I’m so excited to share this recipe with you, because it’s a great way to get warm and fluffy dinner rolls on the table in 30 minutes. It’s a one-bowl recipe, which means less mess and easier clean-up.
For best results use an active, bubbly Amish Friendship Bread starter that’s been fed today (or yesterday). Frothy is always good for any traditional roll or bread baking recipes, when your starter is at its peak and can help with the heavy lifting of the recipe.
Note: If your rolls come out heavy or dense, this is usually due to a starter that’s not ready to be used, or the addition of too much flour. The dough will be sticky, but keep kneading and it will come together. Also, please remember that most sourdough bread recipes will never be as soft as breads that use only (and a lot of) commercial yeast. Sourdough breads are generally a little chewier and have a slight heft to them.
In the bowl of your stand mixer, you’ll combine warm water, olive oil, yeast and sugar. Let the mixture rest for about 10 minutes so the yeast has a chance to bloom. Prepare a 9″ x 13″ pan with a sheet of parchment paper.
Add starter, half of the flour, salt, and egg into bowl. Using a dough hook, begin mixing everything together, adding the remaining flour gradually. Knead until a soft dough ball forms and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl–it will be slightly stick to the touch.
Flour your hands. Divide dough into 12 pieces (I cheat and use kitchen scissors). Shape into 12 balls and place in prepared pan and cover loosely with a dish towel. I have a divided copper pan that I love to use. Let the dough rest for 10-15 minutes in a warm area of your kitchen. The additional of commercial yeast ensures a rise, but you might need to be patient if your kitchen is cool (or place in your oven with the pilot light on).
Preheat oven to 400° F. Bake for 10 minutes or until tops are golden brown. Remove from oven and brush the tops with butter.
I made these from Thanksgiving dinner, and the next day we had enough leftover for mini turkey sliders. They taste even better toasted!
They were delicious toasted, and still soft on the inside!
Amish Friendship Bread 30-Minute Dinner Rolls
Ingredients
- 1 cup warm water
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 cup Amish Friendship Bread Starter active and bubbly
- 1½ teaspoons salt
- 1 egg beaten
- 3¼ cups bread flour (all-purpose will also work), extra as needed
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine warm water, olive oil, yeast, and sugar.
- Let the mixture to rest for 10 minutes, or until yeast begins to bloom.
- Add Amish Friendship Bread starter, half of the flour, salt, and egg to yeast mixture. Using a dough hook attachment, mix on low speed.
- Add remaining flour gradually. Knead until dough becomes a smooth ball and the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Shape dough into 12 balls and place in a 9" x 13" pan lined with parchment. Balls should be evenly spaced but not quite touching.
- Cover loosely with a dishcloth or oiled plastic wrap. Allow dough to rest for 10-15 minutes in a warm, draft-free area.
- Preheat oven to 400° F (205 °C).
- Bake for 10 minutes until golden brown.
- Remove from oven. After 2-3 minutes, transfer rolls to a wire rack to cool. Brush the tops with butter.
- ENJOY!
Notes
- For best results, use starter that’s been recently fed (today or yesterday) and is frothy and bubbly.
- The addition of commercial yeast ensures a rise, but you may need to be patient if your kitchen is cool. You can also place in your oven with the pilot light on (remove before pre-heating).
>> Have you tried this? Share your best pic with us or leave a comment below and let us know how it worked for you!
I needed to add about -1/4 to 1/2 extra flour. Taste was so good like my mom use to make. Worth the work.
I had to add a lot more flour than 3 and a quarter cups to be able to roll into balls, and my starter was very active
I’ve made this quite a few times now and sometimes it works out great, but sometimes it just won’t hold shape no matter what. Rather than fight it I treat it as a batter bread if it won’t work for rolls. I just dump it in an oiled bread pan, cover it with oiled saranwrap and let it rise, then pop it in the oven. I like my bread well done so I usually just pop it in at 400 until it’s on the verge of being burnt, sometimes I cook it less for others. The buns are fantastic and the too runny batches It makes a really tasty loaf!
Didn’t work for me. Of course, stand mixers and I don’t get along with bread recipes. Too much flour results in too long a baking time with hard bottoms and white tops.
