Hi @Sisbecki
I enjoy your Facebook page. Thank you for your contributions to sourdough baking and learning. We’d be happy for you to feature this recipe and share some photos from it.
-Melissa
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Thank you so much, Melissa! I’ll be experimenting today by making this dough and shaping it into dinner rolls for the soup I’m planning to serve for my family’s dinner tomorrow. Then I will be able to share my experience with this recipe with the group. I was thinking about slider buns as well, since Father’s Day is approaching and it is a good option for some of the inevitable grilled burgers that will be produced on many patios and back yards, honoring our dads.
Couldn’t the problem of shorter loaves from whole grain/ whole wheat flour be mitigated by soaking the whole grain/whole wheat flour for several hours up to overnight in advance of using it in the recipe? I work with whole grain freshly milled flour often, and have found this to be a helpful option. Extended soaking softens the sharp edges of the bran and germ.
Good luck with your roll baking. You’ll be able to assess if you want to drop the sugar for when you make burger buns. I’ve done a few experiments on a long versus short autolyse and also sifting and scalding bran versus all in. My results showed some benefit with scalding, not so much with the longer autolyse, which I believe is because my fermentation process itself tends to be (very) long.
In warm weather and with very lively starter, though, the results would probably be different.
I love your alternating toppings on your Hokkaido Milk bread!
Benny
That bread looks awesome - both the lift/volume and the crust decor 
Hi,
Ive been looking at trying this but as it might be too much for 2 this way can i half the recipe to make 1 loaf or the little balls
Thank in advance!
Yes, you can halve the recipe.
I think @anon66425146 sometimes freezes half the dough of big recipes, after the shaping stage. For example, see the donut at the end of this post.
Would you say the dough doubles during the first rise? Also should it double for the second rise after the shaping? Would it be ok to put it in the fridge after shaping and proofing for a while? Thanks!
I think doubling during the first rise sounds about right. I tend to take the final proof pretty far (it’s hard to say if it doubles, but check the photo gallery of the recipe for how the loaves and rolls look just before baking). The loaves lose some definition between the lumps but the inside is fluffier than if I baked earlier.
Doing part of either rise in the refrigerator is fine.
Edited: I think you risk losing Maillard reaction aka browning if you retard the dough. This tends to happen to me with enriched doughs if I extend the process a lot.
I posted some photos of a similar dough here if you’d like to see bulk and final proof expansion amounts.
Thanks for that. I ended up bulk fermenting for about 4 hours until the dough doubled. Then I shaped it, put in the loaf pan and retarded it overnight in the fridge. In the morning I took it out for nearly an hour while the oven pre heated. The loaf came out very well, and tasty. Thanks for your help.
Hello Melissa, This is my new favorite bread recipe, thank you for sharing it! I went with half bread flour/half white whole wheat, added about a tsp of yeast to get a higher rise with the ww flour and folded in a handful of mixed seeds after the initial mix for some crunch. My picky eaters say it’s a keeper.
Neat – I’m not sure if I’ve seen this bread with seeds. I bet that’s a tasty loaf.
Melissa I finally had a chance to bake your sourdough version of this lovely bread while visiting family this weekend. What a concept visiting family. My in laws finally got their second shots and we both have had ours since the winter. Anyhow it is an interesting challenge to bake with my niece’s starter, her flours and her parent’s oven. Her starter wasn’t very robust, so I’m now working with her to give a boost. The bulk and final proof were slower than expected because of the slow starter, however, in the end I’m quite pleased with the bake. Despite the long fermentation there really isn’t much in the way of tang. The texture of the bread is super soft and it shreds so well.
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The bread looks so feathery soft. Congrats!
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Thank you Melissa thanks for sharing your recipe it was a great one that all my in-laws enjoyed.
This recipe turned out amazing, huge, pillowy rolls of perfection. I ran a test batch to see if I wanted to make for Thanksgiving and I’m so happy with how it turned out. Thank You!
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Those are beautiful. Great job!
The Kosher direction helps my thoughts about a vegan version… the egg is an obvious challenge, unless free range.
I’ll give your changes a try, Jeff.
I’ll change the canola option into cold (solid) coconut oil - see if that helps the butter less texture.
Thanks.