Soft and very resilient with notes of nutty sweetness and subtle sour, I like these rolls!
No kneading, only a bit of stirring and lots of time, and of course the best ingredients you can find, anyone with a bowl can make these rolls. You end up with heaps of taste and a terrific texture. In short, I love everything about these rolls. It’s a combination of recipes that got me inspired. I mixed and matched, added to and deleted from until I was totally satisfied with the result. The recipe is spread over two days. The starter is made in the evening, the rolls the following day.
Ingredients for the Starter
Making the Starter
In a bowl stir together 225 grams of whole wheat flour with 225 grams of water at room temperature with 30 grams of the (rye) sourdough culture. Stir it for about 1 minute until all the ingredients are combined. Cover the bowl with clingfilm and let it preferment at room temperature. After a minimum of 12 hours it is ready to be used in the final dough.
*For the starter in this recipe I use a sourdough starter which is made with 100% whole grain rye flour. A sourdough starter based on rye flour is easier to maintain, it does not transform into a slurry when you forget about it, it is easier to stir because it has almost no gluten and it smells very very nice, a bit like berries. I maintain the starter as a ‘almost’ stiff starter. This way it stirs easy but does not add as much water to the dough as a poolish starter. It is also very forgiving in the amount you feed it. As I am a bit lazy in feeding, normally I only feed it once a week, after my weekend baking. I just give it a few table spoons of water and rye flour, stir, and ready! Check out our posting about making your own rye sourdough starter.
Ingredients for the Rolls
makes 12 rolls
Starter (480 g total weight)
425 g wheat flour / bread flour
115 g water
75 g buttermilk (or combination of yogurt and water 2/1)
25 g honey
10 g sea salt
50 g very soft butter
Making the Rolls
Put the starter in a large bowl, add the other ingredients and mix for about 1 minute (no kneading) until everything is combined and you have a very soft dough. You can do this by hand but if you do not want to get your hands dirty you can also combine the ingredients with the aid of your mixer. But keep the mixing to a minimum! Cover the bowl and leave the dough to rest for one hour.
Now do a stretch and fold (a full letter fold, left over right, right over left, bottom over top, top over bottom; see our bread movie to observe this technique if you are not familiar with it) and again leave to rest for one hour. Do a second stretch and fold and a rest for one hour and then a third one, again followed by a one hour rest (see time table at bottom of post).
Preheat your oven to 220ºC / 430ºF (at what stage you preheat your oven depends on how long it takes for your oven to heat through, some take 30 minutes, some, like ours, with stone floors take a lot longer, up to two hours). The preparation time from this point until the bread actually goes into the oven is 1 hour.
Shaping time! Weigh the total amount of dough and divide into 12 equal pieces. Shape the pieces into rolls. Lay the rolls in an oiled dish or tray, leaving some space (2cm or 0.75″) between the individual rolls, so that they will just touch each other at the end of the final proofing. The tray I use is 30 cm x 40 cm / 12 inch x 16 inch. Spray them lightly with oil and cover with clingfilm. The final proofing should take at least one to two hours, very probably more, depending on the temperature in your room and the temperature of the dough (see our tips on dough temperature). When you think they have risen enough, you can test the rolls by using your finger to carefully make a very small dent in the dough. If the dent remains, the bread is ready to bake, if the indentation disappears within a few seconds, the dough needs a little bit more time. Please make sure the rolls are well risen, with these rolls my experience is there’s more chance of under than over proofing. If it is taking too long, you can put the tray on top of a warm surface. We sometimes put a tray on top of our Rofco oven or use our small Rofco oven as a proofing cabinet by preheating it for a few minutes to 25ºC / 77ºF. It retains this temperature for a long time because of the oven stones and isolation.
Now your rolls are ready for the oven. Try to create some steam in your oven by putting a small metal baking tray on your oven floor when you preheat the oven. Pour a quarter of a cup of hot water in the small baking tray immediately after putting the bread in the oven. If you are going to create steam with a baking tray, you also want preheat your oven a bit higher (10ºC / 20ºF), because you are going to lose some heat in the process. When you use this technique you have to turn down the oven to the original recipe setting after you put the bread in the oven.
