The best homebaked sourdough rolls with black & white sesame

Jump to Recipe Card

We love sesame sourdough bread here at home. And we also enjoy the crust more than the crumb.

Yeah, we’re both team crust. 🙂 So these black & white sesame sourdough rolls basically tick both our preferences. We get that deep flavour given by the toasted sesame, and more crust for each of us, in comparison with a couple slices from a loaf.

Not to mention that you get that nice balance between the super crispy crust and extremely moist crumb. You gotta love a good sourdough roll.

And trust me, these toasted sesame sourdough rolls might be some of the best sourdough buns out there. I fell in love with sesame sourdough rolls while I was working at Juno the Bakery in Copenhagen. Those were definitely some of the best ones I’ve ever had. With those ones in mind I started experimenting with sesame bread and rolls here at home. And I’ve settled for these rolls with toasted black sesame seeds inside, coated with white sesame on the outside.

Got your starter ready? Here comes my formula and method for the black & white sesame sourdough rolls. If you don’t have a sourdough starter yet, but you want to try starting your own, check out my step-by-step guide on how to do it (based on my experience). Or if you’re at the very beginning, you might want to try the recipe for the sourdough loaf I started with.

A few considerations before you dig in my sesame sourdough rolls recipe

My sesame sourdough rolls recipe, used as is, gives quite a wet dough. It can be a bit challenging to work with. If you’re at the beginning of your sourdough journey, you can still try it out, but I suggest you hold back some of the water. I would say you start by holding back 50g of water, then increase with 10-15g at a time, until you get to use the whole amount.

Make sure your starter is strong and active, and that you already know its schedule. You get the best results when using the starter and thus the levain at their peak activity.

As it is the case with all sourdough baking, please keep in mind that there are so many factors that can influence your dough, the process, the baking. The flour I use is probably different than the one you will be using. Different flours absorb water differently. Sometimes even different batches of flour from the same producer act differently. The humidity and the ambient temperature also influence the way your sourdough will develop. It can rise faster or much slower in your kitchen than it does in mine. Dough handling will as well be different and can have an impact on your final product.

That’s just the beauty of working with sourdough, there’s no two identical bakes. And it’s a good chance your sesame sourdough rolls won’t turn out just as mine. So treat this recipe as a guideline from my experience, but get to know your starter, your ingredients and environment, practice and make it yours.

Talking about ingredients… roasting the seeds before adding them to the dough just enhances that nutty taste even more. I simply love the taste of toasted sesame in my bread, it gives it that extra umami if I may say so. But if you prefer a milder taste, feel free to skip the toasting part. Also, I have chosen to use the black sesame inside purely out of aesthetic reasons. I just love how the crumb looks when cutting the rolls open. But it is also said that the black seeds are a bit more intense, in regards to bitterness and nuttiness, in comparison to their white counterparts. So you can just as well use white seeds inside, should you have those at hand rather than black sesame.

When it comes to handling, I like using a strong stretch and fold in the beginning, when the dough is not yet too far into the fermentation process and it hasn’t accumulated too much gas inside. Then I prefer to only do coil folds, as it feels I’m being more gentle with the dough, this way avoiding for the dough to deflate.

Baker’s percentages

Whenever I start building a sourdough, it’s always on paper first. It all begins with some numbers and percentages. Basically every ingredient is relative to the total amount of flour in the dough. So here’s the formula for the dough below, should you prefer working with baker’s percentages. Keep in mind that I’m considering also the flour and water from the levain when calculating. So if you’re usually not taking the flour and water from the levain into consideration when doing the percentage, and you’ll be getting different numbers than my recipe below, then you know why 🙂

• 20% levain at 100% hydration, built on strong bread flour
• 85% water
• 20% whole grain spelt flour
• 10% whole grain rye flour
• 20% Ølands wheat flour
• 50% strong bread flour (out of which 10% is prefermented in the levain)
• 3% salt
• 4% black sesame seeds

The recipe below is calculated starting from total amount of flour in final dough = 500g = 100%.

Ingredients (yields 8-10 rolls)

To build the levain:

• ripe sourdough starter – 35g
• 35g water (neutral to touch)
• 35g strong bread flour

To build the dough:

• 100g levain at peak
• 375g water (neutral to touch)
• 100g whole grain spelt flour
• 50g whole grain rye flour
• 100g stone ground Ølands wheat flour
• 200g strong bread flour
• 15g salt (I use sea salt flakes)
• 20g black sesame seeds
• water for soaking the seeds

For baking:

• flour to dust the working surface
• white sesame seeds to cover the rolls
• hot water to create moist

Equipment

• kitchen scale
• transparent jar
• large mixing bowl
• frying pan
• small sieve
• transparent plastic box with lid (optional)
• bench knife
• baking stone/ steel
• oven tray

Method

Day 1 – morning*

1. Build the levain that you’ll be using later in your dough. In a jar mix the water (temperature neutral to touch), the ripe starter and the flour, in equal parts. If you have a strong healthy starter and a temperature of around and a bit over 22C, your levain will probably be peaking in 4-6 hours. Just plan according to how you know your starter’s schedule and keep in mind you usually get the best results if using it while at peak.

This recipe builds the exact amount of levain you need for the rolls. Remember to feed your started separately as you usually do.

