Large, fluffy, and buttery, these sourdough sandwich rolls are the perfect way to serve up your favorite sandwiches. Start them the night before, and you will have delicious, homemade sourdough hoagie rolls the next day.
Meal planning is not one of my favorite things. If I’m very honest, I almost never do it. I buy almost the same things every week, keep our pantry stocked with the staples, and our freezer stays full of pastured meat.
One thing that does take a little planning – and which I’m happy to plan for – is sourdough. I pretty well need to plan ahead by a full day for lunch or dinner, so that I have the time I need to get the sourdough started.
Don’t let that chase you away, though. It’s easy planning, and even if you change your plans, your sourdough won’t go to waste – it’s far too delicious for that.
Most of the time, I’ll plan to make some type of sandwich, start the bread the night before, and then peek in the fridge to come up with a plan.
When I first made these sourdough sandwich rolls, we had some frozen ground beef. So I placed it in the fridge to thaw, and the next day, made some meatball subs.
I mixed the ground beef with breadcrumbs made from sourdough bread, then added fresh milk, eggs, parmesan cheese, and plenty of seasonings. I cooked the meatballs in a cast iron skillet, then added a little bit of pasta sauce to each sourdough sandwich roll.
Topping them with the meatballs and a thick slice of mozzarella, I then baked the meatball subs for a few minutes until the cheese was melty and soft.
They were absolutely delicious. If you were in a pinch for time, you could easily make this meal ahead of time and just assemble and bake a different day.
Double the meatballs and you’ll be able to pull off spaghetti and meatballs one day, then make sandwiches a day or two later.
Why you will love this recipe:
Super simple. The stand mixer does most of the work. No hand kneading involved. Just knead, ferment, knead again, and shape.
Healthy. Fermented grains are much healthier than unfermented grains. The natural yeasts help break down the phytic acid, producing a more nutritious grain with vitamins and minerals that are easier to absorb than unfermented grains.
Perfect sandwich bread. These rolls make the perfect medium for any sandwich. Layer on your favorite meats, cheeses, salads, spreads, or more, and this buttery soft roll will take any sandwich up a dozen notches.
Tips For Making Sourdough Sandwich Rolls
- If you are totally new to sourdough, make sure to check out how to make a sourdough starter here.
- You want to have a bubbly and active starter for this recipe. Make sure to feed your starter 4-12 hours before starting this recipe. You will know if your starter is ready to use if there are a lot of bubbles. Also, if you take a small spoonful of the starter and place it in a glass of water and it floats, then it’s ready.
- When fermenting dough overnight, make sure to cover the bowl with a tight cover like plastic wrap, beeswax wrap, or a bowl with a lid. If you cover your dough with just a towel and let it ferment for longer periods of time, you will often find yourself with a dry, hard skin that isn’t so pleasant.
- Spray the tops of them with water before baking and halfway during baking time. This make for a crispy outside and soft interior.
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Tools you may need:
Stand mixer with dough hook
Grain mill (optional, we just love our freshly milled grains)
Measuring cups and spoons
Parchment paper
Bench scraper (optional, but very helpful)
How To Make Sourdough Sandwich Rolls
The Day Before:
Feed sourdough starter 4-12 hours before starting your dough. It should be nice and bubbly before mixing the ingredients together.
When your starter is ready to use, it will be full of bubbles and at least double in size. You can also take a small spoonful of the starter and place it in a glass of water; if it floats, it is ready.
The Night Before:
In a stand mixer with a dough hook, add active sourdough starter, bread flour, water, butter, salt, and honey. Knead for 5-10 minutes, it should pull away from the sides of the bowl and be stretchy.
The dough should pass the ‘window pane’ test, which is when you take a small chunk of dough and, pinching and stretching it into something of a rectangle, you should be able to stretch it thin enough to see through it … like a window pane. If the dough breaks apart, it may need a little more kneading.
Place in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap, beeswax wrap, or a tight lid. You don’t want to cover breads with just a towel, because it can leave a hard, not-so-desirable skin on the dough.
Allow to ferment 8-12 hours at room temperature. You can place the in the fridge after the bulk ferment if you want to wait to bake the dough.
The Next Day
Divide into 6 equal parts and shape.
How to shape:
On a lightly floured surface, roll out each piece of dough into a rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick. Roll it up and pinch the ends closed.
Place the shaped rolls onto a parchment lined baking sheet (seam side down) and allow to double in size. Depending on the temperature of your house and how active your starter is, this can take 1-3 hours.
Once the rolls have risen, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
You can also slash with a razor (like I do in my sourdough bread recipes). Also optional.
Spray the tops of them with water before baking and halfway during baking time. This make for a crispy outside and soft interior.
Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool, and enjoy.
Quick Sourdough Sandwich Rolls:
In a stand mixer with a dough hook, combine all the ingredients.
Knead until the dough is stretchy and passes window pane test. This will take about 5-10 minutes at medium speed.
Divide, shape, and rise until doubled … about 1-3 hours.
Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes until they just start to turn golden brown.
Find More Delicious Sourdough Recipes:
- Einkorn Sourdough Bread
- Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Homemade Sourdough Bagels
- Sourdough Breakfast Strata
- Sourdough Coffee Cake
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you could come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone
Sourdough Sandwich Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 cup sourdough starter
- 3 cups bread flour, all purpose will also work
- 1 cup water
- 2 tablespoons honey
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
Instructions
- Feed sourdough starter 4-12 hours before starting your dough. It should be nice and bubbly before mixing the ingredients together.
