Sourdough Rolls

 

I was pretty excited to make these rolls - I even called my mom at midnight to tell her I was making them and how much I liked how the dough felt (if you make bread from scratch you know what I mean lol) and to thank her for giving me the sourdough starter.  I'm not sure where it all went wrong, or if it even did.  I made them for Christmas dinner and every one loved them - except me...What?!  I am hoping my tastebuds were just out of whack because they tasted like dirty socks to me, but everyone kept telling me they really liked them!!  Besides the taste - I was pretty disappointed with the texture - they were more like a dense bread instead of a fluffy inside with a crunchy shell.  This was mostly my fault - I knew they weren't going to turn out the way I wanted about halfway through the recipe but I didn't have time to find a new recipe and start over and I was fine with a more dense roll - but then I over-proofed them!  ( I thought I would use my bread proofing function on my oven, which made them rise a lot faster than I expected)  Erg...Well, I decided to share them anyways - maybe someone else will have better luck than me :)

 

Since I was home and I knew I wanted to make sourdough rolls, I pulled my starter out of the fridge 4 days beforehand.  I fed it around 1/2 cup each of flour and warm water every other day, and added just the 1/2 cup of flour the other days.  It seems like a lot, but I needed to double the recipe and needed to use 2 cups of starter.

 

Ingredients:
1 cup fresh sourdough starter
¼ cup brown sugar (I used white sugar)
¼ cup warm water
¼ cup melted butter
1¼ teaspoons sea salt
2-2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 egg
1-2 tablespoons water

In a mixing bowl combine starter, sugar, warm water, melted butter, and sea salt. Add flour slowly, mixed with a fork or spoon until it is thick and then switching to using your hand.  Knead the dough for around 10 min - until it is smooth and elastic.  (Every recipe will tell you to knead the dough on a floured surface - I actually use an extra large bowl to mix the dough and knead it right in the bowl - it seems to cut down on the amount of extra flour that is needed and it is not as messy).  Oil a bowl and place the kneaded dough into it, turning it to cover the dough.  Cover the bowl and place in a warm space to rise until doubled in size, 4-8 hours, or overnight.  
Divide the dough and roll into small balls.  Place into a buttered dish.  Cover and let rise until double, 4-8 hours (unless you use the bread proof function - then it's less than 2).  Preheat oven to 375ºF.  Make an egg wash by beating egg with water and brush the mixture evenly over the rolls.  Bake 20-25 minutes, or until golden brown.

Here is the link for the original recipe.

 

I hope you have better luck than I did - I will definitely be trying more sourdough recipes! :)

Beth