These Sourdough Brioche Rolls are as light and fluffy as any that are made with instant yeast and the long ferment allows for better digestion and nutrition.
Whenever I substitute milk and eggs for the water in sourdough and add butter, I get richer, softer buns with a more tender crumb. But I didn’t realize until recently that bakers had given bread with these additional ingredients a name: brioche, which is considered French in origin.
Chef Joël Robuchon in Le Grand Larousse Gastronomique explains that brioche is “light and slightly puffy, more or less fine, according to the proportion of butter and eggs.” It is the real butter and egg content that makes this recipe is similar to other highly enriched pastries.
Sourdough Brioche Rolls
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup active starter (if needed buy Dehydrated Abigail’s Oven Sourdough Start )
- 3 cups of Abigail’s Oven Whole Grain Flour
- 4 eggs
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 1 cup butter
- 1 rounded Tbl sugar
- 1 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 egg for brushing
Directions
- Activate your starter at least four hours before needed.
- Mix everything except for the butter together.
- Set this mixture aside for 30 minutes, then stretch and fold the dough with wet hands by digging into one side and pulling it over itself in a fold. Turn the bowl and repeat it three times. Then repeat this every 30 minutes for a total of three more sets.
- Set the dough aside, covered, for an 8–12 hour long ferment until doubled in bulk (overnight is great)
- After the long ferment, using cold butter, slice off butter curls with a cheese slicer or potato peeler. Add these to the dough a curl at a time until well combined in your stand mixer; (otherwise, flatten the dough and cover with butter. Then knead and work it into the dough. When you don’t see or feel lumps, add more butter repeating the process until all the butter has been well incorporated into the dough).
- At room temperature, let the dough rise until nearly doubled, then place it in the refrigerator for two more hours.
- After it is chilled through, dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into twelve equal-sized pieces
- Form the dough pieces into rounds by firmly pressing it into your working surface as you hold your hand in a claw-like move forming a big circle to a smaller one until your hand closes around the ball. (For visual instruction play this video at 6:20)
- Butter a sheet of parchment and place it on a cookie sheet, then place the rolls on the cookie sheet
- Cover and leave in a warm location until rolls double in size.
- Preheat the oven to 425° (215ºC).
- Brush each roll with beaten egg and a pinch of salt. Make sure that no egg mixture flows onto the parchment.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until inner temperature reaches 200ºF/95ºC.
- To keep the rolls from browning too much, you may have to cover them with aluminum foil or lower the heat.
- Serve the rolls hot from the oven.
See Part 1 here: Hard Sourdough Rolls
Along with these dinner rolls, my brother has asked for a Country Loaf. I guess he wants to make turkey sandwiches with leftovers later in the evening. Won’t he be surprised when I show up with a variety of rolls that can take a pile of leftovers and hold up under the load?
In the comment section below, let us know what breads you plan to bake for Thanksgiving this year.
Baking these yesterday, I learned three things. 1) I should have used my 9×13 pan, I used a cookie sheet which left them a bit flatter, later hamburger buns than dinner rolls; I should have used buttered parchment, I used a silicone sheet and the rolls stuck to the sides a bit; and 3) I used half the butter and half the eggs, (I did not want is too rich), this meant the baked less puffy than I wanted. LESSON: follow this recipe! stop experimenting with a good thing