I'm getting back into sourdough, and am once again the proud caretaker of a bubbly, high-maintenance yeast pet. What I'd conveniently forgotten is how much I dislike discarding starter before feeding it fresh flour and water. Food is expensive, so instead of tossing it I've been using it in things like these Sourdough Discard Dinner Rolls. If you don't have discard, you can still make the rolls. I've tested with and without it.
What Makes These Worth Trying
The batch makes just ten rolls, but you can easily halve it if you'd like to make a small batch of five. There's not a lot of kneading required, you just beat the dough with the paddle attachment or use dough hooks on a handheld. The dough comes together in minutes, has two quick rises, and bakes up into light, fluffy rolls with great flavor from the sourdough discard.
Flavor and Texture
My sourdough happens to be 50% whole wheat, so the dinner rolls in the photo have have a light wheat flavor. Sourdough discard adds flavor backnotes, but you don't get too much of a sourdough flavor, just more depth than standard dinner rolls. A final brush of melted salted butter gives that shiny, golden top. The sweetness level is balanced, but you can make them even sweeter by adding another ½ tablespoon of sugar. Unlike the super light rolls famous in the northeast part of NC, these have some substance to them yet are still light textured.
Serving Sourdough Discard Dinner Rolls
These rolls are soft and sturdy enough for sliders. They're also excellent warm with butter and honey or used the next morning for breakfast sandwiches. They'd be great in bread pudding and are also good for croutons which you can customize with various seasonings. I've tested these so many times we are buried croutons and will probably have to start a gourmet crouton business.
A Note on Timing
Since this recipe uses both yeast and discard, the rise is moderate rather than dramatic. The dough will puff, not double, and that's okay because the small bubbles translate to a tender, even crumb. You can make them start-to-finish in less than hours, and it's mostly passive time.
Halving the Small Batch Recipe
I feel like most people will want at least ten rolls, especially since they freeze so well. However, if you are a household of one or two and just want a small batch, you can easily halve the recipe. For the egg, just crack it into a bowl and use only 2 tablespoons. Save the rest for another small batch recipe.
No Sourdough Discard? No Problem!
Before I turned these into a way to use discard, this was (and still is) just a good small batch dinner roll recipe. To revert back to the traditional "no sourdough" version, just follow the directions as written but use 1 cup of warm water instead of ½ cup and increase the total amount of flour to around 360 grams. That is, start with 2 ½ cups (around 330 grams) and add the last ¼ cup (30 grams) gradually as needed.
Recipe
Sourdough Discard Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- ½ cup warm water
- 1 ½ teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 ¼ cups bread flour, divided use (280 grams plus 35 grams)
- 120 grams sourdough discard
- 3 tablespoons sugar (36 grams)
- 1 ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 3 ½ tablespoons olive oil or use half oil and half melted butter (44 grams)
- Melted salted butter for brushing on top and a sprinkling of seeds
Instructions
- Put ½ cup of warm water in a stand mixer bowl and add instant yeast. Let stand until bubbly or until you're confident it's alive.
- Add 2 cups (280 grams) of bread flour. Set bowl on scale, set tare to zero and pour in 120 grams discard. Add the sugar, salt and egg.
- Using the paddle attachment of the mixer, beat for 2 minutes. The dough will be very soft and sticky at this point. Add ¼ cup more flour and beat again for 2 minutes. The batter should stick to the paddle or beaters and not cling to the side, but it will still be sticky. Use a scraper to scrape it towards the middle of the bowl. If for any reason the dough seems so soft you can't shape it, add more flour. In my kitchen, the total amount of flour always comes in around 315 grams, but that can vary from kitchen to kitchen.
- Cover the mixing bowl and let stand in a fairly warm place for about 45 minutes or until it has risen somewhat. It probably won't double.
- Grease two 9-inch pie pans with softened butter (preferably salted).
- Don't punch down the dough, just scrape it onto a work surface or mat and let it naturally deflate a little. Put a tiny amount of olive oil on your fingers and shape dough into 10 equal balls by forming squarish things, tucking corners under and smoothing into rounds. Try not to punch all of the air out as you shape. Space them evenly in the pie dishes You can sprinkle the tops with sesame seeds if you have some.
- Cover with a greased piece of plastic wrap and let rise for another 20-25 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
- Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes or until rolls are nicely browned on top. Brush tops with a little more butter.
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