I may try this again, kneading by hand (as I usually do), but one fail is usually enough to look for something else. ☹️
These are absolutely fabulous! Made them 3 times now and every time we’ve burned our fingers to eat them because we can’t wait for them to cool off!
Can you freeze the dough in balls and use it three or four days later?
I made these for dinner last night and they turned out light, fluffy and delicious. This is the FIRST TIME my rolls were not dense and heavy! Although I have to say, I didn’t measure my flour, as I only added what I needed to make the dough come together and pull away from the sides of my bowl. I also did NOT use a mixer, as I don’t have one. 🙂 When making my dough balls, I encounterd a bit of sticky but a light flour was all it needed to roll it into round balls. Let these rise for about 15 mins and baked for 10 in my convection oven. Tops were well browned (at 370°) but dough was slightly gummy, so covered in foil and baked again for 10 min at 400°.
Thanks for a Great and fast Sourdough recipe!
I made rolls in my large muffin tin for the first time today. I used the rapid yeast 2 packages (2 14 tsp each). It took about 5 cups flour. I made 6 muffin rolls and a sm loaf in my loaf pan. I warmed my oven then turned it off for the dough to rise in the oven. It took about 20 minutes then I baked them for 12 minutes because of the larger size. They are awesome! Light and fluffy with a good taste to them. I took a picture but do not see where I can post picture.
I tried these today and it was a fail for me. It was my fault though because my starter was not very active. Used it just a few hours after feeding it and I think my yeast may have been a bit old I also had to add a lot of extra flour to get it anywhere near ready to roll in a ball. Took a long time to bake as well. I liked the taste ok (my family didn’t) but just too dense and stodgy. I can just hear Paul Hollywood saying “uunderbaked and uunderproved” LOL I will probably try again since so many others had good results.
Excellent rolls! I used my bread machine and put it on the quick dough setting. I had to add a half cup of flour because the dough was a bit too wet. After kneading, the cycle took the dough through one rise. When I removed the dough, it wasn’t very sticky and I was able to form the balls without any additional flour. The rolls took almost 20 minutes to bake. They’re not heavy and they have a wonderful yeasty flavor. As the yeast used up the sugar, they’re not sweet at all. Definitely making this recipe again!
When it says “ For best results, use starter that’s been recently fed (today or yesterday) and is frothy and bubbly.” does that mean if I have a starter going, I could just pull 1C out for buns on day 10? Or do I add the flour, sugar, milk that’s called for on day 10, then take a cup of that to make buns?
Thank you!
Hi Kaleigh-Anne! If you’re making a recipe like this, we’d recommend feeding your starter the day before, don’t separate it, then on the next day take out the cup to make the buns. In general, 8-12 hours after you feed your starter it is the most active in its cycle. Does that make sense?
I began to wonder if this was supposed to be a batter dough since it was almost “soupy” with the flour listed. I added barely enough more flour to get to a very sticky dough (almost 5 cups in total) and put them in my muffin tin. The texture seemed okay once I floured my hands. They raised nicely and even better in the oven. The tops did not brown at all so I left them an extra 5 minutes. Still pale as they went in. They rose enough to crack the tops away from the bottoms, so it was not the yeast. After 20 minutes I took them out, still not browned but definitely done on the tops and well browned on the bottoms. The rolls were unbelievably heavy and dense, almost doughy in the centres but more a biscuit texture on the outsides. They ended up being thrown out because even toasting couldn’t redeem them.
I know my oven temperature is right because I had just made another recipe for bread rolls the day before and have used the oven since.
I cannot imagine what could have gone wrong. A friend was here and was interested so we know the recipe was followed exactly. In almost 60 years of baking and using AFB starter since the 70s I am a very experienced baker so this recipe gets a very generous 2.
I made these as well same as you and had almost the same result. I’m an avid experienced cook and baker and these were not edible. I haven’t been successful making bread so I was excited about this but to no avail.
Chanda
Same experience here. I don’t do well with stand mixers though.
But my results were identical to yours. Too much flour required, and too long baking, with bad results. Fail.
It would be nice if everyone wouldn’t assume we are all people with fancy-scmancy stand mixers and dough hooks attachments. You might want to translate your directions into ones that the common person without either could use!
