Sourdough Discard Rolls [soft + pull apart]
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These super soft sourdough discard rolls couldn't be easier to make - and you can have them ready in just a few hours!
This sourdough discard rolls recipe is a great way to use up excess sourdough discard (although you can use fed starter too!).
If you love my recipe for Sourdough Discard Sandwich Bread, then you are going to love these sourdough discard rolls!
They are super simple, soft and tender with a slight sourdough tang.
Sourdough Pull Apart Rolls
I have chosen to shape these sourdough discard rolls into "pull apart rolls". By placing them into a cast iron skillet and allowing them to rise "into each other" they form a deliciously soft pull apart rolls.
If you'd prefer individual rolls, you can place them further apart on a baking tray and allow them to rise.
The choice is entirely yours.
If you're looking for other sourdough roll recipes you might also like to check out sourdough buttered knot rolls, Sourdough Hot Dog Rolls, Sourdough Sandwich Rolls, Sourdough Discard Hamburger Rolls, sourdough Tiger rolls or Soft & Sweet Sourdough Hawaiian Rolls. Or for the ultimate sourdough garlic buns, try this Sourdough Pampushky recipe.
Making Sourdough Discard Rolls
These rolls are super simple to make. Using commercial yeast along with sourdough discard allows you to have these on the table in record time.
The great thing is, you'll still have some sourdough flavor by using your discard. They are a great way to use up some sourdough discard while you build your sourdough starter - but you can also use fed, active starter too!
The trick to getting the softest, squishiest rolls is allowing them to get super puffy on their second rise. If you don't allow them to rise enough, they will be dense when you bake them.
How To Make Sourdough Discard Rolls
- Combine the sourdough discard, water, sugar and yeast into the bowl of your stand mixer or Thermomix and mix for 30 seconds until it's foamy.
- Now, add the flour to the foamy mixture and combine until it forms a shaggy dough (around 30 seconds will do it). Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
- Now add the salt and butter to the bowl and knead the dough for around 3 to 6 minutes.You want the dough to be elastic, silky and slapping the sides of the bowl. Just keep the mixer going until you achieve this. If you are using a stand mixer you'll need to use your dough hook attachment for this step (see notes for other kneading options).
- Now you need to let your dough rise. You are using instant yeast as the leavening agent in this recipe, rather than sourdough/wild yeast, so it will rise very quickly, particularly if your home is warm.Leave it for around an hour (it will take longer if your house is cooler). You want it to double.
- Once the dough has doubled, tip it out onto the counter top. Divide the dough into equal pieces. You'll need to use a set of scales to get them exactly weighted - or you do it by sight if you prefer. For this recipe I did 11 rolls at 86g each. If you want 12 rolls, you'd need to make them 78g.
- Shape each piece of dough into a ball and place the balls of dough into a cast iron skillet (see notes for options).
- Now you need to let the rolls rise again. It's really important to make sure their soft and puffy before you bake them! This will take around an hour, depending on the temperature of your home.Make sure you cover them with a plastic food cover to stop them drying out.
- Once the rolls have risen, you'll need to bake them.Turn your oven on and set the temperature to 180C/350F.Let it warm for around 10 minutes. Spray the top of your rolls with some water mist and place into the oven.
- Bake your rolls at 180C/350F for around 30 minutes or until they are golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and while they're still in the skillet, use a pastry brush to slather them in melted butter.
- Once the butter has soaked in, remove them from the skillet and allow to cool on a wire rack.
Can You Knead These By Hand?
Yes you absolutely can make this recipe by hand. I do prefer to use a stand mixer because I find it much easier to get a silky, elastic dough. It's also easier to add the butter when the machine does it for you.
But if you don't have a stand mixer - or you just don't want to use one - you absolutely can mix by hand.Just follow the recipe as it is.
The only thing I would say you might want to change is to add the butter in small dots when you are hand kneading. If you add it all at once it can sometimes be hard to knead in thoroughly.
Flavor Additions for Sourdough Discard Rolls
While these rolls are truly delicious just as they are, there are always a few things you can do to jazz them up! Here are a few ideas:
- Brush the baked rolls with garlic butter and sprinkle with parsley
- Add 20g of honey and 50g of oats to the mixture. Top the risen rolls with rolled oats before baking.
- Add 40g of chopped jalapeños and 100g of grated cheddar to the dough or alternatively serve the rolls with spicy sweet jalapeño butter.