After about 20 to 25 minutes of baking, depending on your oven, your rolls should be ready. Transfer onto a rack and leave to cool. These rolls also keeps very well in the freezer. But please make sure to eat at least one roll while still warm with some fresh real butter!
No Knead Sourdough Wheat Rolls Time Table
Day 1 22.00 h
Make starter let ferment for at least 12 hours at room temperature
Day 2 10.00 h
Make final dough
- approx. 10.00 h Starter + rest of ingredients – 1 minute stirring
- 1 hour rest
- 11.00 h Stretch and fold 1
- 1 hour rest
- 12.00 h Stretch and fold 2
- 1 hour rest
- 13.00 h Stretch and fold 3
- 1 hour rest
- 14.00 Shape into 12 rolls
- Final proofing (at least) 1 hour
- approx 15.00 baking 20 minutes
- approx 15.20 ready!
Brigitte says
Hi Weekend Bakers 🙂
You have made sourdough baking sound easy and it IS easy to follow your detailed, no nonsense instructions. Successfully made soft sourdough rolls and had to put them in the freezer as not to eat too much. They are deliciously out of this world and will become a stable in my kitchen. Living in Australia (German origin) I could not convert to the bread here. In bigger centres, a few artisan bakers have set up shop but its quite pricey and remained a treat for many years. Finally this year, I decided to get into baking my own sourdough bread and never looked back. I share your passion, which comes through by the way you explain everything in simple, easy to follow terms. Thank you again for your wonderful website and all the yummy recipes. No question remained unanswered when reading the feedback from fellow home bakers.
Cheers
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Brigitte,
So great to read your success story! Thank you for sharing and liking the recipe so much. Your German origins maybe also explain your passion for good (sourdough) bread.
So rewarding to make your own and for us to play a part in it.
Many more wonderful loaves and rolls!
Greetings from tiny Holland,
Ed & Marieke
Michelle rivera says
Hi, I’m studying culinary arts and the chef asked to bring a recipe to work with a sourdough, mine looks very weak and I don’t know if it will hold it. It only has a few bubbles on top but i will try, anyway, she asks for us to make a loaf and 12 dinner rolls, to make that happen with only one dough do i have to double the quantities or how can i make that? Thank you
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Michelle,
What quantities do you mean exactly? In baking it helps to be exact 🙂
Karin says
Hello, I’m just in the process of making these rolls. Is it normal that the dough doesn’t seem to expand during the rest times? I keep it in the airing cupboard, as the rest of the house is more like 17 degrees, so I’d rather err on the warm than on the cold side… Without a portable thermometer it’s hard to tell, but I would guess the airing cupboard is at maybe 26-28 degrees. So I’ve had the starter in there overnight – was it supposed to double? I’d say it rose by maybe 1 1/2 times or less. Then I added the dough ingredients. I find that the dough is fairly firm – it could easily be kneaded. It would be good if you could provide the amount by which the dough should rise at each step.
Thanks, Karin
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Karin,
The thing you are asking for is exactly one of the hardest things to judge y eye in baking. We wrote a whole article about the ‘myth of double in size’ to explain why this observation method does not work: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…e-in-size/
With helpful tips on how to judge if your dough is developing the way it should.
Same with the temperature, you say it may be 26 to 28 but you are not sure. It is a bit of tough theory but take a look at the graph in this article and see how much difference temperature makes for dough development: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…mperature/
Too low and almost nothing happens, to high and the yeast could even be ‘killed’. 25 to 26 degrees would be a very good temp for dough development.
For the starter it is very important you see activity and bubbles and gluten development. Every culture is different, some slow, some fast, and it could be your culture needs a bit more time or the starter needs a bit more of the culture.
Hope these tips help you and happy sourdough baking!
Diane Millar says
Hello
With delight I have recently found your site. In the past I have use a starter that has doubled in volume with in 6 -8 hour yet this recipe says “a minimum of 12 hours”. Please explain the rational to let the starter mature this length of time when it may begin to collapse.
