Sourdough Cheese & Bacon Rolls

I'm going to show you how to make these sourdough cheese and bacon rolls with sourdough discard and with active sourdough starter. The choice is yours!

You'll love these soft, squishy sourdough rolls topped with crispy bacon and molten cheese. They are an absolute family favorite here and something I make over and over again. There's almost always a batch in the freezer, but you can't beat them served warm out of the oven!

Why You'll Love This Recipe!

Perfect Sourdough Snack - there's no better sourdough snack than these savory cheese and bacon rolls. Perfect for grabbing and snacking on the go.

Freeze Well - these sourdough bacon and cheese rolls freeze so well! They are something I make often and freeze individually for school snacks for my boys.

Save Money - Now if you're not Australian, you might not be familiar with these, but here in Australia, there is a chain bakery that's generally located in busy shopping malls and they sell these soft cheese and bacon buns individually and in packs of 6. They are absolutely delicious, but the last time I bought them a pack of 6 cost $8 and with 5 of us we have to fight over the last one. So I set upon creating a recipe that made a whole bunch of them!

Ingredients

• Sourdough Starter - I have used active sourdough starter to create this recipe. I generally feed my sourdough starter the night before and then mix the dough when I get up. You can find my timeline further down, as well as notes for using sourdough discard in the notes of the recipe card.
  
• Water - to hydrate the flour.
  
• Bread Flour - this recipe has been developed using bread flour, not all purpose flour.
  
• Salt - you need a bit for flavor and to strengthen the gluten in your dough.
  
• Sugar - just a little bit of a sugar, if you really don't want to use it, you can omit it.
  
• Olive Oil - I've chosen to add olive oil to the actual dough rather than butter. I found that it makes the dough softer and more elastic and gives a softer baked roll. You could substitute butter if you prefer, but I feel you get a better result with the olive oil.
  
• Butter (melted) - this is not to add to the actual dough, but brushed on the rolls before adding the bacon and cheese.
  
• Sharp Cheddar Cheese (shredded) - you can use whatever cheese you like to eat. I've used sharp cheddar that I've shredded myself. The cheese melts better if you don't use pre-shredded cheese.
  
• Bacon - I've used streaky bacon that I've chopped into a fine dice. You can use any bacon you like to eat. I even tested this recipe with maple bacon and it was really good too!

How To Make Sourdough Cheese and Bacon Rolls

I've used a stand mixer to create the dough for these sourdough cheese and bacon rolls, but you can knead the dough by hand if you prefer. I like using the dough hook attachment and find this gives me soft, elastic dough that's really easy to shape.

Combine the sourdough starter, water and flour into the bowl of your stand mixer and mix until it forms a shaggy dough (around 30 seconds will do it). Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes.

Now add the salt, sugar and olive oil to the bowl and knead the dough for around 3 to 6 minutes. You want the dough to be elastic, silky and slapping the sides of the bowl. Just keep the mixer going until you achieve this.

Now it's time to let the dough bulk ferment at room temperature. You want the dough to rise to around 30% for this bake. It doesn't have to be exact though.

Once the dough has risen, it's time to shape it into rolls. I've divided the dough into 12 rolls weighing around 80g each. You'll need to weigh your dough and then divide it into 12 equally weighted pieces. Shape each portion of dough into a round and give it a little tension by rolling it on the counter top.

Once all of the dough pieces are shaped, gently place them onto a large baking tray or cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. I place them so they are nearly touching, but not quite. This means that they will touch each other once they proof.

Now you need to let the rolls proof and become nice and puffy before you add the bacon and cheese. Cover the rolls with a damp cloth and allow them to get nice and puffy. If you have a bread proofer this can be handy for this step.

When you're ready to bake, turn your oven on and set the temperature to 180C/350F.

While the oven is preheating, brush each of the rolls with melted butter and top them with equal amounts of shredded cheese and diced bacon. Again, I'm not exact here, I just divide the bacon and cheese equally among the 12 rolls.

Once topped, place the tray of bacon and cheese sourdough rolls into the oven and bake for around 30 minutes, or until they are golden brown and baked through.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool a bit before serving.

Baker's Timeline

This is a sample timeline of how I like to schedule making these sourdough cheese and bacon rolls using active sourdough starter. Of course if you use sourdough discard, your timing will be much shorter. You can read more about creating a sourdough baking timeline here.

How To Store + Freeze

I think I've already mentioned how good these are warm out of the oven, right? So they are best eaten on the day of baking, without a doubt! Because of the cheese, they will stay fresh for around 24 hours, as long as you keep them in a plastic bag, or under a glass cloche.

They do freeze exceptionally well (and they are definitely included in my list of sourdough discard recipes that freeze well). I freeze these individually in ziploc bags as it makes them easy to grab and go. They thaw easily at room temperature and can be eaten as is, or warmed in the microwave if you prefer.

Share the sourdough love!