Report on Salty Rye Rolls (Ginsberg pps 141-143):

If you're looking for a fast recipe for great tasting rye rolls, this is it, under 3 hours from start to finish. It made a dozen rolls weighing about 72 grams each after baking. (They were around 80 grams each after scaling and shaping but before the caraway and salt was added.) Because of the cut on the top, they split easily into two halves. I've shown both an interior and a bottom along with a picture of an uncut roll.

Dipping the bottoms in rolled oats was a trick I haven't seen before, it keeps the bottoms from getting over-baked and adds a little oat flavor and crunch to the roll.

Mine came out a bit lighter in color than the ones in the book, that might have been due to my baking time or to the color of my rye flour. The baking time (24 minutes) might have contributed to why mine weren't overdone on the bottom.

I think they might be even better with a little caraway in the dough instead of just on top, where they don't always stay stuck on, and you need to be careful putting the salt on. The dough is only lightly salted and if the salt is uneven on the top you can get one bite that has very little salt in it and then one that's much saltier.

This is a recipe I'll definitely make again. My wife said their biggest problem was that she wanted a second one right away. (I've had 4 already.) They reminded me of some rye pretzels I've made, I think the dough might work for pretzels as well as for rolls.