Thank you for your attention
Cheers Diane
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Diane,
The preferment is a combination of a certain amount of flour and culture and we estimate that it takes a minimum of 12 hours for it to become fully active. Of course it is not the intention for the preferment to get to the point of collapse. We estimate (based on our experience and using our sourdough culture) that using these quantities the preferment will not collapse. If your culture acts different and is very active and quick, you can of course take less time or use less culture. The actual room temperature also plays a roll in this, as does the temperature of the ingredients (water) so you can ‘play’ with that too to slow down the process and get a longer or shorter fermentation, depending on the taste profile you want to achieve. See our tips on the subject: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…ough-tips/
Happy sourdough baking,
Marieke & Ed
Maria says
Hi there
I have also tried this recipe a few times and am trying to improve my results.
Could you please confirm, is whole wheat flour the same as wholemeal flour and should I be using wholemeal plain or wholemeal self raising?
Also, in the main recipe it calls for wholewheat / bakers flour… Is this 50% white bakers and 50% wholemeal (plain or self raising)?
I am in Australia and I think we name things a little differently.
Thank you so much
Maria
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Maria,
Yes it is the same (the whole wheat kernel is ground to make the flour, nothing is taken out). You should always use flour without any raising agent in it when making bread (with the exception of Irish soda bread) so do not use self raising flour, you already use sourdough as a raising agent. Bread flour is usually a white (wheat) flour with a higher percentage protein (between 12 and 14 %). For more info on the subject of flour our ‘flour types’ posting might come in handy too: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…our-types/
Happy baking in Australia!
Marieke & Ed
Megan says
Hello,
I’ve tried this recipe a few times and my dough is always quite wet and my buns spread out too much and do not get much rise. Is there some suggestions for possibly correcting this without adding too much flour?
Thanks,
Megan 🙂
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Megan,
From what you tell us we would conclude that your flour may not contain enough gluten (use bread flour with at least 12% protein).
The wetness of the dough is not a problem, but it could be that using a little less moisture would make it easier for you to handle the dough and to shape the buns. Secondly it is very important to have the correct dough temperature. See our tips on the subject: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…mperature/
If your dough is too cold it could take a very long time for the buns to rise too.
Also make sure you develop the dough well by the S&F technique and maybe give it some extra turns if needed to build up strength.
Hope this helps.
Ed & Marieke
Susan says
Hi Ed and Marieke,
I would like to make this, as I like the idea of using buttermilk to give it the sour taste.
When you describe it as “soft”, do you mean that the crust is soft or the crumb is soft, or both?
Can I make this as two medium size loaves or must I make it into little balls.
Cannot wait to try this, but I must make your Christmas Stollen first.
So many things to try and so little time? I have tried making Stollen before without success,
as the recipes never worked. I have been very busy since I discovered your website!!!
Difficult to get French type 55 in the UK. Do you know of a good alternative?
Susan
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Susan,
It is a soft roll, both crust and crumb. You can make it into other sizes but of course you need to change the baking times for this, so take this into account.
The normal alternative for Type 55 would be plain flour or a combination of plain and bread flour.
Tiffany says
WOW WOW WOW! I couldn’t wait for the rolls to be cool down. I took one out and hastily tore off a piece and blew on it. And I am VERY happy! I think this recipe is VERY forgiving. I know I didn’t do it perfectly, but they still turned out GREAT! This will be MY dinner roll recipe from now on! YES!
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you so much Tiffany for your excellent feedback! You are very right and you can really make this recipe your own and play around with it a little bit.
Happy sourdough baking!
Marieke
Stephanie says
I was wondering when you said whole wheat flour in the starter do you actually mean wheat flour or bread flour?? I want to make hear for easter they sound like just what I have looking for plus I always want new ways to use my sour dough starter.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Stephanie, whole wheat flour means the flour with the whole wheat milled with in the loaf, the ‘stuff’ to make ‘a brown type’ of loaf. The description ‘bread flour’ is describe the amount of gluten is the flour, you need a higher amount of gluten to make a good bread. Low gluten flour is often used for pastry, cake etc. Happy baking!
