Homemade buttery sourdough buns are a perfect side dish. This easy recipe is made with starter from King Arthur Flour.
I’ve had a sourdough starter in my refrigerator for months now, leftover from a bread-baking workshop I assisted in the fall. Every week on Friday I feed it flour and water and then put it away. It’s a habit. Sometimes habits create blind spots and make us forget about doing obvious things, such as actually making some sourdough bread. On Friday I was going through the motions, feeding my starter when I swear the thing looked at me and said “Are you ever going to bake me?!” Oh… right.
My starter came from King Arthur Flour, so I decided to see what new and unusual sourdough recipes they had so I could try something new. I came upon a recipe for buttery sourdough buns, which were clearly the right answer. I made them on Friday but found them to be slightly dry and lacking in salt. I made them again last night with a few tweaks and they were perfection. They’re soft but the swirl layers add a touch of crunch. The dough has just the right amount of sour (disclaimer: I like my sourdough to be noticeably sour. If that’s not your thing cut the quantity of starter down to 1/2 cup). There’s a touch of cocoa powder in the swirls, but it’s just for color. You could swap this out with paprika, which is how the recipe is originally written. I appreciate that these buns contain standard yeast in addition to the starter. Often times sourdough bread can be a multi-day process since the natural yeasts take longer to rise. It’s a time commitment which is why I probably don’t make sourdough regularly. But this recipe provides all of the rewards without the long wait.
Buttery Sourdough Buns
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup sourdough starter, fed or unfed (I used unfed)
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 large egg, room temperature
- 5 tablespoons butter, room temperature
- 2/3 cup lukewarm water
Topping:
- 5 tablespoons melted butter, divided
- 1/2 teaspoon cocoa powder, for color
Instructions
- Place the sourdough starter in the bowl of a stand mixer fixed with the dough hook attachment.
- In a small bowl, whisk the dry ingredients together.
- Add the dry ingredients, egg, butter and lukewarm water to the stand mixer and turn it on low speed. After a minute or two increase the speed to medium.
- Allow the mixture to kneed for several minutes until a smooth dough has formed.
- Place the dough in a lightly greased container and cover it with a towel or plastic wrap. Allow it to rise for 1 1/2 - 2 hours, preferably in a warm, dark place (I use the attic or the laundry room on top of the dryer).
- Once the dough has roughly doubled in size, turn it out onto a clean, lightly greased work area. Gently punch down the dough and then roll it into a large rectangle.
- Combine the cocoa powder with 3 tablespoons of melted butter and brush it evenly onto the dough.
- Roll the long side of the rectangle evenly and tightly until you have one log. Using a bench scraper or knife, divide the log in half. Continue dividing evenly until there are 16 pieces.
- Place the buns swirl-side up into two greased cake pans, 8 buns per pan.
- Cover and allow to rise for an additional 60 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
- Brush the buns with most of the remaining butter and allow them to bake for 22-25 minutes.
- Brush with the remaining butter and carefully turn out onto a cooling rack. Serve hot or warm.
Notes
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I can imagine these are just delicious. The hint of cocoa powder and the sourness of the buttery bread seem like a very attractive and intriguing flavor combination that I must try!
These do look good, i have only just started to add yeast to the sourdough or rater add sourdough to my yeast bread and it has elevated our loaves amazingly, Plus like you say, i can make them in a day as opposed to two! and we only eat home baked bread .. lovely recipe!! c
Great shapes and they look brilliant when baked (I looked at King Arthur)!
I would like 800 of these, hot and smothered in butter please!! Man, my mouth is watering. California girls love our sourdough bread! :)
These sound delicious! I will have to try the recipe (probably this Fall). Thanks for sharing!
These buns look so delicious! I have yet to bake with a starter, but now I’m inspired!
Seriously inspired and hungry!!
I’m soooo bummed that I don’t have one of those right now! They look a-ma-zing!
Haha — this reminds me of school, where we’d make our own GIANT BUCKET of starter and give it a name (my class called ours “Herbert”)! Using a real starter really does give bread a beautiful, complex flavour — these buns are making my mouth water! :D
Looks really good thank you for sharing :)
I totally need to get my self a starter… I’d love to do some sourdough baking. These look absolutely wonderful :)
When I first saw the photo, I thought, meh, cinnamon rolls. This looks SO much better.
I briefly thought about turning them into cinnamon rolls. But yes, what you said!
I love that these are made from sourdough. They look absolutely delicious.
These buns look absolutely delish! I would love some for brekky tomorrow.
I love to bake and I bake a lot but I’ve never used a starter. These buns look great and will have to try them. Thanks.
Those look amazing! I was thinking they were the start of cinnamon rolls too, but then was pleasantly surprised to read about the sourdough starter! Yummy :-)
Shhh… don’t let the word out. I told my husband that we don’t have the proper supplies to make the starter here in HK. I will just order some from you instead. These look fantastic.
I just bought a loaf of sourdough but I’ll have to try homemade soon. Great post!
The only thing better than regular buns has to be buns laced with sourdough. MAJOR yum!
You had me at buttery! I love that these are sourdough,I was only thinking about making my own starter just yesterday!
These look amazing! I had a sour dough Herman cake (German friendship cake) for a while and looking after him was great fun…almost as much fun as eating him. Didn’t think I’d be experimenting with sour dough again but these look so good I’m tempted!!
I’ve never thought of making a snail-style sourdough roll. These look great. And the starter must be used. I often alternate between pizza one week and waffles the next.
These look truly amazing. I need to check sourdough off of my “list”!
Oh yum! Interesting take on sweet buns! =)
These look so delicious!!
great recipe have a good weekend
Totally expected them to be sweet. Nice surprise. These are the epitome of your blog name, savory and simple.
These look absolutely amazing!
It’s such a mindfreak – you see snails (which I associate with sweet) but you’d taste savoury – in the form of sourdough as well – that would be amazing!
Oh my gosh, those look fantastic!! If you are looking for new and fun ways to use your starter, check out http://sourdoughsurprises.blogspot.com/
We are a totally no-pressure group who enjoys exploring the delicious possibilites of sourdough.
That being said, my very loved starter seems to have died this week, so I am trying to revive it… :( But when I do, I am making these rolls!!
Love this post and all the detailed info about what you did, didn’t do, and how you ended up making changes til you were happy, salt, yeast + sourdough, etc. GREAT looking rolls, Jen. Pinned!
I will be trying recipe soon. I am all about exploring sourdough and this sounds yummy.
wow i am hoing to try this recipe sounds yummy
Love these buns! I made them into cheese buns by spreading butter and then cheese before rolling them up and pizza buns by spreading pizza sauce, bacon, ham, and cheese before rolling them. In both cases I added extra cheese on top before baking. I even made them with vegan butter to turn them into milk free pizza buns (without cheese of course ) Thanks for this great recipe!