Hi Kathy! You can definitely make this recipe without a stand mixer. Here’s a great tutorial on how to knead by hand if you don’t have/don’t want to use a mixer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GbV0b4sqpw
Let us know if you have any other questions!
It would also be nice if commenters were nice. 🤗
Also what size is it? It looks smaller than a 9×13 pan
What brand is your copper pan you are using? It looks amazing
Hi Bonnie! This pan was bought on Amazon, but unfortunately, we haven’t seen it available since. I do sometimes see it in Walmart or Target, but you definitely have to keep your eyes peeled.
Another option on amazon is the 9X13 copper pan, with the brownie sized inserts: https://www.amazon.com/Brooklyn-Brownie-Nonstick-Ensures-Dishwasher/dp/B01MUGM60E?dchild=1&keywords=brownie+pan&qid=1618009003&sr=8-6&linkCode=ll1&tag=friendshipbread-20&linkId=ce5734c947860632a920187c77c4748d&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
This might be better for smaller rolls instead of sandwich slider sides.
These may work, as well: https://www.amazon.com/Chef-Made-12-Cavity-2-4-Brownie-Pan/dp/B077BZM6FZ?dchild=1&keywords=divided+baking+pan&qid=1618009209&sr=8-34&linkCode=ll1&tag=friendshipbread-20&linkId=881ffd330927a36c98e1a034756fa25b&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
Thank you so much!! You should buy them and sell them if you occasionally see them. ! I would buy them from you in a heart beat!!!
Hi Christine! I just sent you an email but leaving a note here, too. Our records show that the bundle has been downloaded multiple times so maybe you can’t find the downloads folder on your computer? There’s some information here (scroll to the bottom) that might help: https://www.friendshipbreadkitchen.com/faqs/#shop1.
I have a lot of one cup frozen starter in the freezer, would love to try these but if I pull one out and start the cycle, at which day do I use it, or do I do one feed and its good to go for this recipe next day? Thanks!
Hi Joan! I would recommend getting it through one or two feedings, at least, before you try making the dinner rolls. My one exception would be if it seems super active and is doubling in size when you feed it. You want to make sure it’s active enough to help with the leavening in this recipe. Good luck!
Is the 1 Tablespoon of yeast correct? and do you weigh your flour?
Hi Linda! Yes, the 1 tablespoon of yeast is correct. And we don’t weigh the flour for this recipe.
Hi Susanne! What stage was your starter in and was it bubbly/active when you used it? Any sourdough recipe using a starter for leavening needs to have been properly fed and really active, and the “loose” dough sounds like the starter wasn’t as active as it needed to be.
An active starter has lots of bubbles and carbon dioxide being released which is what helps the dough stay lighter and fluffy. So a quieter starter will just be another liquid ingredient rather than an activator for your recipe, and more flour will just make it heavier. Also, depending on where you live,e it may be too cold to bake bread well (without using additional commercial yeast) because most kitchens aren’t warm enough to keep a starter active and to help with rise time.
Another option is to use a full packet of commercial yeast to give the recipe a boost (2 1/4 t), or try the cloverleaf recipe and see if that works better for you?
Started in on this recipe before looking at the comments. I would agree, this dough was very sticky. I ended up with ~5 cups of flour to make it workable. Warmed up my oven to 125 (then turned off) and let these rest in my oven for about an hour, until about doubled. Baked for 10 mins, brushed with butter and gave it another 3 mins. They are huge and soft when I touch them. Verdict on taste after dinner 🙂
Was the dough still sticking to your hands even though you added additional flour? I too used 5 cups of flour but the result was not pretty, smooth, round dough balls.
Yes it was sticky to my hands but I kept putting flour on my hands to roll them into balls. Everyone loved the rolls! Will make again!
We’re so glad you enjoyed the recipe, Azure! Those sound delicious!
These turned out great. I had to let them rest for about 40 min but it is winter here. I only used 2 tblsp sugar in the yeast bloom. As some others mentioned they are a bit sweet. My husband and I loved them making more on Thanksgiving. They are really easy
Thanks for sharing, Cindy! We’re so glad you and your husband enjoyed them!
