
Sourdough dinner rolls are delicious, light, and fluffy rolls made with sourdough starter and without yeast. They are soft in texture, have a slightly sour taste and are a great alternative to basic dinner rolls or milk rolls.
The dough can be kneaded in bread machine or in the Stand Mixer and baked in the oven. Check out this post on how to make dough in bread machine.
Ingredients
Homemade sourdough dinner rolls requires only a few basic ingredients including bread flour, oil, water, salt, sugar, and sourdough starter. Sourdough starter must be fed, bubbly, airy, light, and have a pleasant sour aroma.
I feed my starter 1:1:1 (one part of starter, one part of all purpose flour, and 1 part of water). It usually rises in 10-12 hours depending on the ambient temperature. When I do not bake, I keep the leftover starter in the fridge and remove a little bit of starter and feed it a higher ratio of 3 times flour and water to the starter.

Instructions
Making sourdough dinner rolls, requires a little prep work and feed the starter few hours ahead of time. When the starter is active, bubbly, light, and has risen in volume around thrice, you can start making the dough.
If you use a bread machine, add all the ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order recommended by the bread machine manufacturer. Select and start the dough cycle. Once the cycle is complete, let the dough rise again for 2-3 hours on the "Rise" cycle until it is double in volume. Some machines have the rise cycle and in Zojirushi you can program it.
If using a stand mixer, add all the ingredients in the stand mixer bowl and knead with dough hook for about 12 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball and place it into a bowl. Let it rise in a warm place for about 3-4 hours until it doubles in volume.
Divide the dough into 15 equal parts, about 45-46 grams each. Shape them into smooth balls by tucking all the edges together to the bottom side. Place them in a baking tray lined with parchment paper and spacing them 1-2 fingers apart.
Cover the tray with a cling wrap or a kitchen towel and let it rise in a warm place for about 3-4 hours or until it more than doubles in volume.
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Remove the cling wrap or kitchen towel and then bake the rolls for about 22 minutes until golden brown. Take them out of the oven and apply some butter on top using a basting brush. This gives the buns a nice glaze.






Substitutions
- Bread flour - all purpose flour or bread flour can be used interchangeably to make this recipe.
Variations
- Herb sourdough rolls - add a tablespoon of Italian seasoning while making the dough.
- Seeded sourdough rolls - add about 3-4 tablespoon of seeds like poppy seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and chia seeds while making the dough.
Serving suggestions
Sourdough rolls are great accompaniment to hot soups in cold weather especially Instant Pot butternut soup and Instant Pot pumpkin soup. It can also be served with salads and pasta dishes.

Equipment
I make this sourdough dinner rolls dough in as 2 lb. Zojirushi Supreme bread machine or KitchenAid stand mixer.
A food scale helps in weighing the flour which gives consistent results. To make the rolls softer and lighter, sift the flour with a sifter.
The rolls are baked in a convection oven. I have used a 13-inch by 9-inches deep casserole baking tray to make 15 rolls. A larger baking tray (15-inch by 11-inch) can be used to make 20 smaller size buns.
Storage
Sourdough dinner rolls can be stored at room temperature for 3-4 days in a bread box or an air-tight container.
To store it longer it is best to freeze them in Ziplock bags or freezer safe containers. When you want to use it, you can warm them in the oven for about 15 minutes at 350°F.
Top tip
Use the sourdough once it has reached the peak in rising. If the starter is passed its peak and dropped a lot, it will take the dough longer to rise.
Weighing flour using a digital food scale while making bread or rolls gives consistent results. Scooping flour out from a bag using measuring cups can add too much flour than needed.
If you want to bake the rolls the next day, shape the dough balls and place on the baking tray. Cover the tray with cling wrap and place it in the fridge overnight. Remove the tray in the morning and let the rolls come to room temperature and puff up to more than double the volume. Bake at 375°F for 22 minutes.

Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
- Sourdough bread
- Vegan bread machine recipes
- Oatmeal bread in bread machine
- Whole wheat bread in bread machine
- Bread machine multigrain bread
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📖 Recipe

Sourdough Dinner Rolls
Equipment
- Bread Machine (or Stand Mixer)
- Convection Oven
- Baking tray (13 inch by 9 inch)
Ingredients
Wet ingredients
- ½ cup +1 tbsp Water (warm, microwave 15 seconds)
- 3 tablespoon Oil
Dry ingredients
- 2 tablespoon Organic cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon Salt
- 3 cup Bread flour (360 grams, or all-purpose flour)
- ½ cup Sourdough starter (120 grams)
Instructions
Option 1: Make dough in bread machine
- Place the wet and dry ingredients in the order required by your bread machine.½ cup +1 tbsp Water, 3 tbsp Oil, 2 tbsp Organic cane sugar, 1 tsp Salt, 3 cup Bread flour , ½ cup Sourdough starter
- Close the lid and start the "dough" cycle. Let the cycle complete.
- Let the dough rise for additional 2-3 hours on "rise"cycle until the dough doubles in volume.
- Once the cycle completes, remove the dough from the pan on a lightly floured surface.
Option 2: Make dough in stand mixer
- Place the wet and dry ingredients into the stand mixer bowl.½ cup +1 tbsp Water, 3 tbsp Oil, 2 tbsp Organic cane sugar, 1 tsp Salt, 3 cup Bread flour , ½ cup Sourdough starter
- Attach the dough hook and knead on setting 2 for about 12 minutes until the dough is well kneaded and attaches to the hook.
- Make a smooth dough ball, apply some oil to the bottom of the bowl and place the dough ball in it for rising.
- Cover the bowl and keep it in a warm place for about 4 hours until the dough rises and becomes more than double in volume.
- Remove the dough from the bowl on a lightly floured surface.
Shape dough to make rolls
- Divide the dough into 15 equal parts of about 45 - 46 grams each.
- Shape them into smooth balls and tuck all the edges to the bottom side to make it smooth from the top.
- Place them in a 13-inch by 9-inch baking tray lined with parchment paper keeping 1-2 finger space between the balls.
- Cover with a food wrap or a kitchen towel so that it does not dry up.
- Allow it to rise for about 4 hours until it has doubled in volume.
Bake in the oven
- Preheat the oven to 375°F.
- Remove the food wrap gently and then place the baking tray in the oven.
- Bake for about 22 minutes on 375°F or until the crust is golden brown in color.
- Take the baking tray out of the oven.
Final touches
- Apply some butter on top of the buns using a basting brush.
Notes
- Sifting and weighing the flour helps make the bread soft. Sifting is optional, however, weighing the flour gives consistent results







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