Sourdough Hawaiian rolls are a soft, fluffy, sweet roll with a delicious pineapple flavor and classic sourdough tang. These make the best dinner rolls, or you can use them to make mini sandwiches.
Probably one of the easiest bread recipes ever and also one of the tastiest. You simply dump all the ingredients into a stand mixer, allow the mixer to knead, let the dough rise, shape, rise again and bake.
No folding and stretching. Just mix until stretchy right in the stand mixer.
Hawaiian rolls are one of our family’s favorite sweet sourdough rolls (it’s a tie between these and sourdough brioche, which is quite similar).
If we are out of town or traveling and we need to stop by the grocery store to get some bread, we will grab Hawaiian rolls rather than white bread. It is just so much more delicious.
Hawaiian rolls are a great way to feed a crowd. For an easy dinner, I love having this sourdough Hawaiian bread on hand to make ham and Swiss rolls. Slice the rolls in half, add your ham and cheese, top with the other half, then bake until gooey.
The perfect combination of sweet and savory.
Tips:
- Make sourdough Hawaiian bread – Usually, we make these into rolls, but you can also make this recipe into a loaf. Just make 6 larger dough balls and bake in a bread pan, rather than in a 9×13. Bake for about 25 minutes.
- Make sure your sourdough starter is super active and bubbly for best results.
- If you find yourself with risen dough, but don’t have time to shape and rise again before baking, you can stick it in the fridge until you have time. This slows down the fermentation process, allowing you a little extra time.
- New to sourdough? Check out how to make a sourdough starter here, and see the list of terms you may need to know.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
Why you will love this recipe:
Simple: This recipe couldn’t be easier. Add all the ingredients straight to the stand mixer and let it do all the work. Allow it to rise, then shape the dough, rise again and bake.
Super delicious: Is there anything better than super soft, fluffy, buttery sweet rolls?
Perfect for mini sandwiches or appetizers: These rolls make the best vessel for ham and Swiss sandwiches or sliders. Yum!
FAQ:
Are Hawaiian rolls the same as brioche?
They are similar since Hawaiian rolls and brioche are both enriched doughs, meaning they include eggs and/or butter. The main difference is that Hawaiian rolls are sweeter and include pineapple juice to give them a super yummy flavor.
How is Hawaiian bread different from regular bread?
It includes pineapple juice and more sugar compared to regular bread.
What is special about Hawaiian bread?
It is sweet and fluffy with a slight pineapple flavor.
What’s the difference between Hawaiian rolls and regular rolls?
They are an enriched roll, meaning that they include butter and eggs. Regular rolls usually do not. Hawaiian rolls also include pineapple juice to give them that tasty, sweet, pineapple flavor.
Why is it called a Hawaiian roll?
Because they originated in Hawaii in the 1950’s. It is actually a twist on the Portuguese sweet bread, which also has a slight pineapple flavor even though pineapple isn’t listed on the ingredient list.
Ingredients
- Pineapple Juice – Canned or bottled will work the best.
- Milk
- Sugar
- Sourdough starter – Make sure it is nice and bubbly. Discard or immature starter will not work for this recipe.
- Butter – This needs to be softened so it can easily be incorporated. Butter that is too hard will just leave you with chunks.
- Vanilla extract – Store-bought or homemade.
- Egg
- Salt
- All-purpose flour – Nothing fancy here. Plain ol’ all-purpose flour will work. Fresh milled or store bought.
Egg wash
- Egg yolk
- Water
Tools you may need:
Measuring cups and spoons
9×13 baking dish
Bench scraper (optional but useful)
How To Make Sourdough Hawaiian Rolls
Add all of the ingredients (except the egg wash) to the stand mixer with a dough hook.
Knead until smooth and elastic, about 10-15 minutes.
Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a tight lid.
Allow to rise overnight. About 8-12 hours.
Divide dough into 18 even rolls and place in a greased 9×13 baking dish.
Cover with a towel and allow to rise until doubled. This rise will take about 1-3 hours depending on the temperature of your home.
Once the dough has doubled, create the egg wash and brush over the dough.
Bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 until the rolls are golden in color.
Cool.
Storage:
Store in an air-tight container. Use within 3-4 days for best results. Or freeze for up to 6 months.
Baker’s Schedule:
12 PM: Feed sourdough starter.
8 PM: Create dough and allow it to ferment overnight, covered.
8 AM the next day: Take dough and roll into 16 rolls. Place in a baking dish covered and allow to double in size.
10 AM: Bake and allow to cool before serving.
How To Use Sourdough Hawaiian Rolls:
- Ham and Swiss
- Pulled pork
- Mini hamburgers. Growing up my aunt made the best sliders with these rolls. She would brown ground beef with seasonings and onions. Slicing the rolls in half, she would add ground beef, top with pickles, and then replace the other half of the rolls and bake.
