This is an unapologetic copycat recipe of the Cheesymite Scrolls from Bakers Delight, a Vegemite and cheese roll that is just about as true-blue-Aussie as you can get! With pillowy soft white bread, this can be made with a stand mixer, food processor, or hand.
Homemade Cheesymite Scrolls!
I am hopelessly and shamelessly besotted with Bakers Delight Cheesymite Scrolls. I love them so much, I’ll even get the imitation ones from grocery stores in the event of an emergency. They aren’t as good, but they are way cheaper, and I still enjoy them. Because even a mediocre Cheesymite Scroll is a good!
So why make them at home, if the Bakers Delight ones are so great? Because:
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You’ll save a bundle. $12.50 to make a dozen compared to $54 to buy (they’re $4.50 each these days!); and
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Homemade is tastier because they’re made with butter (Bakers Delight uses flavourless oil). And I use more cheese. (Indisputable statement of fact, right there!).
They keep for days, freeze perfectly, and the dough is so friendly to work with and forgiving to make, it will surprise you.
But before I continue, let me introduce Cheesymite Scrolls to non-Aussies reading this!
Tell me about Cheesymite Scrolls!
Cheesymite Scrolls are a beloved Aussie treat, known by various names including Cheese & Vegemite Scrolls or Vegemite Scrolls. These soft white rolls feature Vegemite and cheese baked in a scroll shape.
Vegemite is considered by non-Aussies to be an acquired taste (we don’t understand, we are raised loving it). It’s a salty, almost-black spread made from yeast extract spread with an intense flavour so it is spread sparingly on bread and crackers. While it’s compared to Promite, marmite and bovril, Aussies find them inferior, milder-tasting versions of our beloved Vegemite! (We are total Vegemite snobs 😇).
While you can find Vegemite and cheese scrolls at suburban bakeries and grocery stores these days, Bakers Delight (a chain bakery) is famous for its Cheesymite Scrolls. It is my default food to eat-on-the-run when I’m in a shopping centre. Lightly warmed, 20 seconds in the microwave (yes, they will do it for free!).
But hand on heart – this homemade versions is better. Better flavour. Better texture. And soooo much cheaper to make!
Ingredients for Cheesymite Scrolls
In addition to Vegemite, here’s everything else you need to make homemade Cheesymite Scrolls.
Dough
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Bread flour – This type of bread has higher protein that regular plain flour (all-purpose flour) which gives bread a better “stretchy” texture when you rip it apart with your hands, rather than breaking easily like muffins. You can find bread flour in the baking aisle at grocery stores. It does cost a little more than regular flour but if you want really good Cheesymite Scrolls, it’s worth getting.
But don’t make a special trip to the grocery store if you don’t have it. This is absolutely worth making with plain flour.
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Instant yeast – Also known as “rapid rise yeast”, this is the sort of yeast that can be mixed straight into dough without having to go through the traditional steps of foaming in warm water or milk first. It’s sold in canisters or packets rather than small individual sachets. Store it in the fridge once opened to keep it fresh. If you are worried your yeast is inactive, see the FAQ section below for how to test if it is still alive.
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Milk – Full fat or low fat works fine here. Makes the bread softer than using water. I haven’t tried non-dairy. To be honest, yeast-based recipes are the sort of thing I would’n’t test out using non-dairy milks.
Warmth – The milk needs to be warm to make a nice, cosy environment to let the yeast work its magic to make the dough rise. It needs to be warm but not hot else it will kill the yeast (yeast dies at 55° C–60°C (130° F—140° F). If you want to get technical, aim for 35-40°C/95-104°F which I describe as bath warm (ie you’d happily sink in a bubble bath at this temperature!). I microwave the milk for 1 minute on high and it’s perfect.
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Sugar – Just a smidge which helps feed the yeast to activate it a bit.
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Salt – You need salt in bread, else it’s flavourless! Use cooking salt / kosher salt (UK: coarse grain salt). If using table salt which is much finer, halve the quantity.