Sarah says
How many grams is each roll before shaping?? Did you weigh dough????
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Sarah, this puzzle is not that hard to solve 😉 The total amount of dough is about 1180 grams, divided by 12 is about 98 grams each roll. Happy baking!
Crumb.Edible says
I just made these rolls for the first time, and they are delicious! Everything about them is appealing. Thank you for the wonderful site and marvelous recipes/instructions. I am new to your site and very pleased that I found it. Rest assured I will be baking more of your fine sourdough recipes in the coming weeks/months. BTW, my starter is fed white whole wheat flour only (Gold Medal brand in the USA) but it is a very strong culture and really made these rolls easy.
Helen says
Hello again..forgot to mention -I used speltbloem and speltmeel from the Zandhaas windmill instead of wheat flour and a rogge starter.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Helen,
So great to hear about your result, the proofing that did the trick 🙂 and especially the use of spelt from our favorite mill De Zandhaas.
Excellent & happy baking!
Marieke
Helen says
Dear Ed and Marieke,
I followed your recipe and my rolls turned out awesome! Thank you so much for your website and all your fantastic information and videos which have helped me no end! I proved the dough in a small oven with its light on – using your advice – and am so pleased with the temperature it gave and the results. A good bake definitely gives you happiness, hope and confidence to carry on baking! Can’t wait to try more recipes now….groetjes, Helen
Raluca says
Hy,
It is ok to use white sourdough starter? (I don’t keep a rye one because it is quite too expensive (almost double than white one).
Great recipes and instructions, keep doing the same great things…
Thank you,
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Raluca,
Of course you can, no problem as long as it is active and bubbly! Thanks for your compliments, much appreciated 🙂
Happy Baking,
Marieke
Sylvia Vervest says
Is Buttermilk Karnemelk?
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Sylvia,
Yes they are the same. You can substitute the buttermilk with milk because the buttermilk adds extra sour taste of course. It depends on what you are aiming for. Some people substitute the butter with olive or even walnut oil and also had very good results with that.
Happy Baking!
Marieke
Siesie says
Hallo Marieke,
wat is wheat flour/bread flour? Kan ik tarwebloem of tarwemeel van de supermarkt gebruiken? Of is het type 55 meel (heb ik meegenomen uit Frankrijk) beter? Of is het toch een ander soort meel?
Siesie
Weekend Bakers says
Hallo Siesie,
Met wheat flour en bread flour bedoelen we hetgeen je in Nederland als tarwebloem koopt. Nu zijn daar weer allerlei kwaliteiten in en uit eigen ervaring kunnen we je zeggen dat het veel verschil kan maken, de ene tarwebloem is de andere niet. Kijk maar eens naar onze test met tarwebloem: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…nt-part-1/
Wij zijn dus een fan van goede kwaliteit bloem en meel en gebruiken zelf biologische bloem van de molen (De Zandhaas te Santpoort is onze favoriet). Ook met bloem van verschillende molens hebben we een test gedaan. Zie: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…ent-mills/
Hier zie je veel minder kwaliteitsverschil maar wel weer veel smaakverschil.
Met je Type 55 Franse bloem kun je ook brood bakken, het wordt veel gebruikt voor baguettes, maar het is ook heel beschikt voor lichtere en zoete broden zoals de brioche en bijvoorbeeld croissants. In de regel bevat het rond de 11% proteïne en goede tarwebloem bevat tussen de 12 en 13% (iets meer glutenontwikkeling, meer wateropname en in potentie ‘steviger’ deeg).
Happy Baking!
Ed en Marieke
Richina says
Fantastisch! heb in plaats van boter 45 ml walnotenolie gebruikt. Jammie, ben benieuwd of ze de volgende dag gaan halen.
Weekend Bakers says
Hoi Richina,
Wat een goede suggestie om te proberen. Heb nog nooit walnotenolie gebruikt met brood bakken, wel walnoten natuurlijk of stukjes walnoot. Goed om te horen dat dit ook heel lekker wordt!
