Soft Sourdough Dinner Rolls

Hey y’all.

As I’m writing this, there’s some crazy scary stuff going on in the world, but baking is a bit of a sacred space. Equal parts meditation, and practical way to care for our families and friends. I hope you’re staying safe, staying home, and working with this dough stills your mind for a little while.

I’ve made this ring of dinner rolls 4 times this week. My family loves that they’ve got a slight tang, are pillowy soft, and can support an entire breakfast sandwich. I personally love that once you get the basic method down, it’s endlessly riffable. It’s what I like to call a Mother Dough- a sort of hardy dough that you can make a triple batch of, and turn into any number of things.

Wanna make cheesy dinner rolls? Add parmesan and chopped chives to the dough

Out of sandwich bread? This exact recipe will also make perfectly-sized loaf.

In desperate need of cinnamon rolls, or babka? Roll it out, and load it up.

Want to do a make your own pizza night with your kids? Yeah, it works for that too.

So try this recipe out, and let me know how you customized it for you and yours by tagging @LuneraBakery on Instagram, and using the hashtag #bakedbymoonlight.

Stay safe, and keep baking. Also, yes, I totally stole that phrase, “Mother Dough” from Christina Tosi. #sorrynotsorry

Soft Sourdough Rolls

Lunera Bakery | March 25, 2020

Prep Time: 5 hrs & 40 min Cook Time: 20 min Total Time: 6 hours Servings: 8

Ingredients:

For the Poolish:

40 grams all purpose flour

40 grams water @ 90℉

1 tsp Active Dry Yeast

For the Dough:

260 gr Bread Flour, plus more for dusting

70 gr Poolish

70 gr active sourdough starter

85ml Whole Milk

40 gr room temperature butter, cut into 1/2in cubes

1 egg

8 gr salt

40 gr sugar

20 gr milk powder

1 tsp active dry yeast

1 tsp of neutral oil (such as grapeseed, or avocado), to oil the pan

Tools Needed:

9in round pan with high sides (a bundt pan would work well)

Stand mixer with dough hook attachment, or a hand mixer with dough attachments

Instructions:

Stir together all of the Poolish ingredients in a container that is large enough for the mixture to triple in volume, and loosely cover with a clean kitchen towel. Allow it to culture for atleast 2 hours, and up to 12 hours. Depth of flavor is created by length of time the poolish is allowed to culture, so it's best to do this the night before!
Feed your sourdough starter using your normal process. This recipe calls for liquid starter, but if you normally use a stiff starter use the same weight of starter, and add 15-30ml more milk.
Do a float test on both the poolish and the starter by filling a glass with water, and gently dropping a pea sized amount of each onto the surface of the water. If they float, they're ready to use.
To make the dough add the poolish, starter, milk, egg, sugar, milk powder to the bowl of your mixer, and whisk together until the egg is fully incorporated. Add the flour, yeast, and salt to the bowl; gently incorporate the flour into the liquid by hand until there are no dry bits of flour. You're not trying to create dough, just hydrate the dry ingredients. Cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel, and allow to sit on the counter for 20-30 minutes. This is called an autolyse.
After the autolyse, start the mixture and slowly increase the speed until it gets to medium low. Allow the mixer to run until a smooth dough ball forms.
Add butter one cube at a time, allowing each cubes to fully incorporate into the dough before adding another. Mix until a smooth dough ball with no visible streaks of butter forms.
Transfer dough to a clean, oiled bowl. Cover, and allow to rise in a cool, dry place until doubled in size. This will take anywhere from 90 minutes to 3 hours, so be patient! If you're pressed for time, or want to go the heck to sleep, this is a great time to try out that bread proof setting on your oven. Just remember to put an oven safe container with a few inches of water in with the dough.
Flour the surface of the dough, and tip it out on the counter. Divide the dough in half, both peices in half again, and then finally halve each of the pieces one more time. This should leave you with 8 equal pieces. Fold each piece of dough into a tight ball, and roll the bottom seam until tight surface tension develops. Gently set just outside of your work area while you complete this step for all 8 rolls. This is called a bench rest
Brush neutral oil into your desired round pan, and add a spoonful of flour to it. Swirl the flour around the pan until it coats the entire surface, then turn the pan over and tap out the excess.
Gently roll each dough ball again to redevelop the surface tension, and place into the oiled and floured pan with the seam side down. Repeat this step with the other 7 dough balls. Arrange the dough until they are evenly spread throughout the pan, and just slightly touch one another. Dust the tops of the rolls with flour, and cover with a clean kitchen towel. Set in a warm corner of the kitchen and allow to rise for 1 hour. At this point, preheat the oven to 350℉.
After an hour the dough should be soft, and pillowy. Check the proof by gently poking one of the rolls, and watching to see if a small indent remains after 5-10 seconds. Underproofed dough bounces back, and fully proofed dough keeps a small dimple in the surface.
Place the pan on the center rack of your preheated oven, and set a timer for 20 minutes.
After 20 minutes the rolls should have baked into each other slightly, and have turned a nice golden brown. Check for doneness by inserting a toothpick into the side of one, and seeing if it comes out cleanly. It's always a good idea to take the temperature of enriched baked goods, so if you have a thermometer handy temp one of those lil' beauties. These are done once they hit 180℉.
Pull rolls out of the oven, and allow to cool in the pan for 3-5 minutes before tipping out on a cooling rack. It's important to take them out of the pan to cool! If you leave them in there, they'll get soggy and gross. What's the point in cutting corners right in the home stretch?! Take em' out.
Eat those pillowy balls of goodness are made for sharing, so eat them with your friends and family while they're still warm!