It’s easy to make sourdough bread even if you don’t maintain a sourdough starter thanks to the shortcut on Bready or Not today. Use this Shortcut Overnight Sourdough Starter with any recipe, or to make the accompanying recipe for Soft White Dinner Rolls using Sourdough Starter!
A lot of people maintained a sourdough ‘mother’ during 2020. A lot of people no longer do. Maintaining a starter takes effort, and it’s easy to forget to feed or discard as necessary.
That’s why these recipes today are so great. With a day of planning, you can whip up 1 cup of starter. Use it to make rolls, or anything else that requires 1 cup of starter.
Then, ta-da! You get delicious bread, and without the fuss of a starter.
These rolls are fantastic, too. My husband declared them to be about the best homemade bread ever, which is really saying something.
Bready or Not: Shortcut Overnight Sourdough Starter
Equipment
- large jar or medium bowl
- plastic wrap or towel
Ingredients
- 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 teaspoon honey or sugar
- 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour or whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients in a jar or bowl; make sure the starter has room to grow, as it will double in size! Cover with plastic wrap or towel, and let sit at room temperature overnight. Use in baking the next day.
OM NOM NOM!
Bready or Not: Soft White Dinner Rolls using Sourdough Starter
Equipment
- kitchen scale
- basting brush
- 2 cake pans or rimmed baking sheet
Ingredients
Dough
- 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
- 2 Tablespoons white sugar
- 2/3 cup milk or half & half warmed (no higher than 110-degrees)
- 4 Tablespoons unsalted butter (half stick) melted and cooled
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 cup sourdough discard about 8 oz
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour plus more if needed
Top
- olive oil
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter melted
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together yeast, sugar and warm milk and let sit for a few minutes to activate. Add the cooled-down melted butter followed by the sourdough discard, salt, and cornstarch. If using a stand mixer, switch to a bread hook as the flour is added, a cup at a time, adding more as necessary to reach a soft, workable consistency. The dough should no longer be super-sticky and pull away from the sides of the bowl. Continue to knead for another 5 minutes using a mixer, or up to 10 minutes by hand.
- Add some olive oil to the bowl. Rolls the dough to coat it completely. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a towel to let rise until doubled, 45 minutes to 1 1/2 hours; this will take longer if the starter was cold.
- Cut parchment to fit in two 9-inch cake pans or for a rimmed baking rim. Apply nonstick spray on pan and paper.
- Turn out the dough onto the counter and punch it down. Use a kitchen scale to weigh the dough, then divide it into 16 equal portions. Keep a saucer with some water in it nearby to dab in fingers to smooth the dough into a round–the dough may be sticky! Set in prepared pans, giving each roll some space to rise again.
- Cover rolls and set in a warm place for the 2nd rise for about an hour, until doubled in size.
- Preheat at 350-degrees. Bake for 11 minutes, rotate pans, then bake for another 11 to 15 minutes. The tops should be golden; a digital thermometer discreetly plunged into a middle roll should be over 190-degrees.
- Immediately brush melted butter over the tops. Let cool at least 10 minutes before eating. Leftover rolls keep well sealed at room temperature or in the freezer, but they must be eaten hot.
