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.
Table of Contents
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.
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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
Yes! Cover the dough or the shaped, unbaked rolls very tightly with greased plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge. Then pick up the process when you’e ready.
Yes, divide the dough into 6 portions for big sandwiches or 12 for smaller dinner rolls. Adjust the baking time ups or down a few minutes.
It’s okay :). Just use the cup measurements, but start with less flour and add more if the dough feels too wet. The dough should clear the bowl sides but still feel slightly tacky.
They should sound hollow when you tap the bottom and be golden brown all over. If they’re pale, give them another few minutes.
You probably used all-purpose flour or measured it differently. Add some more flour. You’ll be okay.
Printable Recipe
Crusty Sourdough Rolls
Ingredients
- 1¼ cups active sourdough starter 7 ounces
- 2½-3 cups bread flour 13 ounces
- ¾ cup plus 1 tablespoon water 6½ ounces
- ½ teaspoon sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon yeast
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients except salt and yeast. Combine the starter, flour, water, and sugar in a large bowl. Stir well, using your hands if needed to incorporate all ingredients. The mixture may look dry but will feel slightly sticky to the touch. Cover and allow to rest at room temperature for thirty minutes.
- Knead in the salt and yeast. Add the salt and yeast on top of the dough, and knead until smooth, stretchy, and elastic. (If using a bread machine, set it on the dough cycle. For a stand mixer, set it on low about 5 minutes. If kneading by hand, knead for about 10 minutes.) Check the consistency of the dough after a few minutes of kneading. It may seem sticky, but should clear the sides of the bowl and should not be too difficult to work with. If it seems very wet, add more flour a few tablespoons at a time.
- The first rise. When the dough is kneaded, cover it and put in in a warm place to rise between 60-90 minutes, until nearly doubled in size.
- Shape the rolls. Turn the dough out onto a clean counter or a cutting board. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or oil and flour. Dust the top of the parchment with cornmeal. Divide the dough into 8 equal pieces, either by dividing into half, then quarters, then eighths, or by. using a kitchen scale. Shape the pieces into rolls by pinching the bottoms. Place on the cornmeal dusted parchment. Rub the tops with flour. Slash, if desired, using a lame or sharp knife.
- The second rise. Cover the rolls with heavily greased plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 45-60 minutes, until puffy. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Place one rack in the center, and one in the lower middle area. Place an empty baking sheet on the lower rack to get hot while the oven preheats.
- Bake with steam. When the oven has heated and the rolls have risen, pour one cup of water on the hot baking sheet to create steam. (It may buckle, this is ok.). Place the rolls inside and bake for 17-21 minutes, until browned outside. Cool rolls on wire rack for at least 30 minutes before serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Love,
Absolutely gorgeous, great recipe! 1 time making rolls, and not the last – thank you
Fantastic recipe! My rolls turned out great.
I’m so happy to hear that! There’s nothing like fresh, crusty sourdough rolls, especially when they turn out just right. Thanks for sharing your success—I love knowing they worked well for you!:)
This recipe calls for an active starter that has been recently fed. When you say this, do you mean a mature and establish starter that has been fed to make a levain or could you be using discard from a mature starter?
no it needs to be active, not discard. there isn’t enough yeast to make the rolls rise without some activity from the starter too 🙂
Very good recipe for a new baker. Thank you very much. I will be making them again.
I’ve just made these for the 1st time. Your written & video instructions were great. Mine don’t come out that crispy & came out a bit darker than I would have like. The whole process was perfect up until I actually baked them. I did in a fan forced oven, probably need to turn it down a bit!
Made them exactly as the recipe states (mixing in the dry yeast and all) and they turned out perfect!! Will double next time now that I know I can do it. Thank you for the excellent recipe and tips!!
These rolls were awesome ~ just started on my sourdough journey and i think the hardest part is how long some of the recipes take… The recipe was clear and concise, the rolls turned out perfectly and everyone loved them. Thank you!
Update from a couple months ago asking about making this recipe into a load. I’ve now made this recipe into a loaf twice. Both times has come out incredible. The loaf doesn’t last a day in our house. Amazing toast, amazing sandwiches. So yummy. Thanks again!
This is a fantastic recipe, and so easy. My family loves it, and I make it every week. My starter is robust and works for a lot of yeast free recipes, but I like how the yeast in this recipe speeds up the process and just provides a bit of security if the starter seems a bit less active than usual. I generally make 1.5 times the recipe to yield 12 rolls. I love the steam trick, too, to give the crust that extra crispness and chew.
Place the rolls in the oven (on a separate baking sheet above) or place them directly in the water?
seprate baking sheet above
I make this recipe about once a week. Sometimes, I up the quantity to 1.5 times the recipe to get 12 rolls.
This is a big family favorite. It has a mellow sourdough tang, but is also a half-day project because of that little bit of instant yeast. It’s advantageous for me to bake as a workday bread, because the addition of the yeast means that it rises and proofs much more quickly. My own starter is very robust, but the yeast accelerates the process. Plus it has the nice sourdough tang, and the great ability of a sourdough based bread to stay fresh much longer than the purely yeast raised alternatives.
This is a terrific recipe for anyone with a busy schedule, but who sets aside the time to cultivate a sourdough starter., and wants some rolls that will give you almost a week’s worth of school lunches!
What is the nutritional information for the rolls? Calories, protein per roll etc?
These are so great and so easy! But do you ever scratch your head at some of the immensely stupid questions / comments you receive? Does anyone actually think before asking a question? And how about the person that gave you 4 stars because they clearly screwed something up? And to the person that asked you for nutritional info … I must have missed the dietician designation behind your name.
You are a saint, and thank you for what you do!
hi Angela! you made my day 🙂 I’m glad you liked them and THANK YOU!
This recipe was easy to follow and rolls turned out perfectly. Thanks
these were a huge hit with my husband and myself! Delicious, soft, easy to cut, we love these buns!!! great recipe, I will keep this recipe on hand. thank you for this recipe!!!
Would I be able to make the dough up a day ahead of time and stick in the fridge overnight? If it can be done, at what step would I stick in fridge until ready to finish. Thanks.
I would shape the rolls and refrigerate then
Fantastic!
Do you use active dry yeast for this? I’m not getting hardly any rise on my first rise
yes active dry or instant. they have a lot of oven spring,b ut yes you should see a noticeable rise on your first rice, try popping in a slightly warmed oven.
I have made these rolls several times, and my family loves them. I would definitely recommend this recipe.
Watch the grams if you were making more than a single batch.
thanks kate!! i am working on the grams, hopefully it will work next time you make them! 🙂
Made these last weekend and they came out amazing!!! My husband loved them. Can these be made as multigrain seeded rolls? Do you have a recipe for those? Thanks again!
Wonderful recipe!
**Please note the measurements in grams does not update with the option to double or triple the recipe