just something about the savouriness of Vegemite, paired with melted cheese and fluffy bread that always hits the spot, whether you're munching on them for breakfast, lunch or as a snack.
So when Green's Baking teamed up with Vegemite and brought out a DIY kit to make these scrumptious morsels, I just knew I had to try them out to see how the homemade version would compare. Let's get baking!
Now, before we begin, I need to give you some context about my baking experience. I'm no MasterChef, but I consider myself to be alright — if we're ignoring when I completely botched up making homemade Monte Carlos. But for the sake of my mental health, that recipe does not exist to me, so I was confident that I could smash out these Vegemite and cheese scrolls.
First, it was time to prepare the yeast mixture. In a small bowl, I added yeast (which came in the kit), some warm water and a tablespoon of the Vegemite and cheese scroll mixture. Then, I gave it a good mix and set it aside for five minutes.
After that, I combined the remaining Vegemite and cheese scroll mixture, some warm water and the yeast concoction I had just made. At this stage, I ran into my first deviation from the recipe, which I was slightly nervous about because even an amateur such as myself knows how important measurements and directions are when baking. But I decided to say "fuck it" and power on.
Now was the time to get my hands dirty. I emptied the dough onto my lightly floured bench top (bonus points for the ~aesthetics~), gave it a good knead (very cathartic and would highly recommend to anyone that needs some stress relief) and set it aside to rise in a cling-wrapped, greased bowl.
Thirty minutes later and my dough had doubled in size, which is exactly what it's supposed to do, but I still was pleasantly surprised. The magic of yeast, ya know? Anyway, the next step involved rolling out the dough into a wide rectangle.
Next, I added some softened butter, Vegemite (make sure to spread to the edges for optimal deliciousness) and shredded cheese.
Then, it was time to wrap it up into a log, cut out the scrolls and set them aside to rise, rise, rise.
After another 30 minutes, it was finally time to bake these delicious morsels. I popped them in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes and crossed my fingers that nothing terrible would happen.
So, without further ado, here's the final result! And y'all, take a peek at these Vegemite and cheese scrolls — they look bloody delicious and like they came out a food magazine photo shoot.
In case you weren't already drooling, here's a close up.
Biting in the scrolls was absolute heaven, especially since they were still warm from the oven. They were light and fluffy, and would go beautifully with a cup of tea. The only letdown was that the Vegemite flavour could have been more intense (see my deep concentration face in the middle photo as I contemplated this), but I would definitely rate the scrolls as a success.
Overall, it was a lot of fun to make homemade Vegemite and cheese scrolls! I will say that although the recipe was easy to follow, it was a lot of work — I was exhausted after making them (I don't know how you bakers do it, but kudos to you!). There's nothing like eating homemade baked goods though, so I would recommend making these with some mates on the weekend.
