These garlic butter dinner rolls will have your neighbors knocking on your door! They are wonderful for hosting a dinner party or just a mid-day savory snack. You won’t believe how easy they are to make! Who doesn’t love a good bite of garlic + butter on bread?!

How to Start

If you’ve previously worked with a sourdough starter, this shouldn’t be too daunting. On the other hand, for those of you that only worked with instant yeast to make dinner rolls, think of this as ALMOST the same exact process – except, your leavening agent is a happier and healthier being that likes to take its time in the natural rising process. The extra steps will just be activating your starter the night before, and proofing the dough will take a tad bit longer. The natural tanginess and the large bubbles are worth the wait!

If you’ve never worked with sourdough, this is not to say you should not do this. It just takes a little more patience to understand the process of activating the starter, putting the dough together, and proofing it until the dough is ready to be baked!

What You Need

• Ingredients:
  • Sourdough starter
  • Bread flour (or AP flour)
  • Milk
  • Butter
  • Sugar
  • Salt
  • 1 egg (for the egg wash)
• Equipment:
  • Mixing bowl
  • Spatula
  • Kitchen Scale
  • 9″ x 13″ baking dish

How to Make It

Activating your Starter

Step 1: About 12 hours prior to mixing your dough together, you need to prepare the starter. In a clean jar, mix together 15g (1tbsp) of starter, 50g (1/3c + 1tbsp) bread flour, and 50g (3.5 tbsp) warm water. Mix together until it is a nice paste or a pancake batter consistency. Try your best to get the little clumps of flour – but it doesn’t need to be perfectly smooth.

Mixing the Dough

Measure out all your ingredients

Step 2: Warm up the milk in the microwave for about 20 seconds or until a lukewarm. Make sure the milk isn’t too hot or it can kill the yeast. You can also use the stove to warm up the milk. During the time, I also like to put my butter in the microwave for about 15-20 seconds so that it is softened but not completely melted.

Step 3: In a mixing bowl, mix together the starter, the milk, and the sugar. Let the starter dissolve with the milk.

Step 4: Add in the flour, butter, and salt. Mix with a spatula until it forms into a rough dough ball. Cover and let it rest for 30-45mins

Step 5: Do 3 series of stretches and folds in 30-45 minute increments. This is when the gluten starts to form and the dough begins to strengthen. After the last set of stretches and folds, cover and let it rest for 3-4 hours.

Step 6: Lightly dust the dough and flip over onto a flour surface. With your hands, lightly push and pull the dough ball until it is a smooth ball. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it rest for another 30 minutes.

Step 7: Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Each piece should weigh out to about 65g on a kitchen scale. Gently form the dough pieces into a smooth dough ball and line them up in your baking pan on parchment paper. You can do this by softly pulling and pinching the sides together. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it proof for about 3-4 hours or in the fridge overnight.

Step 8: Preheat the oven. Prepare the egg wash and brush on top of the proofed buns. Bake the rolls at 375F for 25-30 minutes. The top of the rolls should be light golden brown.

Making the Garlic Butter Sauce

Step 9: In a small pan on low heat, melt the butter onto the pan then add the minced garlic. Let the garlic slowly cook until fragrant. Be careful not to burn the garlic or else it will become hard and bitter.

Step 10: Add in the salt, garlic powder, and dried herbs. If you have fresh parsley, even better! Give it a slow mix then turn off the fire.

Step 11: After the dinner rolls are done baking, use a brush and lightly baste the top of the dinner rolls with the garlic butter mix.

Tip: There a lot of different ways people mix the dough. My biggest advice is to pre-measure your ingredients first, clean up your area, then begin mixing. I have seen myself and others measure as they go and it is a lot of chaotic when we are doing that. There is a lot of clutter and it distracts us from being focused from the center of the show.