- Add 100g of chocolate chips to the dough and brush with golden syrup or whipped honey butter once baked.
- You might also like to use this dough to make sourdough discard monkey bread.
Freezing Instructions
These sourdough discard rolls freeze really well!
I have frozen these rolls with great success. I have frozen them as a whole "pull apart" without breaking them into individual rolls. I've also frozen a few leftover rolls on their own.
They have both frozen successfully wrapped in foil and placed into the freezer.
Allow them to come to room temperature before using. You can zap them in the microwave to make them soft again.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes you can make this recipe dairy free by using vegan butter or your choice of oil. You can use the exact same weight as listed for butter in the recipe.
Yes you can omit the commercial yeast, but you will need to use active, fed sourdough starter instead of discard. You'll also need to allow them to rise for a lot longer to ensure they are soft and squishy when you bake them.
I would not substitute more than 250g of bread flour for whole wheat flour. Using whole wheat flour will make the rolls more dense and less fluffy than if you used all bread flour.
Yes you can substitute the bread flour for all purpose flour in this recipe.
Sourdough Discard Rolls Recipe
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Digital Scales
- Cast Iron Skillet or Baking Tray
Ingredients
- 100 g Sourdough Discard unfed sourdough starter
- 500 g Bread Flour or All Purpose Flour
- 250 g Water
- 10 g Salt
- 20 g Sugar
- 60 g Butter room temperature
- 7 g Instant Yeast
- 50 g Melted Butter for brushing
Instructions
- Combine the sourdough discard, water, sugar and yeast into the bowl of your stand mixer or Thermomix and mix for 30 seconds until it's foamy.
- Now, add the flour to the foamy mixture and combine until it forms a shaggy dough (around 30 seconds will do it). Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
- Now add the salt and butter to the bowl and knead the dough for around 3 to 6 minutes. You want the dough to be elastic, silky and slapping the sides of the bowl. Just keep the mixer going until you achieve this. If you are using a stand mixer you'll need to use your dough hook attachment for this step (see notes for other kneading options).
- Now you need to let your dough rise. You are using instant yeast as the leavening agent in this recipe, rather than sourdough/wild yeast, so it will rise very quickly, particularly if your home is warm. Leave it for around an hour (it will take longer if your house is cooler). You want it to double.
- Once the dough has doubled, tip it out onto the counter top. Divide the dough into equal pieces. You'll need to use a set of scales to get them exactly weighted - or you do it by sight if you prefer. For this recipe I did 11 rolls at 86g each. If you want 12 rolls, you'd need to make them 78g.
- Shape each piece of dough into a ball and place the balls of dough into a cast iron skillet (see notes for options).
- Now you need to let the rolls rise again. It's really important to make sure their soft and puffy before you bake them!This will take around an hour, depending on the temperature of your home.Make sure you cover them with a plastic food cover to stop them drying out.
- Once the rolls have risen, you'll need to bake them.Turn your oven on and set the temperature to 180C/350F. Let it warm for around 10 minutes. Spray the top of your rolls with some water mist and place into the oven.
- Bake your rolls at 180C/350F for around 30 minutes or until they are golden brown.
- Remove from the oven and while they're still in the skillet, use a pastry brush to slather them in melted butter.
- Once the butter has soaked in, remove them from the skillet and allow to cool on a wire rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Can you make this recipe with whole wheat flour?
I will never buy any rolls again. These are so yummy and pretty easy. We used a couple for hamburgers and they made a great bun also. I have not found any receipe of yours that I don't like. Thank you!
I out some melted butter and garlic with parsley on top and serve it with borscht. Perfect pairing!
Greta recipe.
Love these rolls! Have you tried freezing them before baking? I’m trying to make a large batch and wondering if I could just make up the balls, freeze them, and take them out when I want to bake them!?
Can I shape the dough and then refrigerate overnight and bake the next day?
Hi Mary, You can. They can stay in the fridge for around 24 hours. Just bring back to room temperature before baking.
Making these now, but wondering what size cast iron skillet you use? Thank you.
I've baked these in a 10" skillet, they also work fine in a 12" skillet too 🙂
Love these rolls! I’m going to make batches to prep for the holidays. If I freeze them before the second rise, do I need to let them thaw and rise? Maybe take them out the night before and let them rise at room temp?
