Sourdough Hawaiian Rolls
Sourdough Hawaiian rolls are everything you ever dreamed of! These amazing, pull-apart dinner rolls are sweet, fluffy, buttery, and so easy to make.
They are delicious served with your Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner or make them into easy ham and cheese sliders for parties!
Who doesn't love sweet Hawaiian rolls with dinner?? I know we sure do! Now you can easily make these classic dinner rolls with your sourdough starter.
Just like our soft sourdough dinner rolls, sourdough sweet potato rolls or sourdough ciabatta rolls, this recipe comes with step by step instructions to make it as simple as possible!
Ingredients needed
This dough has a few added ingredients versus our other sourdough recipes. That's because in order to get that deliciously unique Hawaiian roll flavor, we need to sweeten things up a bit.
- bread flour
- pineapple juice
- milk
- butter
- sugar
- salt
- egg
Equipment needed
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Sample baking schedule
The following is an example of how you can structure your baking schedule to make these sourdough Hawaiian rolls fit into your life perfectly.
Because the dough is enriched with butter, sugar and pineapple juice, the rising times will be a little longer than usual.
The night before
7 PM - Feed your sourdough starter.
The next morning
6:30 AM - In a small saucepan, melt the butter, pineapple juice, milk, sugar and salt together over low heat. Pour the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer and allow it to cool down to room temperature.
7 AM - Add the flour and active sourdough starter to the bowl and stir with a spatula until the ingredients are combined and there are no dry bits left in the bowl. Cover the bowl and allow to rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
8 AM - Using the dough hook attachment, mix the dough on the #1 speed for 8 minutes. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise until it has risen by 50% in size.
1 PM - Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and divide it into 12 pieces, approximately 74 grams each. Shape each piece into a ball by gathering up the sides and pinching them together. Turn the dough over so that the seam side is down on the work surface and gently form a smooth ball. Arrange them in a lightly greased glass baking dish. Cover the dish with a tea towel and let rise for 3-4 hours or until puffy.
4 PM - About 20 minutes before you are ready to bake preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C). Brush the top of the dough with the lightly beaten egg. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until they are golden brown on top. The internal temperature of the rolls should be 190°F when fully baked.
How to store it
Store the rolls in a bread bag, a beeswax cloth or wrapped in a clean kitchen towel at room temperature for up to 3 days. Heat the rolls in the microwave for 15 seconds to soften them up.
The baked rolls can be frozen for up to 3 months.
Common questions
A stand mixer makes this recipe easy, but you don't need one in order to still achieve great results. All you need to do is give the dough 3 sets of stretches and folds after the dough has rested for one hour in step 2 of the recipe. Allow it to rise by 50% and move on to shaping!
You can, but it's definitely not strong enough to give you the full pineapple sweetness you'd expect. I recommend looking for canned pineapple juice instead.
If using a tin baking dish, increase the oven temperature to 400°F (204°C). Rolls can also be baked in a muffin tin for 23-25 minutes.
If you'd like to prepare the dough and bake the rolls at a later time, after shaping the rolls in step 4, cover the dish with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for up to 36 hours. When ready to bake, allow them to have the second rise at room temperature until puffy and proceed with baking.
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Sourdough Hawaiian Rolls
EQUIPMENT
INGREDIENTS
Ingredients to make ½ cup (100 g) of Active Sourdough Starter
- 1 tablespoon (15 g) sourdough starter
- ⅓ cup + 1 tablespoon (50 g) all-purpose flour
- 3 ½ tablespoons (50) water
Dough Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons (28 g) butter
- 1 cup (240 g) pineapple juice
- ¼ cup (60 g) milk
- 3 tablespoons (36 g) sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons (8 g) salt
- ½ cup (100 g) active sourdough starter
- 3 ⅔ cups (440 g) bread flour
Egg Wash
- 1 large egg (lightly beaten)
INSTRUCTIONS
Feed Your Starter
- 12 hours before you plan to mix the dough, add the ingredients to make ½ cup (100 g) of active sourdough starter to a clean jar. Stir until combined, loosely cover the jar and let the starter rise at room temperature. (The ingredients will create a total of 115 g active starter but, because some of it will stick to the sides of the jar during the transfer, we are making a little more than needed.) The sourdough starter is ready to use when it has doubled in size and there are plenty of bubbles on the surface and sides of the jar.
