These Crusty Sourdough Dinner Rolls are amazing. They are perfectly crusty without being tough, and the crumb is soft and fluffy. Best of all, they are no-knead! Tear one apart to dunk into soup or stew, or use it to cradle a veggie burger. Or just slather on some vegan butter and take a bite. A vegan, soy-free and nut-free recipe.
My sourdough starter had been sitting for a while in the refrigerator because it’s been crazy-busy at work these past few weeks, and I have had no time to bake bread. So when I pulled the starter out to take a look at it this week I was a little worried. It was rather dry, but otherwise looked okay.
Warm weather is a good time to get anything yeasted going, and once I’d poured some distilled water into the dry starter and gotten it back to workable consistency, I was pretty confident that the unfed starter would make some great, crusty sourdough dinner rolls.
These sourdough dinner rolls are incredibly simple: you need three ingredients, really — salt, sourdough, and flour. And since sourdough is just flour and water, make that two ingredients. There is an overnight rise involved, so that you get amazingly flavorful rolls, but other than that you don’t need to do much work or any heavy-duty kneading. Mix your ingredients, punch down the dough and shape after the first rise, and bake after the second rise. Easy peasy.
More yummy baked goods:
No-knead Sourdough Bread
The Best Sourdough Sandwich Bread, no yeast
Vegan Cinnamon Rolls with Vanilla Cashew Glaze
There is no need to add any yeast to this recipe. The yeast in the so
urdough is quite enough, thank you. Be careful when you score the rolls after the second rise– this is the only part of this recipe that requires some care, or you could deflate your rolls. I use a serrated knife and I’ve seen others use razor blades. Whatever you use, make sure it is sharp.
On to the Crusty Sourdough Dinner Rolls now. If you make them, be sure to let me know.
Crusty Sourdough Dinner Rolls, no-knead and no added yeast
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups bread flour
- 1 1/4 cups warm, filtered or distilled water
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup sourdough starter (made using my recipe-- link below. If using sourdough with a different hydration, you will need to adjust the amount of water)
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer. Mix until a consistent dough forms.
- Cover with cling wrap or a tight lid and let it stand overnight on the countertop, if warm, or in a cold oven with the light on.
- In the morning, punch down the dough and shape the dough into 12 equal-sized balls. Use flour on your palms to roll, if the dough feels sticky. Place the rolls 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.
- Sprinkle some flour on top of the rolls, cover with a kitchen towel, and set aside to rise for 2 hours.
- Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
- When the rolls have risen, score the top of each roll using a sharp knife. Make the cut fast, to prevent the roll from deflating. Scoring gives the gases that form in the bread escape while baking and helps the rolls rise.
- Place the rolls in the hot oven and bake 25-28 minutes or until the rolls are a light golden-brown. Remove from the oven and continue cooling on a rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Can I make this in a table top oven?
Hi Shobhana, I would think so, especially if you have one that distributes heat evenly.
Hello! I recently found your blog when looking for a vegan sourdough sandwich bread. I’ve made it twice and so love it!
For this recipe are you using unfed starter? I usually feed my starter the night before I plan on baking, allowing it to sit out overnight and grow in size. Should I skip that step for this recipe? Thanks!
Hi Colleen, Yes, unfed starter is fine here — no need to feed it the night before.
Hi Vaishali,
Made these last week. They tasted really good but they split at the base instead of the top where I scored so I have to solve this problem. They also didn’t spring in the oven which means they were quite dense. Didn’t share these with the neighbours!!! I will try again soon. Today I am making the herby garlicky focacia, I will let you know how it goes.. Thank you for the recipes.
Is the dough supposed to be incredibly wet and sticky? After letting it rise overnight, the consistency is almost like batter… 1 and 1/4 c water seems like a lot.
It shouldn’t be that wet. Is it possible your sourdough could have been too runny?
It’s my personal call that maybe the dough could use a little kneading. It’s a quick way to know if the dough is oversaturated and also will help with the “density” issue described by another baker.
How did you recover? Mine seems very wet as well.
I made these twice over the holidays and they came out great both times. Wonderful sourdough flavor and texture. They rose beautifully (I used fed starter from the night before). This will be my go to quick and easy rolls for the future. Thank you, Xenia
How much should I work the dough when forming into balls? MIne came out tough on the outside. Maybe I worked the dough too much.
This recipe is great. Everybody in the family gathers around when the buns come out. Thank you. I’ve been making these almost every day since I discover this recipe.
Could you let the first rise go longer? Say until afternoon?
I made this a few days ago, it was great! What I did differently was adding some walnuts luxury!
I did reduce the temp. to 200 degree without longer baking time to make it softer and less chewy. .
How much time is your “overnight”? Can the first rise ever be too long?
8-10 hours.
These rolls turned out great. Very easy. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
Turned out beautiful….I made 12 of them this morning and we have 4 left for tomorrow – we couldn’t resist them – are then between meals….highly recommend!!!thank you Vaishali!!!
I’m making these a second time in the run up to Thanksgiving in hopes of being confident in my ability to serve them then. First batch, rose beautifully but was super sticky as another user noted. (I’m a bread novice, so please judge my lack of skills and not the recipe based on this).
I ended up adding an extra 1.5c flour, bit the rolls turned out dense (probably from over mixing).
I have the second batch going, and I used the stand mixer only to incorporate the ingredients and hand kneaded as another commenter suggested. This looks more like dough and less like batter and I am hopeful this batch will be an improvement.
Comments I can make about the recipe despite my shortcomings as a baker:
The rolls have a beautiful sourdough flavor and just the right amount of crunch to the outside and moisture on the inside. I’m looking forward to making these often.
I made these this morning! I never thought I would be able to bake sourdough in a home oven, not using a Dutch oven! I only needed to add a bit more water. I did 3 stretches, formed, then into the fridge overnight. Took out about 6:00 a.m. and was having my first roll for breakfast couple of hrs later! I really liked these rolls and so did my office😋 Thank you for sharing.
Can these rolls be made in a dutch oven?
Yes, if you can fit them.
Do these freeze well? Has anyone tried that?
Wonderful!! Wish I could post a pic, they came out perfect. Thank you!
Hello!
Newbie sourdough baker here with a question: in an earlier comment, someone asked about using unfed starter for these, and you said it would work. Does that mean sourdough discard would also work if it’s relatively recent discard?
Thanks in advance for your answer. These rolls sound delicious, and I’m excited to try making them to go with our Christmas dinner.
-Sarah
Hi Sarah, sourdough discard when you are just beginning your sourdough starter will not work because it’s not yet strong enough.
Ok. Thanks! Just thought I’d ask.
Could you use gluten free flour?
Weird question..
Above, it offers to convert from US Standard to Metric. But, it’s a change from volumetric to gravimetric, and I was wondering which way the recipe was created? Just used to baker’s percentages by grams and while they’re baking beautifully as we speak, i was wondering how it originated so I can adapt it going forward.
Cheers!
RBG