- In a stand mixer with a dough hook, add active sourdough starter, bread flour, water, butter, salt, and honey. Knead for 5-10 minutes, until it pulls away from the sides of the bowl and is stretchy. It should also pass the ‘window pane’ test.
- Place in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap, beeswax wrap, or a tight lid. You don’t want to cover breads with just a towel, because it can leave a hard, not-so-desirable skin on the dough.
- Allow to ferment 8-12 hours at room temperature. You can place the in the fridge after the bulk ferment if you want to wait to bake the dough.
- Divide into 6 equal parts and shape.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll each piece of dough out into a rectangle, about 1/4 inch thick. Roll it up and pinch the ends closed.
- Place the shaped rolls onto a parchment lined baking sheet (seam side down) and allow to double in size. This can take 1-3 hours.
- Once it has risen, preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
- Slash the rolls with a razor if desired.
- Spray the tops of them with water before baking and halfway during baking time. This make for a crispy outside and soft interior.
- Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool, and enjoy.
Notes
- Find directions for a faster (not long-fermented version) in the post above.
- The sourdough starter used in this recipe should be active (very bubbly).
- Optional: To create a crispy crust, spray the tops of them with water before baking and halfway during baking time.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Hello, Lisa! Every time I make these, the dough is still sticking to the walls after kneading (stand mixer), and seems like it needs more flour. Do I just wait it out longer? Or will kneading it for too long prevent it from rising well? My starter was a bit thicker than what yours usually looks like in video, and I used BOBs organic APF…
Sometimes it can take longer to knead depending on the motor speed/strength of your mixer. Is it passing the window pane test?
I’m making this recipe for the first time and my dough was also super wet, I added a little more than 1/3 cup extra flour and that seemed to have brought me to the right texture. My starter must lean to the wetter side because I’ve found that I’ve had to do this for a lot of recipes and have gotten familiar with feeling the dough out. I’ve made the mistake of over kneading in the past and it ruins the proof. My rule of thumb is if it’s not pulling away in the max amount of time listed in a recipe for kneading, I add more flour a little at a time until it does, & also check the window-pain test. 🙂
Can you provide the link for not long fermented version? I can’t find it on your site.
I’m not sure what you are referring too. I have a discard sandwich bread which is much faster, but this is the start time for sourdough recipes.
This is from your notes after the recipes. We can’t find what you are referring to.
Notes
Find directions for a faster (not long-fermented version) in the post above.
It’s in the actual post. Allow to ferment 8-12 hours at room temperature. You can place the in the fridge after the bulk ferment if you want to wait to bake the dough.
I found it here! It’s just hidden within this recipe
Quick Sourdough Sandwich Rolls:
In a stand mixer with a dough hook, combine all the ingredients.
Knead until the dough is stretchy and passes window pane test. This will take about 5-10 minutes at medium speed.
Divide, shape, and rise until doubled … about 1-3 hours.
Bake at 375° for 15-20 minutes until they just start to turn golden brown.
I plan to put mine in the fridge after bulk ferment step…do I need to let it come to room temp before making the rolls for the 2nd rise? or just know it might take longer for the 2nd rise since it would be colder?
If you shaped them before and then placed them in the fridge for the second rise you could bake them right from the fridge. If you didn’t shape them, I would let it come to room temp, then shape and let it rise at room temp for the second rise. Hope that helps.
These are so good! Now one of my go to favorites! However; I do not own a stand mixer and find I need to knead the dough for at least 25 minutes by hand and it barely, but not truly, passes the window pane test. I believe this is why mine are always a little flat. Great flavor!
Talk about an arm workout! That could be why they are a little flat. Getting the dough to pass the windowpane test really makes them fluffy.
Second time making these sandwich rolls. Such a lovely recipe,thank you
I am also one of the many people confused about this recipe. I agree that I wish things were in grams, that makes it so much easier and less dishes. My dough also is very wet, I have added about 3/4 cup extra flour so far and I have been kneading for over 30 min and I am not sure it will ever reach the consistency to pass the window pane test. I may just call quits and let it ferment, stick it in the fridge after and hope I firms up!
I’m new to freshly milled flour.. is my soft white wheat fine to use in a recipe that calls for AP? Do I need to add anything?
You can swap it out, but keep in mind that the final product will likely be denser. As far as adding anything, you wouldn’t have to on this one, but for no knead recipes that call for AP, to make it fluffy, I recommend adding a bit of honey and oil like in my 100% whole wheat loaf. Hope that helps!
What a lovely recipe! Easy and explained with details! Rolls are amazing, this is how I remember them from bakeries in Poland when I was a kid!
So glad you enjoy the recipe! Have a great day!
Just made these, and they turned out beautifully. I did substitute buttermilk for the water.
So glad you enjoyed it!
I just finished making the dough. I converted everything to grams based on Lisa’s Baking Conversion Chart (https://www.farmhouseonboone.com/baking-conversion-chart)
I think this along with my addition of 1/3 cup (48 g) Spelt Flour helped the dough come together to the window pane stage in the stand mixer within 12 minutes. I’ll follow up with the final results later but so far so good! Excited for some delicious sourdough sandwich rolls!
Thanks for sharing!
The sandwich rolls were absolutely delicious! I shared 4 of them with my father-in-law and he was enamored with them. They received great reviews from my husband, too. I’m making another batch today and I think this will become a weekly recipe for us. Thank you for sharing it!
So glad you enjoyed it!