Easy Crusty Sourdough Rolls

I have made these rolls every week of my life for fifteen years. We use them for everything. They are not authentic, artisan style sourdough. But they are delicious, beautiful and foolproof. Yes, when I make these, I use a pinch of instant yeast. You can leave it out and just extend the rising times.

There is a time and a place for recipes involving many tools with French names. This is not it. This recipe is for when you just want some really good rolls.  They have a crisp crust, soft interior, and good flavor. There is a slight sourdough tang, but it is totally undetectable by my kids. More of just a depth of flavor.  They’re the perfect sandwich roll! It only took me a million different tries to get this recipe right. I really hope you like them.

What You’ll Need

I’ve made these every which way…with the yeast, without it, with all-purpose flour, etc. I recommend that you make them exactly as written, but I’ve included notes about what substitutions you can make.

Main Ingredients:

• 7 ounces active sourdough starter (1 ¼ cups / 200 grams) should be bubbly and pancake batter consistency
• 13 ounces bread flour (2 ½ to 3 cups / 370 grams) bread flour is important to get the a crusty, chewy texture. If you are using all purpose flour, the texture won’t be quite the same, and you’ll need to use a little more flour.
• 6.5 oz water (¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon / 185 grams)
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• ½ teaspoon yeast – yes, even though it’s sourdough! This helps with consistent rise and texture

For Assembly:

• Cornmeal for dusting
• Extra flour for dusting tops of rolls

As written, this recipe makes 8 large sandwich rolls or 12 smaller dinner rolls.
It doubles quite well, but you’ll likely need to bake in batches because you need one rack for the steam and one for the rolls.
If you’d like to double (or triple!) the amounts, use the 2x or 3x button on the recipe card at the very bottom of this post.

Instructions

Let’s do this! It’s easy!

Mixing the dough

Weigh out your ingredients with a digital scale and add everything except the yeast and salt to a bowl.

Stir with a spoon to form a rough, slightly dry looking dough. If you are used to baking artisan sourdough, the dough will probably seem very dry to you. Since we are forming it into rolls, it needs to keep its shape. So the texture is more like a traditional bread dough.

Allow it to rest, covered, at room temperature, for 20-40 minutes, then come back and knead in the salt and yeast.

Kneading Options

Knead the dough by hand, bread machine, or stand mixer with dough hook until smooth and slightly sticky. The dough is done kneading when it passes the windowpane test. All you need to do is take a golf ball-sized piece of dough and stretch it out. Look for translucent “windows” in the dough. If the dough tears instead of stretching thin, it’s not ready yet.

By hand: fold the dough in half, then punch it down. Stretch it out again, fold, and punch. Repeat this process for at least five minutes, until the dough is stretchy and smooth. You should be able to pull it flat without tearing it.

With a mixer: Place the dough in your mixer bowl with the dough hook and let it run on low for five to ten minutes.

Bread machine: Simply add everything to the bucket and select the dough cycle. When the machine beeps, you’ll have a risen dough that’s ready to shape. I use this method the most.

After a few minutes of kneading, the dough may be a little sticky, but it should not be wet or impossible to handle. Add more flour, a tablespoon or two at a time, until it forms a workable dough. 

The first rise

Place the dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl and cover. Allow to rise for 1 hour in a warm place, such as a slightly warmed but turned-off oven, until doubled in size.

Shaping and rising again

Then divide and shape into 8 rolls, placing them on a parchment- lined baking sheet sprinkled with cornmeal.

Cover with greased plastic wrap and allow to rise for 45- 60 minutes at room temperature. Halfway through the rising time, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Put an empty, rimmed baking sheet on a lower rack. 

When the rising time is up, the rolls should be puffy.

Baking With Steam

Pour 1 cup of water on the empty baking sheet to create steam.

Bake for 17-21 minutes until browned. The baking time varies widely with this recipe because of the steam. The steam lowers the oven temperature and depending on how quickly your oven gets back up to temperature, some ovens will bake much faster than other.

Cool on a wire rack.

Storage Instructions

These freeze very well. After cooled to room temperature, pack them up in a freezer bag and they will keep fine for at least a month. 

To reheat rolls without drying them out, defrost for a minute or so in the microwave at the defrost setting. Then wrap them in foil and place them in a warm (not hot!) oven for 5-10 minutes.

Customizing this recipe

This is a reader favorite and you all have made it many different ways!

Garlic-herb version: add a full tablespoon of dried herbs (any blend equaling one tablespoon), then half a teaspoon of garlic powder to the dough and knead it all together.

Seeded sourdough rolls: add seeds the dough and press some on top.

Italian sourdough rolls: slightly less water for even more chew and sesame seeds on top!

Questions and Troubleshooting

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