FLAVOURINGS
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Vegemite needs no introduction! As per above. 🙂 There is no substitute. Sorry! (Promite, marmite and bovril look but do not taste the same and I haven’t tried these scrolls with them).
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Cheese – In theory you can use any melting cheese you want, though I found some work better than others. Colby works best in my opinion, for flavour, how it melts and crusts on the top of the scroll. Tasty cheese (a very common Australian cheese similar to cheddar) was my last favourite. It just didn’t melt nicely on the surface, it got too cruddy and split. Cheddar worked well, as did Monetary Jack. A sharp cheddar would add a stack of flavour!
Store bought pre-shredded cheese worked surprisingly well (Devondale 3 cheese blend – colby, mozzarella and parmesan – is my favourite), with the exception of tasty cheese (really not a fan for this recipe!).
Mozzarella doesn’t have enough flavour so give it a miss for this recipe.
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Salted table butter – For spreading onto the dough. Just whatever butter you spread on your morning toast!
How to make Cheesymite Scrolls
A stand mixer or food processor will make the dough kneading part a breeze, though you can always knead by hand. You’ll also love how forgiving the dough is and how friendly it is. See the FAQ for all the scenarios (and hiccups) I went through to put this recipe through it’s paces before I published it!
1. Make the SOFT WHITE bread dough
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Mix dry – Put the flour, salt and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook or a food processor (regular metal S blade or dough blade both work). Give it a brief mix to combine the ingredients.
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Warm milk – Add the warm milk (see Ingredients section above for what I mean by “warm”). Then mix on low speed until the dough comes together and you can no longer see flour.
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Knead 5 minutes -Once the mixture comes together into a dough, mix on medium speed for 5 minutes or until the dough becomes smooth. The dough should naturally wrap around the dough hook of the stand-mixer, though if it doesn’t, just stop and wrap it around the hook then keep going. Using a lower speed helps too, then you can increase the speed to medium partway through.
💡 What the dough is like – This is a friendly dough that’s easy to work with. It is soft and pliable, so easy to knead but it won’t stick to your hands when you handle it (see video). It’s also easy to roll out, it won’t keep shrinking back. It won’t stick to the counter, you can pick it up and handle it easily without tearing. Not all doughs are this friendly!
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How to tell the dough is ready – Hold the dough in a ball in your hands. When you stretch the surface of the dough, it won’t break. If you do this before kneading, the surface of the ball of dough breaks.
💡 Troubleshooting – If you measured out the ingredients accurately, your dough should look just like mine! But after a couple of minutes of kneading, if your dough is too dry, just add 1 tablespoon of warm milk at a time until it looks like mine. On the other hand, if yours is too sticky, add a bit of flour at a time. But don’t rush this, wait until you have kneaded for a couple of minutes as doughs tend to become less sticky the longer you knead them. Also, try to minimise the flour added as drier dough = less soft bread.
2. Rise #1
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Rise #1 (1.5 hours) – Put the ball of dough back into the bowl and cover with cling wrap. Put the bowl in a warm place and let it rise for 1 1/2 hours or until it doubles in size. “Warm place” means somewhere that is at least 25°C/77°F. The warmer it is, the faster the dough will rise.
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Post rise – This is what it looks like, post rise #1.
💡Dryer trick – Run an empty dryer for 5 minutes then put the bowl inside it and shut the door. Instant draught-free warm dough-rising environment. (Do not turn it on!).
⚠️ Don’t let the dough rise too much (eg triple in size) because this means the yeast has used up all it’s rising firepower so the bread won’t rise as much in the oven.
3. Roll out & spread
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Punch the dough to deflate it (my favourite step!).
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Roll out – Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Spread it out roughly with your hands into a rectangle shape (to give the rolling out a head start). Then roll it out into a 48 x 28 cm / 11 x 19”rectangle.
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Vegemite! Spread with butter then the vegemite.
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Cheese – Then sprinkle 3 cups (300g) of the cheese evenly across the surface.
4. CUT & rise #2
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Roll up – Use a knife, ruler or similar to help lift the long edge of the dough, roll it up into a long log. Try to roll up fairly firmly but not so tight that you indent the dough with your fingers as you roll.
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Cut into 12 pieces.
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Fill pan – Place the pieces in a lined 23 x 33cm / 9 x 13″ pan, evenly spaced apart.
⚠️ Make sure there is paper overhang (see photos) as it is handy to have the excess paper to use as handles to lift the slab of Cheesymite Scrolls out of the pan onto a cooling rack (rather than turning upside down – they are so soft, you might damage them).
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Rise #2 (30 minutes) – Lightly spray a piece of cling wrap with oil (any neutral oil) then cover the pan. Rise in a warm place for 30 minutes or until it expands/rises about 30% or a little more.
5. BAKE
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Cheese it! Sprinkle the surface with cheese.
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Bake for 25 minutes at 180°C/350°F (160°C fan-forced). Then rotate the pan and bake for a further 10 minutes at 200°C/375°F (180°C fan-forced) or until the cheese on the surface of the scrolls around the edge of the pan are light golden.
⚠️ Keep an eye on the scrolls for the last 10 minutes as different cheeses and even different brands of same cheese types go from melted-to-golden at different rates when baked on breads. You will cry if your cheese burns too much, after all that work. Then you’ll come here and tell me your sob story and I’ll cry too.
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Rest – Let the Cheesymite Scrolls rest in the pan for 5 minutes. Then use the paper overhang to lift out onto a cooling rack and cool for at least another 5 minutes before diving in!
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Devour! Peel the scrolls apart, and notice the soft fairy-floss like texture of the bread between each scroll. Do you sink your teeth straight into the whole scroll or uncurl the scroll??
A theory: Why I love Cheesymite Scrolls so much
I’m so obsessed with Cheesymite Scrolls that I even enjoy the cheap grocery store versions.
And as I was writing this post, I realised my obsession likely stems from my childhood. Vegemite sandwiches were a lunchbox staple for Aussie kids, and I’d eye them enviously while I shamefully pulled out my bento box with compartments filled with a dizzying array of Japanese foods.
Ironically, I’d be the cool kid today, but back then, I felt weird.
So yes, I blame my childhood lack of Vegemite sandwiches for my adult obsession with Cheesymite Scrolls. It’s all your fault, mum! – Nagi x
Cheesymite Scrolls FAQ
Yes it is. In Australia it is typically labelled “instant yeast”.
Yes you can! Directions to use active dry yeast are in the recipe notes. Active dry yeast needs to be activated by mixing with warm water (or milk) then set aside for 10 minutes or so until it becomes foamy. Then it is mixed in with the other dough ingredients.
Instant yeast does not need to be foamed in liquid before being used. It can just be mixed straight into the flour then milk added to form a dough.
Both types of yeast make breads, rolls etc rise. But the yeast works differently on different types of dough so for some types of breads, instant yeast will work better than active dry yeast, or vice versa (ie it rises more, the crumb is softer etc).
For this recipe, I tried with both instant and active dry yeast and didn’t notice a difference in the end result. So I chose instant yeast because it is easier to use ie. one less step – no need to foam it first.
If your yeast is quite old or you’ve been storing it in the pantry through hot weather rather than the fridge, it is best to check if your yeast is still good before proceeding with this recipe. Imagine how disappointing it would be if you make the dough and it never rises??😭
To test if your instant yeast is still good, mix 1/2 teaspoon yeast with 1/4 cup warm water and 1/4 tsp sugar. Leave for 10 minutes in a warm place. If it gets foamy, your yeast is fine so you can proceed with the recipe! (You can’t use the foamy water in the recipe though).
No, you can’t substitute the yeast with baking powder in this recipe. Breads made with baking powder don’t have the same “stretch” as real bread, it has a more muffin-like texture. Sorry to disappoint. Though if there is sufficient demand, I’d be happy to undertake the challenge of the best possible no-yeast Cheesymite Scrolls!
