Sourdough Rye Rolls Recipe | The Perfect Rye Slider Buns

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Prep:
45 minutes
Ferment:
6 hours
Cook:
30 minutes

This sourdough rye rolls recipe makes perfect fresh rye bread rolls. You can use them as rye slider buns or as rye dinner rolls.

Sourdough Rye Rolls

Making sourdough rye rolls starts with quality rye flour and a healthy sourdough starter. My biggest tip before you get started is to start the dough by 9 am if you want the rolls done in time for dinner.

a pan of golden brown dinner rolls made using the rye rolls recipe in this blog.

Rye Slider Buns

If you want to use these rolls to make some Reuben sliders, I suggest adding some caraway seeds into the dough.

Caraway gives the rolls a classic rye bread flavor. I love adding caraway seeds because the bread develops spicy and sweet undertones. You can leave them out, though; it’s optional.

If you incorporate the caraway seeds, I suggest lightly crushing them or pulsing them once or twice in a spice grinder. I have a marble mortar and pestle that works perfectly for lightly crushing whole spices. When you crush the seeds, the flavor in the dough develops better.

rye dinner rolls in a pan. Two rows of rolls are being pulled apart.

Rye Dinner Rolls

These rolls are perfect for dinner. I love making these to pair with roasted chicken or to serve on the side of sauerkraut soup.

For these rolls, you need bread flour and rye flour. I do not recommend using 100% rye flour because that will make the rolls too dense.

Rye flour also has a lower gluten content, so rolls made with only rye flour can be hard to shape. Mixing in bread flour and cooked potato helps keep the texture just right.

Rye Rolls Recipe Ingredients

Here are all the ingredients you need to make these delicious rye bread rolls:

  • gold potatoes
  • butter
  • 3 eggs
  • raw honey
  • milk
  • sourdough starter, active bubbly
  • sea salt
  • caraway seeds, lightly crushed (crush with a mortar and pestle or pulse lightly in a spice grinder)
  • bread flour
  • rye flour
rye slider buns in a pan, baked golden brown. One rye roll in the center is torn in half and propped on its side to see the inner bread texture.

More Sourdough recipes to try

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Sourdough Rye Rolls Recipe | The Perfect Rye Slider Buns

This sourdough rye rolls recipe makes perfect fresh rye bread rolls. You can use them as rye slider buns or as rye dinner rolls.

  • Prep: 45 minutes
  • Ferment: 6 hours
  • Cook: 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 350 grams gold potatoes, peeled and cubed
  • 4 tablespoons butter, room temp
  • 2 egg, room temp
  • 20 grams raw honey
  • 250 grams warm milk
  • 100 grams sourdough starter, active bubbly
  • 12 grams sea salt
  • 300 grams bread flour
  • 300 grams rye flour
  • 1 egg, for the egg wash
  • 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

Instructions

  1. Boil the potatoes until completely soft and easily mashed with a fork. Drain and allow to cool to room temperature.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter, potato, and honey. Then add in the eggs milk and sourdough starter and whisk until combined
  3. In a separate bowl sift together the rye flour, bread flour, and salt.
  4. Slowly fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and knead until a smooth dough ball forms. The dough will be very sticky.
  5. Cover the bowl with a plate or reusable beeswax wrap and rest the dough for 30  minutes.
  6. Wet your hands and stretch and fold the dough in the bowl. Stretch the top of the dough over the bottom, side over side, and bottom over the top. The dough should still be quite sticky, but it should smooth out a little. Place the dough back in the bowl with the seam side down, cover, and let the dough rise for 2 hours.
  7. Next, generously sprinkle some flour on the surface of your counter and over the dough. Remove the dough from the bowl and place it on the floured surface.
  8. Stretch the dough into a rectangle that’s a little bigger than a sheet of paper. Sprinkle some more flour if needed and be gentle with the dough!! You don’t want to flatten it. Just lightly pull the sides until it’s a rectangle about the size of a sheet of paper.
  9. Using a knife or a pizza cutter, cut the dough into even squares. The pieces should weigh about 98 grams each.
  10. Line a 9×11 baking pan with parchment paper and sprinkle flour on top of the parchment paper.
  11. Grab a single square, and using your hands fold in the corners and shape it into a ball. Place it on the parchment paper. You should be able to evenly space 3 balls across and 5 down for 15 rolls total.
  12. Cover the pan with a cookie sheet or cutting board so the dough doesn’t dry out and let them rise for about 3 hours at room temperature until they double in size.
  13. Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.
  14. Brush the tops of the rolls with egg wash.
  15. Bake for 15 minutes. Rotate the pan and bake for another 15 minutes until they are golden brown.
  16. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before pulling them apart.

Notes

Caraway seeds are optional. You can add 5 to 10 grams of crushed caraway seeds in step 3, depending on your taste.

Did you make this recipe?

Please leave a 5-star review below if you loved it! Tag @cultured.guru on Instagram

 

Nutrition information is auto-calculated and estimated as close as possible. We are not responsible for any errors. We have tested the recipe for accuracy, but your results may vary.

author avatar
Kaitlynn Fenley Food Microbiologist and Fermentation Specialist
Kaitlynn is a Food Microbiologist and FSPCA-certified fermentation specialist. An alumna of the LSU College of Science, she combines her academic background in microbiology with her Cajun heritage to create safe and delicious recipes.

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  1. ShelLee

    Hello! I’m making these for Rueben sandwiches and I want to add carraway seeds, but never noticed an amount listed. How much would you recommend adding?

    1. Kaitlynn Fenley

      The caraway seeds are optional. You can add 5 to 10 grams depending on your taste. Add the seeds in step 3 or knead them into the dough! 🙂

  2. Can you mix this in a kitchenaid? If so, how long to knead, if not, how long do I knead it after mixing wet and dry ingredients? Thank you so much, this recipe looks delicious

    1. Kaitlynn Fenley

      I’m sure a kitchen aid will work, but I do not have one, so I don’t know for sure. Just follow the recipe as closely as possible while using your mixer.

  3. 3 days from Thanksgiving & I nearly bought ready baked rolls for our celebration. Then I remembered the Rye Flour I should use up…. Stumbled on this wonderful recipe with such detailed instructions. The rolls are cooling on counter as I write….. I was thrilled with puffiness without a long ferment or tons of folding 😉. I’ve never added cooked potatoes in a bread recipe but it smells and tastes amazing!

    1. Kaitlynn Fenley

      I’m so happy that you love the rolls! Thank you for leaving a review!

  4. I’m
    Wanting to make these for Christmas dinner. Can I use white whole wheat flour in place of the bread flour?

    1. Kaitlynn Fenley

      Whole wheat flour might work, but I’m not sure because I haven’t tested it. Whole wheat absorbs more water, so it may make them more dense.

  5. aaron fisher

    HI,

    I don’t have sourdough starter, can I make this with yeast? How much should i use?

    thanks

    1. Kaitlynn Fenley

      I have not tested this recipe with instant yeast, so I don’t know for sure. 7 grams maybe…

  6. Melanie

    I am planning to make these tomorrow night, I have a couple questions. Do you think I could put the dough in the fridge overnight at step 5? If I do, do you think it will give me more of a fermented sourdough flavor? Also, I would love this to be a dinner roll that I could freeze, do you know if I could freeze the dough, or the baked rolls for future meals? Thanks for posting this lovely recipe with clear and easy instructions!

    1. Kaitlynn Fenley

      refrigerating overnight at step 5 should work. I haven’t tested it myself though! If you want to freeze the rolls, you should freeze them after they are shaped and risen. Then you can defrost at room temp before baking.