I would definitely bake them before freezing. You risk over or under proofing if you freeze before baking 🙂 They will still taste great if baked and frozen. You can warm them up a little in the oven and they'll be just like fresh baked x
I love these and bake them every couple of weeks to use my discard. I make them as individual rolls and bake on a baking sheet, freeze them and use for my kids' lunch boxes. I bake them at 180°C, but never know should they be baked with or without fan please?
Love the new website look by the way😁👏
Jowita
Thank you, Jowita! Kate generally uses a fan forced oven, but if you're not and it's working, that's great too! 🙂
Can I make these night before and keep in fridge? Bake the next morning?
Hi Holly, You can! Just don't refrigerate longer than about 24 hours, and bring to room temperature before baking.
Love these rolls! If I’m baking these on Thanksgiving-eve, how can they be stored and reheated the following day?
So glad you love the recipe! Freezing the rolls will keep them the freshest 🙂 Wrapping them in aluminum foil or popping them in a ziploc bag and then allowing them to thaw at room temperature is best. Gently warm them in the oven or even zap them in the microwave to warm them.
Is there a point that I can freeze the dough to bake later? Or how long can I leave in the fridge before I form the rolls for the final rise?
I don't recommend freezing the dough as it's really hard to judge when they are thawed and proofed enough to bake. But the dough can be refrigerated for up to 24 hours before baking. Just bring to room temperature before baking.
These were excellent! Love that you can make them say day!
Absolutely excellent rolls! Thanks so much for this recipe, they are 100% husband approved and I loved them too!,
When baking these rolls can I line my cast iron pans with parchment paper and do I cover them when baking?
Yes you can line your cast iron skillet with parchment paper, no problems. No you don't need to cover them.
These look amazing, and so many positive comments! How big is your skillet?
Thank you, Kathy! Kate uses a 10" skillet, but they also work in a 12" skillet.
Hi there, I'm new to sourdough baking and tried this recipe last night. My teenage son said they were the best rolls I've ever made! He initially thought it was garlic bread, so we're definitely going to make these again with garlic butter, and maybe grated cheese melted on top as some other comments say.
Awesome recipe thank you!
Great recipe. They look amazing in the cast iron pan, a real showstopper. I made them with Becel vegan butter since one of my guests has a dairy allergy and they still turned out excellent (just a little salty).
My gentle feedback: Your site is quite busy with ads, banners, pop-ups and images. For my old computer it slows things down and makes it hard to quickly scroll back and forth between the detailed instructions and the actual recipe. You absolutely have a right to make money off this site, but perhaps there is a way to streamline it a little so it's a bit more functional.
Thanks!
SO easy and DELICIOUS! And quick!! For years I made a rich roll dough (yeast recipe) and made into bow knots. They were good, but these are SO much better. Light and fluffy. I brushed jarred minced garlic on top before I baked and sprinkled with dried parsley. SO GOOD!
I wish the ingredients were listed as the order needed because I always put the salt in too early because it's listed before the sugar that I should be putting in at that step.
What size cast iron skillet did you use for 11 rolls
Hi Mary, It's a 10" skillet, but they also work fine in a 12" skillet.
These turned out great! I used a 50/50 blend of bread flour and whole wheat flour, and made 15 rolls (56g each) in a 9x13 glass baking dish. They look beautiful and taste great! As another person noted, the dough seemed dry, but they turned out great. Thank you for this recipe! It's a keeper!
Very good recipe. Used unsalted butter…would increase salt or use salted butter next time. Excellent use for discard! Hate to throw that goodness away, thanks for sharing.
Wonderfully soft dinner rolls! So easy to put together, the dough was a dream to work with.
Love these rolls. The only ones I make
I made these for the first time tonight and followed the recipe exactly as it was written. They turned out delicious and beautiful. My husband who is a bread fanatic loves these rolls. I just started making my own starter a couple of weeks ago and this is the first recipe I used the discard for. I measured in grams.
I made these rolls & they were simple to make & delicious. I had previously made Pantry Mama’s sourdough bread which was pretty much the same. I found that when mixing the dough, use the paddle. Then when kneading it, switch to the dough hook.
Made these yesterday. In place of the butter, I used tahini and they turned out great. I did put butter on top after they came out of the oven. Will be making again.
The perfect pull apart rolls! Delightfully soft and fluffy and to seal the deal they come out of the freezer as perfect as the day they came out of the oven.
hi Pantry mama. .could you leave these rolls, after 1st ferment. covered in the fridge overnight. thank you
You could, but remember they have commercial yeast in them so they will keep rising in the the fridge, so don't let them rise too much before you put them in the fridge.