Groetjes,
Marieke
Itamar says
hi Marieke,
If I have a mixer that’s strong enough to knead any dough, is there still and advantage to using stretch and folds with wetter doughs? If not, how would you adapt this recipe for mixer kneading?
Thanks!
Great website!
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Itamar,
The stretch and fold technique is not only used because people do not have the mixers to handle the dough.
Stretching and folding just gives a different result. The technique we like to use is a short mixing process with a longer fermentation time which will give a more open irregular crumb structure with a more complex flavor compared to the intensive mixing process (which would result in a more even crumb and less debt of flavor). The intensive mixing method develops the gluten completely and the short mixing develops the gluten mostly during the long fermentation times, so both methods will result in a different loaf.
So far the theory. With these soft rolls the difference will be less than it would be with the bigger loafs. But also in this recipe the minimal mixing and the stretching and folding with long resting periods in between makes for a balanced recipe and bread complex in flavor. Intensive mixing (would take 8 to 10 minutes) and then just resting, shaping proofing would make it just a completely different recipe.
Hope this helps.
Have a great baking weekend!
Marieke & Ed
Monique says
Hoi,
Ik heb deze broodjes laatst gemaakt, en de smaak was prima, maar ze hadden in mijn geval een knapperige korst.
Ik heb helaas alleen een hete lucht -optie in mijn combi-oven, en de temperatuur is in ieder geval niet op elke plaats constant (broodjes op de hoeken worden te bruin).
De broodjes waren wel wat ‘vast’, maar misschien is de gebruikte bloem inderdaad de boosdoener, of de temperatuur tijdens de rijs.Ik gebruikte in plaats van honing Golden Syrup, zou dat nog uitgemaakt hebben?
Ik ga ze t.z.t nog weleens maken, want zoals gezegd, qua smaak zeker voor herhaling vatbaar.
Cynthia says
Hi Marieke,
I tried this recipe yesterday and can’t believe I could make the bread with the look exactly same as your photo. The taste may not be as good as yours because the sourdough starter I’ve used was made with organic wheat flour. Remember I told you about this earlier ? I failed for the first time but the starter is working well now:) Finally I’ve bought the rye flour and will start making the sourdough starter again this week. Hopefully, I can compare the difference in taste next time. Anyway, I am quite satisfied with my rolls. Both the taste and texture are good.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Cynthia,
Yes I remember! Such good results, that’s wonderful. I think you will find the rye culture a little bit easier to maintain.
Curious to find out what the difference for this recipe will be.
Happy baking,
Marieke
colin sneller says
Yes, by all means send me an email
Colin
Weekend Bakers says
I sent you an email yesterday morning. Hope you got it…
colin sneller says
Hi Marieke,
I made these rolls today and they came out well – especially the flavour was so fantastic! I was a bit sceptical actually because it was the first time I’d ever made bread with only sour dough culture but now I’m a convert! My rolls didn’t come out as fluffy as yours look in the photo but I think that could be because I used whole wheat flour that I ground myself. It was very coarse so next time I think I’ll try them with bought whole wheat flour. I’ve got the starter for your San Francisco sour dough bread already in the fridge so I’m looking forward to enjoying that on Thursday. I made the sour dough culture from your recipe and it worked too just like all your recipes up to now. Very impressive! I’d like to take you up on your offer for a lame so let me know how that works.
Colin
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Colin,
That all sounds so good! Very glad to hear it.
Would be happy to send you one of our home made lames.
Is it OK if we send you an email about it?
Marieke
Kipper says
Hi Marieke & Ed
Thanks for your quick reply! Yes I have measured everything to the last gram on my digital kitchen scale. I used Waitrose strong whole wheat flour and the conditions here are very warm (30degC all year round). Starter and dough proofed very fast so do you think i should create more gluten by more cycles of stretching and folding? Or should I add more flour and/or less water?
Weekend Bakers says
Hi there,
With 30C and you mentioning very fast proofing you would almost suspect the proofing has gone too fast. To slow it down you could use less starter culture and/or colder water, to make sure your starter is not over proofed. An over proofed starter has much less gluten to build a strong dough with. If it was already foamy or maybe even collapsed and you used it anyway this could account for the problem.
