Sourdough Italian Rolls

Every time I look for a new recipe I first have a look at WildYeast. This time I found Italian rolls with meatballs. I had no idea but I had to make them too. We had some bacon in the fridge and some tomato and salad; I made a sauce with mayonnaise and garlic. And for the other roll I mixed the slow roasted tomatoes with garlic in oil and this made a great sauce with the meatball. Girlichef has the best recipe for these delicious smelling and tasting tomatoes.

It takes practice to make nice looking baguettes and rolls. My technique is improving. These rolls look more like rolls and less like sausages. And, they tasted great.


Yield: 1050 g (I made 8 rolls of 130 g each)

This is what I used:

Biga Naturale Ingredients:
64 g mature 100%-hydration sourdough starter
256 g flour
192 g water

Final Dough Ingredients:
320 g flour
170 g water
3.1 g instant yeast
11.7 g salt
14 g sugar
4.8 g roasted malt powder
14 g olive oil
All of the biga naturale

This is what I did:
In a bowl, combine the biga naturale ingredients. Cover and ferment overnight (about 8 hours) at room temperature. I let it ferment for more than 12 hours, because it was time to go to bed.

Mix with dough hook, combine all of the final dough ingredients. Mix in low speed until combined. Adjust the water as needed to achieve a soft dough consistency. My dough was sticky and I didn’t use all the water. But with the folding the dough came together beautiful.

Continue mixing in medium speed to a low-medium level of gluten development.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled container. Cover and ferment for 1.5 hours, with folds after 5, 20 and 40 minutes. During the first two folds I needed a little bit of flour, because it was too sticky. After two folds the dough came soft and smooth.

Turn the dough into a lightly floured counter. Divide into 130-gram pieces for rolls. Pre shape the dough pieces into balls and let rest, covered, for 10 minutes.
Shape the dough into batards. Place the rolls, seam-side-down, in a lightly-floured couche. I made one with flour dusted parchment.

Proof, covered, for 40 minutes at room temperature, or until they have increased in bulk by 50%.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven, with baking stone, to 260 C. You will also need steam during the initial phase of baking, so prepare for this now.
Just before baking, slash each roll or loaf with a single cut down its long axis.

Once the loaves are in the oven, reduce the temperature to 230 C. Bake for 8 minutes with steam, and another 10 – 20 minutes or so without steam, until the crust is golden brown.

Cool on a wire rack.

I found this on WildYeast

I will send this to Yeastspotting

And to Zorra
And to Versatilekitchen, the host of this Bread Bake Day # 37 I already send a sweet bread to BBD for this month, baking with a starter. But these Italian rolls with a biga are so beautiful and delicious I want to show them.

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