Cabin Baking: Using Frozen Sourdough Biscuit Dough

Last month I used some of my starter to make Buttery Sourdough Pan Rolls. Even though I cut the original recipe in the cookbook in half, I had enough dough left over to freeze for later. Here's how I used it.

The recipe I used for the rolls didn't call for kneading because as the cookbook said, "rolls are small, so gluten doesn't need to be strong enough to hold up the weight of a loaf."

Oil pan and coat with cornmeal.

Rather than using the dough for more biscuits, I formed it into a small loaf. I have a small loaf pan I found at the thrift store that was just about the right size for the dough I had left.

Work cold dough with your hands.

I let the dough thaw, but before it got to room temperature, I used my hand to work it up a bit. My thinking was that it would help work up the gluten a bit more. Once it got sticky, I stopped and formed it into loaf shape.

Let rise until double.

I oiled and dusted the loaf pan with cornmeal. After placing the dough in the pan, I covered it and put it in a warm place near my stove to raise until double.

Slit top, drizzle with herb butter.

I used a sharp knife to slit the top. I also melted a tablespoon of butter with dried thyme, garlic powder and a bit of salt. I used that to drizzle over the top of the dough before baking.


Since it was a small loaf, I baked it at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes.





The texture of the bread was more crumbly than my kneaded variety, but it tasted great warm with butter, and later warmed up by pan toasting.

Not making it into rolls helped us stretch it over several meals, rather than gobbling down all the rolls in one sitting. Plus, it was way easier.

Do you use frozen bread dough? Do you have any tips for me? -- Margy