This recipe features a soft, flavorful sourdough, that works up quickly and bakes into a delightful pillow. These Sub Rolls are easily topped with your favorite toppings, like sesame seeds, everything seasoning or poppy seeds.

I do want to note, this is not a traditional sourdough recipe, as there is the addition of leavening agents.

To make these rolls pillowy and soft, there is a need to add fats, like vegan butter and oat milk. To create a rich and flavorful crumb, we add sugar and flax egg. Further, we add yeast to make this recipe work up quickly, and it adds that classic bread flavor. To bind our topping to the tops of the rolls, we will use more oat milk, which will help to add color to the rolls, too.

You are going to use a few bowls for this bread, so just be prepared to wash a few extra.

Sourdough Sub Rolls (Makes 4 Sub Rolls)

• 2 Tbsp Flaxseed Meal, or ground Flaxseed and Chia Seed Mix
• 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp Water
• 250 g Unsweetened, Plain Non-Dairy Milk, warmed; I prefer to use Oat Milk in breads, cakes and most baking applications
• 50 g Turbinado Cane Sugar, or other vegan sweetener; Ideally, the sweetener you use has no or a very light flavor
• 6 g Instant Dry Yeast or Active Dry Yeast
• 100 g Sourdough Starter
• 100 g Vegan Butter, at room temperature
  • or 75 g Olive Oil
• 565 g Bread Flour
• 2 Tbsp Non-Dairy Milk, for brushing on dough before baking
• 30 g Sesame Seeds, Everything Seasoning, Za’atar, or other Sub Roll Topping of Choice (optional)

Let’s get these rolling.

1. Begin by making your flax eggs. In a small bowl, take 2 Tbsp Flaxseed Meal, 1/4 cup water and 2 Tbsp water, mix to combine. Let this mixture sit for 5 minutes or longer. I am making 2 flax eggs at the same time, as this is what works for this recipe. To make 1 flax egg you will need: 1 Tbsp Flax Meal and 3 Tbsp Water, otherwise follow the instructions in step 1.
2. In a 4 cup glass measuring up, measure out your 250 g of Non-Dairy Milk and 50 g of Sugar, mix. Heat the Milk and Sugar in the microwave for 45 seconds, stir, until the sugar is completely dissolved, then add the 6 g of yeast. Allow to sit for 2 – 5 minutes, until the mixture is bubbly.
3. While you are waiting for the yeast mixture to get bubbly, in the mixing bowl of your stand mixer, measure out 100 g of Sourdough Starter.
4. Add the bubbly yeast mixture to the mixing bowl with the Sourdough Starter, mix by hand to dissolve the starter.
5. Next, add the flax eggs, butter and bread flour to your mixing bowl.
6. With the dough hook attachment, mix your dough, on the lowest setting, until the dough ball clings to the hook. Roughly 4 – 6 minutes.
7. Carefully remove the dough from the hook, shape into a ball. Cover and allow the dough to rise, in the same bowl, for 1 – 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size.
8. After the dough has doubled in size, gently remove from the bowl. Shape into a ball and cut into quarters. Roll the quarters into logs, that are 6 – 8 inches long.
9. Place the dough logs onto a parchment paper lined sheet pan. Cover with a damp towel (ideally a linen towel, but avoid terry cloth towels) and allow the dough to rise for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
10. While you are waiting for the dough to rise a second time, preheat the oven to 350 F.
11. After the second rise, the rolls will appear puffy, brush with milk and sprinkle with your desired topping. Bake at 350 F for 25 – 30 minutes, or until they sound hollow when tapped.
12. Remove the rolls from the oven and pan, to cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy!