My toddler loves a specific kind of bread. Likely because it’s sweetened. I would like to avoid the sugar. Perhaps if I can make an unsweetened version of his favorite „round bread“? I found a recipe for this kind of bread, but obviously it’s got syrup in it.

I wonder if it’s possible to skip or replace the syrup somehow. I know baking is chemistry, so this might be difficult. I guess I would be okay with adding a small amount of sugar to help the yeast. What else am I missing? I assume the consistency would change if I just skip the syrup?
So I’m looking for advice.

The original recipe:

• 50g fresh yeast
• 6dl fingerwarm milk
• 50g butter, room temperature
• 0.75dl light syrup
• 2 tsp salt
• 9dl wheat flour
• 6dl rye flour

Crumble the yeast into a bowl and dissolve it with the milk. Add butter, syrup, salt, and flour a little at a time towards the end. Mix everything together into a smooth dough and knead it for a few minutes. Let the dough rise under a kitchen towel for 45 minutes.

Divide the dough into 16 pieces. Form them into round balls and flatten them on a floured baking board. Roll them out into rounds, about 1 cm thin. Roll out the last time with a rolling pin or prick tightly with a fork. Roll quite hard so that there is a deep pattern, otherwise large air bubbles will form in the bread during baking.

Place the rounds on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Let them rise under a kitchen towel for about 20 minutes. Set the oven to 250°C.

Bake the rounds in the middle of the oven for 8-9 minutes or until they are golden brown. Let them cool on a wire rack under a kitchen towel.

Edit: Thanks everyone for your input! I think I’ll try to just leave the syrup out entirely and give it more time to rise. I don’t know what the dough should feel like at the different fermentation stages (so I don’t know how to judge when it is ready). So I might actually end up making just the original recipe first, to help me with that. It will be a few days before I have time to try this out. Thanks again!