These quick, easy sourdough discard rolls can be made in just a few hours. They will become fast family favorites with their soft, squishy texture and delicious sourdough tang.
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
This recipe is a "sourdough discard" recipe - so it's based on using unfed sourdough starter that you accumulate when you're building a sourdough starter or when you feed it ready to bake.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.I choose to bake these as "pull apart rolls" in a cast iron skillet. I do not butter the skillet - I season it after I use it each time which means it has a non stick surface. You can bake them as individual rolls on a baking tray if you want to.