Second time round success! Decided to leave the starter with yeast longer than 10 mins, more like 20 mins. Reduced the sugar by a third as the first batch were strangely sweet. Did it all by hand so that I got a feel for the dough….. much easier to control and didn’t add extra flour to the mix, but used probably half a cup whist kneading slightly. It is better to have a loose soft dough isn’t it?!Also baked in a brownie tin and double the time to 20 mins. At 10 mins they weren’t cooked, checked at 15 and then left until 20mins. DELICIOUS!!!
Hi Mary Rose! So glad the rolls turned out for you! Those are some great tips, too. Thanks for sharing!
Exactly as pictured!! So excited as this is the first recipe I’ve made with my AFB starter. Will make these again. Cannot wait to try the other recipes.
Hi Kelli! We’re so glad they turned out for you! If you snapped any pictures, we’d love to see them, too! You can post them on our group Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/groups/amishfriendshipbread
Can I use a muffin tin if I don’t have a pan like you used?
Hi Tasha! We haven’t tried a muffin tin before, but it should work! You may have to experiment with baking times and keep an eye on them. Let us know how it goes!
I would like to try these today, wonder if I coild.makenit in my bread maker? Has anyone tried doing all the mixing and rising in a bread maker first then making the rolls?
Hi Barb! We haven’t tried this particular recipe in the bread maker, but we would imagine that if you are doing the mixing and rising in the bread maker and baking in the oven, it shouldn’t be a problem. Let us know how it goes!
I ended up adding 2 cups additional flour (to be fair, my starter may have been a little over a cup). Mine increased in size slightly during the 10 min rest. I also had to bake for 20 minutes.
So, I’ve been making lots of these dinner rolls over the last couple of months. Even though I have had to add a lot of extra flour and they are really dense, they taste really good. I just wanted say that they DO freeze really well. After rolling into balls and placing on parchment paper, I put the pan into the freezer. After they freeze, I just get them back out and peel them right off and place into a gallon size freezer bag. With extra time on my hands it’s been a really good way to use up the extra starter I have! I am considering the post that said to treat them as drop biscuits.. anyone tried that?
I’m curious about freezing the dough. Do you just thaw and bake? Or do they need to rest or rise again? I’m making these for the first time today but am thinking ahead for the holidays. Thanks for your help!
I am eager to try these, but yeast is impossible to find right now. Can instant dry yeast be used in place of active dry yeast? Please help!!
Yes! You can actually add it right into the dough but to keep it simple, just follow the directions (the instant yeast may not bloom but will be fine).
I had the same issues. I ended up adding another cup of flour, they didn’t rise at all and baked for close to 20 minutes to get a slight browning. They are dense but very tasty! I used a infused olive oil in the recipe.
I had the same issues. I ended up adding another cup of flour, they didn’t rise at all and baked for close to 20 minutes to get a slight browning. They are dense but very tasty! I used a infused olive oil in the recipe.
I love the idea of an infused olive oil! I have some leftover oil from a jar of sweet peppers and artichokes that I was thinking of using next time! An extra cup of flour is a lot to add and pretty much ensures a heavier, drier bread. See my kitchen notes above in the post which addresses some of these comments. I hope you’ll try it again, Lori!
I also used a little of the dough to make cinnamon rolls. If the dough had risen it would have the perfect taste.
I noticed that you are using stainless steel in the pictures. I thought you didn’t use metal with AFB starter. Is that just for the developing of the starter, but during mixing to bake it’s ok? Going to try this next time I’m ready to bake. Thank you.
As long as the metal is coated (and not like your grandmother’s old aluminum tins), it’s fine to use with your starter. Exposed or raw metal interacts with the starter, but most modern appliances and utensils are safe to use with your starter!
My friend was tired of having her starter so she gave me her starter today and said it was day 10 and I would need to feed it, divide it, and use one portion and do what I want with the rest. (Unless I misunderstood her). So I fed it, put some in baggies and froze them and saved one to start as DAY 1 and used one portion to make the dinner rolls because I liked that they were supposed to be fast since it was already 4:30 PM and I wanted them in time for dinner by 5:30.
First things first. I only have rapid rise bread machine yeast. On the package it says to mix it with the dry ingredients so I skipped the “Blooming the yeast” part and went right into mixing the dry and wet ingredients together.
