Extra-Fluffy Sourdough Dinner Rolls

The texture and flavor of these dinners rolls are everything I look for in the archetypical buttery roll. Using sourdough and added fermentation time, the rolls also exhibit very gentle sour notes reminiscent of mild buttermilk, which helps elevate the simple roll to something much more gratifying. To make these soft, fluffy rolls, I opt for using a technique called tangzhong, which is the act of precooking some of the flour in the recipe with a liquid, typically milk, until the mixture turns into a thick paste. Adding this paste to the dough brings extreme tenderness and a little extra sweetness making for extraordinarily tender and squishy rolls. These rolls make an exceptional addition to a Thanksgiving bread basket, but one of my favorite uses for these rolls is as mini French toast slices. Slice the rolls in half vertically, let them sit out uncovered overnight to firm, then proceed with soaking them in your favorite French toast custard before cooking them on a griddle.

This recipe was excerpted from ‘The Perfect Loaf’ by Maurizio Leo. Buy the full book on Amazon.