2. At the same time toast the black sesame seeds in a frying pan, on medium heat. Just keep an eye on them and make sure not to burn them. It’s a bit hard to see, since they’re black, but the smell should help. When ready, remove from the pan so they don’t keep cooking. Let cool down, then cover with cold water and let soak until needed.**

Day 1 – noon/afternoon

1. Start building the dough for your sesame sourdough rolls. In a mixing bowl add the water at neutral temperature. If you’ve just started working with sourdough, or you are not used working with wet dough yet, hold back about 50g of the water in the recipe. Pour the levain you built in the morning. It should be floating in the water – that is a good sign that your levain is strong and ready. With your hand or a spatula stir a bit to dissolve the levain in the water. Add the flours and with your hand or a spatula mix everything together until all the flour is wet. You are not kneading, only mixing and making sure there’s no dry flour left. Cover the bowl with a silicone lid/ a plastic bag/ a shower cap and let rest for 30 minutes in a warm place (fermentolyse).***

2. Add the salt and use your hand to incorporate. Keep a bowl of water next to you and make sure to handle the dough with a wet hand, to avoid it from sticking. If you’ve held back some of the water, and feel at this point that you could handle a bit more, this is the moment when you can add an extra 10g or so. Squeeze and knead the dough in the bowl for a few minutes. I use a mix of Rubaud kneading method and a kind of one handed slap and fold directly in the bowl. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes more.

3. Strain the soaking sesame seeds. Let sit in the sieve so the water drips out until using them.

4. Perform a strong stretch and fold while ‘laminating’ the black sesame seeds into the dough. Spread a part of the soaked seeds on the surface of the dough. Grab the dough from the edge across from you and stretch upwards as long as you can until you feel it resists. Then fold onto itself. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat (sesame – stretch – fold) until you’ve completed all 4 edges. You’ll observe the dough will resist more and more each time. After performing a complete stretch & fold, I like to transfer the dough in a lightly oiled transparent container, so I can easily observe the rise. But it works just fine if you continue in the mixing bowl. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes more.

5. Perform a coil fold while laminating another portion of the seeds. This time I only spread seeds on the surface of the dough, then I perform the coil fold with each of the 4 edges. Cover and let rest 30 minutes again.

6. Repeat the same process as in the previous step, using the last portion of sesame seeds. Cover and let rest 30 minutes more.

7. Perform the last coil fold, without adding any more seeds. Cover and let continue bulk ferment in a warm place for about an hour, an hour and a half. Or until there are visible signs of activity – you can see fermentation bubbles on the sides (if you have a transparent bowl/container), also a few bubbles on the surface. And the volume of the dough has increased with about 30-50%. Then store in the fridge overnight (12-20h).

Day 2 – baking

1. Place your baking stone/steel in the middle of the oven****, and a tray down on the bottom. Turn on oven at 250C (no fan) and let heat for one hour.

2. Take the dough out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature for about 50 minutes, while the oven is heating up.

3. Ten minutes before baking, put some water to boil in an electric kettle. Then gently turn the dough onto your working surface, well dusted with flour. Cover the dough completely with raw white sesame seeds. Use raw ones here, as they will get roasted in the oven. Line your loading tray with baking paper. Use a bench knife to cut the dough in 8-10 pieces, about the same size. I first cut the dough in two long rectangles, then each gets cut into 4-5 pieces. Use the bench knife to transfer each freshly cut roll directly to the loading tray.

4. Carefully load the rolls onto the baking stone/steel by sliding them with the baking sheet. Quickly pour about 300ml hot water in the hot tray on the bottom of the oven and close the door right away. Watch out for your face and hands, the steam released will be burning hot. Bake the first 12 minutes with steam. Then open the door a tiny bit to release the moist and continue baking for 15-20 minutes more. Keep an eye on them, if you feel the heat is too strong and your sesame rolls set crust too quickly, reduce the temperature to 230C.**** Check the bottom of the rolls and if they feel easy and sound hollow when knocking with your finger, then they’re ready. Let rest a bit on a cooling rack.

Super crispy crust and moist crumb, especially if you’ve gone all the way with the hydration. And with an extremely deep taste due to the toasted sesame. Enjoy warm with some salted butter, cheese and jam. Or serve later, next to a soup or a salad. They make delicious sandwiches, too 🙂

Method notes

*If it suits better in your daily activities to work the dough early morning, you can adjust the schedule by building the levain last thing before going to sleep the night before. But keep in mind you’ll want to have it peaking when building the dough, so you’ll need to adjust the feeding ratios to something like 1:3:3 or even 1:5:5 if it’s quite warm. It’s all about knowing your starter.

** Soaking the seeds before adding to the dough ensures that they will not absorb any of the water from your dough and thus reduce its hydration, if that’s what you’re looking for. Feel free to skip, it will work just fine with dry seeds as well.

***I like working with fermentolyse, which means I add the levain already when mixing the water and the flour. So while the autolyse is happening (the flour absorbing the liquid and the gluten starts developing), the fermentation is also starting. Some people prefer doing a long autolyse before incorporating the levain. I have tried both, and I just find that the fermentolyse fits better in my daily schedule, as it also means one step less in the process. And to be honest, I haven’t found a major difference in the final loaf, given by the two different processes. But feel free to choose the method that helps you most.

****If you don’t have a baking stone/steel, you can just bake on a tray instead. The oven will in that case need less time to heat up. I am baking on a stone in a quite old oven, that only heats from above. Therefore same temperature for my oven might not have the exact effect as the same one in your oven. And because my stone looses heat, I leave the rolls 10 minutes more on the hot stone, after turning off the oven, with the door slightly open. This way The bottom bakes a bit more, without burning the top, just as I like it.

Pro Tip

These rolls freeze super well. When they’ve cooled down completely, transfer to a bag and throw in the freezer. I usually freeze the lighter ones. And after thawing them, I like to give them 5 minutes in the preheated oven at 200C. That way the crust becomes crispy again and they’re almost like freshly baked.

Happy Baking, everyone!

Yum