Ironically, it was never the dough! The dough is VERY forgiving (see below). The parts I struggled to get right were:
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Vegemite quantity – the amount of Vegemite to use to get enough Vegemite flavour without being too salty. The quantity called for in other recipes varies so wildly it’s concerning, from 1 tablespoon to 5 tablespoons! One recipe I tried was inedibly salty;
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the best cheese – so it crusts nicely on the surface but melts pleasantly in the folds. Irritatingly difficult to figure out. I was so sure the Aussie staple Tasty cheese would work. Should work! I kept trying it! But sadly, it came in last. It’s just not a friendly melting cheese. Colby cheese came in first. Full list of recommendations is in the ingredients section above;
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butter – you need enough butter to help spread the Vegemite on the dough and make the scrolls tasty, but if you use too much you end up with a pool of butter on the base which makes them overly greasy. I was also determined to incorporate butter into mine for superior flavour. Because Bakers Delight don’t use butter, they use oil. Butter trumps flavourless oil every day!
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bake time – making sure the scrolls bake through properly whilst getting the right about of golden cheese on the surface. Annoyingly, I found it requires a temperature increase partway through baking. I really did try to avoid this, but kept having burnt cheese before the inside was cooked, or cooked insides with not-golden-cheese surfaces (I need golden spots for a legit Cheesymite Scroll experience!); and
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batch size – a strange sounding recipe development thorn, but a real one. I needed to make the right size and volume of Cheesymite Scrolls to fill a standard size baking pan just right, so the scrolls would bake snugly up against each other. I found that filling a whole pan was quite important. I tried only partially filling a pan but the unsupported line of scrolls became wonky and mostly overcooked.
I am extra nervous about publishing yeast-based recipes without putting a recipe through its paces, because it’s so disappointing if you wait around for hours for the dough to rise only to find it’s a fail! So as with all other yeast bread recipes I’ve shared, I did quite a bit of testing for this recipe which I first made over a month ago.
I have fiddled with the dough so much and in the course of all the tweaking, I’ve come to realise it is actually a very forgiving dough. I have:
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added too much extra milk partway through so had to correct texture with more flour but then the dough was too dry so I added more milk (triple fix plus kneading time in excess of 10 minutes);
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kneaded twice as long as the recipe calls for;
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risen less than double;
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risen just shy of triple the volume (an accident – didn’t set a timer and I forgot about it!);
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proved the dough in 30 minutes (less than half the time) in a very, very warm environment;
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failed to prove the dough in a cold unheated bedroom for 3 hours so I then moved it to a warmer place to rise; and
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made it with both instant and active dry yeast (see top of FAQ for the difference).
These are just some of the scenarios I tested. And the bread part of the Cheesymite Scrolls have always worked out! It was other aspects of the recipe that I had trouble with (see above FAQ).
Watch how to make it
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Cheesymite Scrolls (Cheese & Vegemite!)
Prep: 25 minutes
Cook: 35 minutes
Dough rising: 2 hours
Breads, Snack
Australian
Servings12
Tap or hover to scale
Instructions
Abbreviated recipe
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Mix dry ingredients, add milk, knead 5 min. Rise until doubled (1.5 hours). Punch, roll out to 48 x 28 cm / 11 x 19” rectangle. Spread with butter, Vegemite then 300g cheese. Roll, cut into 12, put in lined pan, rise 30% (30 min). Top with remaining cheese.
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Bake 25 minutes at 180°C/350°F (160°C fan), rotate, bake 10 minutes 200°C/375°F (180°C fan) – keep an eye on it. Cool 10 min, eat!
Full recipe
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Check yeast – If your yeast is old or you weren’t storing it in the fridge, check it’s still good, see Note 6.
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Make dough – Put the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Briefly mix to combine. Add the milk then mix on low until you no longer see flour. Then beat, starting on low then increasing to medium partway through, for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth (see video for before/after visuals). (Note 8)
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Rise #1 – Shape the dough into a ball then put it back in the bowl. Cover with cling wrap. Let it rise in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours or until it doubles in size (see steps in post for more guidance).