Make the Dough
- Melt butter: In a small saucepan, melt the butter, pineapple juice, milk, sugar and salt together over low heat. Pour the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. Allow the liquid to cool down to room temperature.
- Mix the remaining dough ingredients: Add the flour and active sourdough starter to the bowl and stir with a spatula until the ingredients are combined and there are no dry bits left in the bowl. Cover the bowl and allow to rest at room temperature for 1 hour.
- Stand Mix and First rise: Using the dough hook attachment, mix the dough on speed #1 for 8 minutes. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise at room temperature until it has risen by 50% in size. (See notes.)
- Shape: Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and divide it into 12 pieces, approximately 74 grams each. Shape each piece into a ball by gathering up the sides and pinching them together. Turn the dough over so that the seam side is down on the work surface and gently form a smooth ball. Arrange them in a lightly greased glass baking dish.
- Second rise: Cover the dish with a tea towel and let rise for 3-4 hours or until puffy.
- Bake: About 20 minutes before you are ready to bake preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C). Brush the top of the dough with the lightly beaten egg. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until they are golden brown on top. The internal temperature of the rolls should be 190°F when fully baked.
NOTES
- It's very important to take the ambient temperature of your kitchen into account when working with sourdough. Our recipes are tested in a kitchen that is 68°F (20°C). Both the first and second rise took about 4 hours each. If your kitchen is warmer, you will need to reduce your rising time in the first and second rise to avoid over-proving the dough.
- If you'd like to prepare the dough and bake the rolls at a later time, after shaping the rolls in step 4, cover the dish with plastic wrap and store in the fridge for up to 36 hours. When ready to bake, allow them to have the second rise at room temperature until puffy and proceed with baking.
- If using a tin baking dish bake rolls at 400°F (204°C). Rolls can also be baked in a muffin tin for 23-25 minutes.
Trying to make these for someone with a dairy allergy, do you think vegan butter and a can of coconut milk would be good substitutions?
I would use a thinner plant milk such as almond or oat milk.
Can you make a load out of this recipe without changing any of the ingredients or amounts?
Hi Laura! I've never tried it but I think you could shape into a pan loaf. Let the loaf rise to the top of the pan before baking. Bake at 375°F for about 45-60 minutes.
I made these rolls for BBQ Grilled Chicken Sandwiches. They were AMAZING!! I substituted honey for sugar and added additional honey to the egg wash at the end.
Made this recipe for a family event this weekend. I got so many compliments and a recipe request from one cousin! Def will make these again 🙂
They turned out beautiful but lacked flavor. I felt they could have been sweeter and wished they werent as bland.
Can I make a loaf instead of rolls? How long do you think it needs to bake?
Yes you can. I would bake it for 45-50 minutes at 375°F.
I came to ask this same question! My family LOVED the rolls at our Easter dinner! I thought it would make a great loaf of bread. Thank you for the reply with the adjusted time and temp!
Super easy and delicious! One question, what would you recommend doing/changing to make them a little sweeter?
I would add a tablespoon or two more sugar.
Let me start by saying I swear by your regular sourdough dinner roll recipe, so I was so excited to try this out! Unfortunately I didn’t notice that you recommend straight pineapple juice be used rather than from canned pineapple, so I went ahead and used the juice from my canned pineapple, the dough smelt so nice and sweet and like it would have loads of pineapple flavor, I baked two up tonight to test for Christmas and stick the rest in the freezer, the color and, texture was amazing . This recipe is a lot more fluffy than the regular one I noticed, which I LOVE however it seems like all the pineapple flavor baked out and that’s one big bummer I had, not sure if it’s because of the pineapple juice I used or not, I wish I knew how to add more to this without messing up the recipe, but that’s one note I had !
I made this exactly to the recipe and they came out beautifully. And very delicious... can't describe the flavor... sourdough with a sweet finish. Too good for Thanksgiving, gets lost with all the other goodies, deserves a meal of its own... Mine were not quite as brown as the picture... could be the high altitude here.
Could also be divided into 16 for a smaller dinner roll.
Thank you!
How long do I need to take out of fridge if planning to refrigerate after step 4?
I would give yourself a few hours so that they rise enough. I would say 5-6 hours so that they come to room temperature and rise enough.