Also make sure your final dough does not over proof (use colder water at this stage too, to slow it down a bit).
Good luck with it,
Marieke
Kipper says
Hi Marieke
I recall that the starter was foamy. However, when I mixed it into the dough, it still puffed every time after a stretch and fold. Thanks for your suggestions, I will try out the recipe again. Love your website!
Kipper
Kipper says
Hi i followed your recipe but the dough was soft even after three stretch and folds. When it came to shaping, the rolls did not hold its shape and slumped very flat. The taste and texture was good with crusty exterior and creamy crumb but I can’t call it soft rolls as they were very flat! What am I doing wrong?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Kipper,
Hope you measured by weight and not by volume because that would be less precise and could result in the dough being too wet. It could also be the case that your flour absorbs less liquid, so you have to adjust by using a little less. The flatness can be a result of the wetness of the dough , maybe in combination with a lack of gluten in the flour. You can try to use (strong) bread flour next time, if you have not done this already. Also make sure the dough has the right temperature and proofs under optimal conditions
(see our tips on the subject: www.weekendbakery.com/posts…mperature/).
Hope this helps.
Marieke & Ed
Irene says
Hello Ed & Marieke,
I just baked those soft rolls and they turned out nicely, though I think they could become better with more practice. I loved your stretch and fold technique and I thought I did it pretty well with the moist dough!
During the last proofing rolls did not rise much though, but became more flat so they don’t have a ball shape. The texture is also quite dense and I somehow I got a crust (not really hard, like in qiabatta). The taste is a little sour for me, maybe I have put too much rye sourdough starter? What I would like to achieve next time is to have more airy, fluffy texture and no hard crust, do you have any ideas?
Also, could you please tell whether I need to adjust baking time if I am making the half of given quantities.
But alltogether, a good start! Thanks for the great instructions.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Irene,
Great you used the stretching and folding method and it worked so well already. Shame the rolls did not rise so much, but it may take longer than is indicated in the recipe due to your surroundings, sourdough used, temperature of the dough. It is always a question of judging it on site and the process can be a little bit different every time you bake. With us there is a difference for example every time we buy a new sack of flour that changes with the seasons, even the same type will absorb more or less water than the batch before. The texture being dense would suggest you could proof it a little longer, on the other hand, the shape getting flat could also suggest you left it too long and it collapsed, maybe you can judge this for yourself. The times indicated in the recipe are correct when your final dough is about 24 to 25 degrees Celsius.
Using sourdough you get a sour taste of course, but you could substitute the yoghurt or buttermilk with normal milk, because this also accounts for some added sourness of course.
For a soft result you need to create steam in your oven and make sure you keep the moisture in your oven right till the end of the baking process. Also brushing the crust with a bit of butter after baking will do the trick as will covering them with a damp towel and/ or putting the rolls in a plastic bag will also soften the crust.
In general, bigger quantities will have a larger effect on your oven temperature because the oven has to deal with a bigger cold mass that has to be heated up. It also depends on the kind of oven you use and it’s capacity. If your oven is well heated and the temperature does not drop immediately when opened, it will not effect the baking time that much whether you bake all or halve of the recipe. It is best to get to know your oven really well just by baking a lot, this way you know how to adjust for recipes and quantities.
It would be a little miracle if a recipe tried out for the first time with different tools, ingredients and hands of the maker would turn out exactly the same. You always have to make it your own.
Good luck and happy baking!
Marieke
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Kelster,
Please do and let us know how you get on. Any questions? Just ask 🙂
Kelster says
Thanks a lot for your reply. I will definitely try this recipe again soon. I’m still learning the feel of my dough so when I’m confident that I know when it’s too wet or too dry, I will try this again.
Ray Ludwig says
Marieke,
I tried making this recipe as a loaf and the results were pretty good. With the limitations of my oven I have found that I get best results by baking in a Pyrex bowl (with a top on for the first 10 minutes). Other than that, I pretty much followed your recipe. The crust seemed to be browning too quickly so I lowered the temp to 210 after about 12 minutes. I ended up baking it for 50 minutes.
The taste, as you said, is very nice. The crumb was good texture and just the right amount of tooth (can that term be used for bread as well as pasta?). The bottom crust where it touched the bowl was a bit thick, but not hard and chewy. It actually had a nice crispiness.
This attempt was in response to a request from my family for something a bit softer than my usual pain rustique and got favorable reviews.
Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Ray
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Ray,
Excellent! Sounds like something I want to try for myself! I recognize the request for softer bread from some people. Well, they do not exactly request it, but they are very enthusiastic about softer bread, something to do with elderly people and teeth also… I can sympathize, I had braces not too long ago and that’s when my love for the polar bread surfaced. Talking about the right amount of ‘tooth’ and ‘bite’. That was, next to the taste, the predominant reaction from people who tasted the soft sourdough rolls. Currently experimenting with spelt and blueberry bread. First results are very nice.
Have a nice (baking) weekend
Marieke
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Ray,
I have never made a loaf with this dough, but what I did do, and it worked very well, was make a cluster bread by putting the rolls snugly together in a round shape, so they form in fact one big round loaf (you could also make a square of course). As they prove they get even closer together and form one big shape. It turned out really well and you can easily tear it in individual rolls again after baking. The thing you must take into account is that the baking time will be longer (about 35 to 40 minutes), because it is in fact one big piece of dough now.
Let me know if and how you are going to make the loaf, I am very interested how it turns out.
Happy baking!
Marieke
Ray Ludwig says
Thank you for providing so much good information on your website. I have tried several of your breads and have found your instructions to be very clear and easy to follow. Now I just need to work on my baking skills 🙂
Regarding this recipe, I am using a quite small combination microwave/oven so I like to maximize the bread volume I can make in one bake by doing boules. Do you think this recipe would work as a loaf rather than rolls?
Kelster says
You mentioned that your starter is more of a paste than liquid. Do you know the approximate hydration? I tried to make this but my starter is at a higher hydration so it was a very wet dough. I didn’t have much success but I know this is partly due to my starter and partly due to me being a beginner.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Kelster,
We do not measure anymore while maintaining the starter but it should be somewhere around the 70 to 80 % mark.
Making bread has a lot to do with getting to know your flour and your dough. It is hard to say how the flour you use absorbs the moisture, so it is always a question of adapting the recipes until it is right for you and the ingredients you use. We use very wet dough for a lot of recipes and we like it and learned to work with it by just baking a lot. First you are a bit ‘afraid’ of the stickiness, but you learn to handle it better and better. Hope you give the recipe another chance and don’t forget that proofing times can also vary (the recipe is based on the dough being 24 degrees Celsius ).
But most of all : Enjoy your baking!
Marieke says
Thanks again for the feedback Mina and Theresa. It’s always good to know different variations work just as well!
Marieke
Mina and Theresa says
These are amazing! We made them with our own rye starter…wow so glad you can make soft bread with homemade yeast!! We’re going to try it without butter to make them a tiny bit healthier…do you think this would be a disaster?! hehe
Marieke says
Thank you so much! I am so happy when other people like and have success with our recipes!
I think it’s a great idea to leave out the butter (haven’t done it myself yet, but will try it too). Our educated guess is you should add 20 ml extra water or (butter) milk to compensate.
Let us know how you go on!
Enjoy the baking,
Marieke & Ed
Mina and Theresa says
Hi Marieke,
I tried it with 45g olive oil instead of butter and 20ml less water and they were lovely too! What a great recipe!
Thank you so much.
Mina
Marieke says
Next time I’m going to do it your way too! Thanks so much for sharing!
Marieke
Mina and Theresa says
Hi Marieke,
I also tried it with 75g milk instead of the yogurt and water (forgot to buy some yogurt!). Came out the same and just as yummy!
Mina
My Little Expat Kitchen says
I love this recipe and I would like to make these rolls but I would like to ask you how I can prepare the rye culture. What is the exact process? Thanks!
Magda
Marieke says
Will put it in writing very soon! Busy with making it into insightful steps with pictures that show how it should look at each stage.