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Roll out – Punch the dough to deflate in the bowl. Lightly flour a work surface, turn the dough out then use your hands to roughly shape it into a rectangle. Then roll out into a 48 x 28 cm / 11 x 19”rectangle using a rolling pin.
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Spread the dough with butter then with Vegemite. Sprinkle the whole area evenly with 3 cups (300g) of the cheese.
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Cut – Roll up into a log then cut into 12 even pieces.
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Pre-heat the oven to 180°C/350°F (160°C fan-forced). Lightly grease a 23 x 33cm / 9 x 13″ pan with butter. Then line with baking paper with overhang (so you can lift the slab out later).
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Rise #2 – Place the scrolls into the pan, evenly spaced apart. Spray a piece of cling wrap lightly with oil then cover the pan. Let the scrolls rise in a warm place for 30 minutes or until they expand/rise by about 30-50%.
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Bake – Top the scrolls with the remaining cheese. Bake for 25 minutes. Then rotate the pan and bake for a further 10 minutes at 200°C/375°F (180°C fan-forced) or until the cheese on the surface of the scrolls around the edge of the pan are light golden.
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Rest – Cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Use the paper overhang to lift the slab onto a cooling rack then cool for a further 5 minutes. Peel the scrolls apart then devour! Best eaten warm. 20 seconds in the microwave!
Recipe Notes:
2. Yeast – Look for cannisters/packs labelled “instant yeast” or “rapid-rise yeast”. Recipe works with dry active yeast too. Mix active dry yeast with the sugar and 1/2 cup of the warm milk, set aside 10 min until very foamy (if it doesn’t foam, it means yeast is dead, so time to get another). Then put the flour, salt, foamy milk mixture and remaining warm milk into a bowl. Mix to form a dough and proceed with recipe.
3. Milk – Either full or low fat is best here for the softest, fluffiest scrolls. I microwave on high for 1 minute. Don’t make it scalding hot, it will kill the yeast. See under Ingredients in post for more information.
4. Vegemite – Needs no introduction for Australians! Read in post. Marmite, promite and bovril are similar but as I haven’t made these with them, I can’t say if they will taste as good. In my world, there is no substitute for Vegemite! 🙂
5. Cheese – Freshly shredded is best here so it melts better inside and on top of the scroll. See in post under Ingredients for more thoughts on cheese options (including why I don’t like Tasty cheese).
PS I know 500g of cheese sounds like a LOT (and it is!) but this makes 12 big scrolls so it works out at 40g per scroll (less than 1/2 a cup). And they are called CHEESE and Vegemite Scrolls, after all….😇
6. Check your instant yeast is alive -Mix 1/2 tsp yeast with 1/4 cup warm water and 1/4 tsp sugar. Leave for 10 min, if it gets foamy, it’s alive. If not, it’s dead. Time to get new yeast!
7. Food processor option – Fit your food processor with the dough blade or even the standard metal S blade is fine. Proceed with recipe. It truly works just like a stand mixer!
8. Kneading – The dough should be caught up on the dough hook so it’s being “flung” around the bowl (ie kneaded). If it rides up the side of the bowl instead, just stop the stand mixer and wrap the dough around the hook, then keep beating.
Storing – Keeps for 3 days in an airtight container in the pantry though they are at their absolute peak freshly made. Once cool, I always insist they be eaten warm (20 seconds in the microwave on high) which goes a long way to resurrect them to freshly-made-status. Freeze for 3 months.
Nutrition per Cheesymite Scroll. It’s a meal. You can justify it.
Nutrition Information:
Calories: 437cal (22%)Carbohydrates: 36g (12%)Protein: 21g (42%)Fat: 23g (35%)Saturated Fat: 14g (88%)Polyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 6gTrans Fat: 0.1gCholesterol: 65mg (22%)Sodium: 742mg (32%)Potassium: 270mg (8%)Fiber: 2g (8%)Sugar: 3g (3%)Vitamin A: 707IU (14%)Vitamin C: 0.01mgCalcium: 430mg (43%)Iron: 1mg (6%)
Life of Dozer
The ultimate gift for the person who has everything. Thanks Aunty Shazza! ❤️