- Chicken parmesan sliders: Add cooked chicken and a little tomato sauce, top with parmesan and mozzarella cheese, then bake until gooey.
- Fried chicken sliders: Use my sourdough fried chicken recipe and create mini sandwiches.
- BLT
Find More Sourdough Roll Recipes:
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you gave it 5 stars! Thank you! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone.
Sourdough Hawaiian Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 cup pineapple juice
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup sugar
- ½ cup starter
- ¼ cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 5 cups all Purpose Flour
Egg wash
- 1 large egg yolk
- 2 tablespoons water
Instructions
- Add all of the ingredients (except the egg wash) to the stand mixer with a dough hook.
- Knead until smooth and elastic. About 10-15 minutes.
- Place dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a tight lid.
- Allow to rise overnight. About 8-12 hours.
- Divide dough into 18 even rolls and place in a greased 9×13 baking dish.
- Cover with a towel and allow to rise until doubled. About 1-3 hours depending on the temperature of your home.
- Once the dough has doubled, create the egg wash and brush over the dough.
- Bake for 20-25 minutes at 375 until the rolls are golden in color.
- Cool.
Notes
- Make sourdough Hawaiian bread: Usually, we make these into rolls, but you can also make this recipe into bread. Just make 6 larger dough balls and bake in a bread pan rather than in a 9×13. Bake for about 25 minutes.
- Make sure your sourdough starter is super active and bubbly for best results.
- If you find yourself with risen dough, but don’t have time to shape and rise again before baking you can stick it in the fridge until you have time. This slows down the fermentation process allowing you a little extra time before needing to make.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hi! Looking to double this recipe. I know it may be a silly question but do I just double the ingredients as listed? Serving a big group Saturday & would like to make these again!
Yep just double the ingredients as listed. It could be too much for your mixer to handle though, so you may want to consider doing two batches.
For those wondering about flour measurement: these baked up perfectly for me with 680g of King Arthur All-Purpose Flour. King Arthur’s conversion is 120g per cup, so I started with 625g in the bowl. When the dough was still too wet I added another 55g. It was still very sticky and lax but became more workable after the overnight rise. Hope this reassures some because the results are worth it!
Also to this point…Cooks Illustrated uses 140g per cup as their standard flour weight, so it makes sense that Lisa’s “5 cups” ended up weighing right around there!
Thank you for posting this. I haven’t baked my first batch but my dough was not workable at all with 5 (measured) cups. It was very wet and I had to scoop out into rolls. Not what I had expected. They are sitting to rise right now. I am sure they will still taste great (if the raw dough is any indication) but they’ll just be ugly rolls. 😂 The next batch I will try with weighing my ingredients.
You just have to keep kneading. It eventually comes together, but it takes a while for such a wet dough.
I used the measurement in your recipe as is. We do not have a dough mixer like yours but we have a Ninja dough maker. Came out as gooey dough even with the overnight rising. We’re baking it in a loaf pan now. Hopefully it is still good. We will try to add flour next time until we get a good form.
How did it turn out?
Thanks for this info; I like using weight because it is more accurate.
These rolls are absolutely delicious! They unfortunately don’t have a pineapple flavour that I was looking forward to, but they tasted amazing anyway.
To taste the pineapple juice, maybe reduce 1 cup down to a tbs of syrup and add 1 tbs less of sugar. Reducing the juice will give the bread more flavor.
Mine came out cakey but I did things differently. Sharing here in case it helps anyone…so don’t do what I did. I don’t have a mixer so I attempted to knead. But my dough was too sticky I may have added to much starter or juice. Also, I juiced leftover frozen pineapple so it was much thicker than store bought juice. The pineapple was also tart and not sweet. We are still eating it ha ha with some butter and honey. So note to self use store bought pineapple juice and make sure the dough is elastic-all of which Lisa says in the recipe.
I don’t have a stand mixer. How long to knead by hand. Will this recipe work kneading by hand?
These look so freakin good! I cant wait to try this recipe!
May I ask how you measure your flour? I spoon the flour into the measuring cup and my 1st batch was extremely dense. The flavor was there but they were anything but soft & fluffy.
Mine were extremely dense as well. My starter was super active & bubbly and I followed the recipe to a tee. Any ideas as to why?
Is it possible to use einkorn in this recipe?
Einkorn would definitely behave a lot differently. You would want to use less liquid and knead it way less.
How much less?
I can’t wait to try this recipe! I didn’t know that pineapple juice was baked into Hawaiian rolls!
Lisa,
Just checking…is that 2 teaspoons of salt?
Love your recipes,
Michelle
Yes, sorry! That is correct!
Hi. Should it be 1 teaspoon instead of 2 teaspoons of salt?