It was really sticky and gooey and I ended up using an extra cup of flour when all was said and done. The dough felt heavy so I had a feeling it would be dense.
I set them next to the stove since the oven was already on. I thought the heat would help them rise. I left them for 30 minutes and they never really rose. It was getting close to dinner time so I popped them in the oven, and they did finally rise a little tiny bit in there but I baked them about 35 minutes on 400 degrees F and they never really browned good but they started to crack so I pulled them out.
They taste good. Slightly sweet. BUT they are more like a breakfast biscuit. Not light or fluffy like a dinner roll. My husband enjoyed them and had two with his dinner. He called them biscuits.
I’ll warm the rest up in the toaster oven and put butter and jam at breakfast time for the rest of the week. Or make a biscuit, egg, cheese, and bacon sandwich with it.
Hi Caitlin — Some of the recipes on the site that require a high rise use yeast in addition to the starter, which isn’t uncommon for some sourdough sites, including King Arthur Flour (this is a great recipe, if you haven’t tried it yet: https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/buttery-sourdough-buns-recipe). The No Knead sourdough bread and Irish soda bread are two that don’t use additional yeast, and most of the cakes, cookies, brownies, and other recipes use just the starter. Here’s a great discussion on why/why not to use additional yeast to recipes that also call for a starter: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/6543/why-yeast-added-when-making-sourdough-recipe. 🙂 Hope this helps!
Yeast is almost impossible to find right now. If I let these rise longer can I omit the yeast
Hi MInda — yes, if your starter has been recently fed and is bubbly and frothy, you can definitely use it to help your rolls rise. You will just need to be patient and make sure your dough is rising in a warm, draft-free area of your kitchen.
I made these for Easter and they turned out flavorful, but incredibly dense. The dough was terribly sticky, and I had to add extra flour to get the dough firm enough to shape into a ball (it resembled thick batter and would not hold a shape). Not wanting to leave an unfavorable review after one attempt, I made the rolls again tonight. My starter was fed and very active, I weighed my flour to be sure I was getting as close to the recipe as possible. I had similar results: I had to add over a cup of flour to get dough firm enough to loosely shape into rolls. The rolls took 25 minutes to bake at 400, and they were incredibly dense and heavy. The two stars are simply because the rolls did have a pleasant taste, but I will not be making this recipe again.
Hi Lisa! I’m sorry to hear this didn’t work out for you. Did you use a regular sourdough or an Amish Friendship Bread starter? Did they rolls rise at all in the 10-15 minutes they were resting? Did you use the additional yeast? If you have any pictures, please feel free to share them here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/amishfriendshipbread/ and I’m happy to help troubleshoot.
Treat them like “drop biscuits” and do NOT add extra flour. That might be why so many cooks are saying they are too dense!
Hi Bonnie! I’m sorry to hear that! Did you use both an active (bubbly) starter and the yeast? Did you get a rise?
Mine did the same as Bonnies and also didn’t rise at all during rest time. Taste good. Had to cook them much longer. Ended up using for small tomato sandwich. Tasty though. I will try again. Can this be frozen and if so at what point do I freeze the balls? Before or after rest/rise?
I also used a little of the dough to make cinnamon rolls. If the dough had risen it would have the perfect taste.
I made these today. They are amazing and so flavorful. Plus, they are super quick. Mine turned out super dense. They are actually heavy feeling when you pick them up but they still taste mighty fine. My hubby said, “Those little bricks are tasty!” They are very soft, just heavy and dense. Did anyone else have theirs turn out heavy and extra dense? This recipe is a keeper!
I just made them for dinner to go with my hubbys steak and they are like biscuits and not rolls. My husband said oh these are tasty biscuits. Very heavy and dense with a touch of sweetness. I guess I’ll use the rest for breakfast with butter and jam.
Does this call for 1 egg?? It’s mentioned in the directions but not in the recipe.
Yes, 1 beaten egg! Thanks and added it to ingredient list! 🙂
Thanks so much!
the egg was missing from the recipe. and where did you get the pan
Added the 1 beaten egg back in — thanks for catching that! Here’s a link to the pan (it’s actually a brownie pan but I use it all the time for my rolls)