sandwich rolls (hoagie rolls)

A simple recipe for homemade sandwich rolls, also called hoagie rolls (or sub rolls). Step by step instructions for how to make rolls included! These rolls are great for lunch meats, meatballs, or even grilled vegetable sandwiches. Fresh made = no preservatives! Eat real bread!

What are these sandwich rolls used for? 

These rolls can be used for hoagies, subs, grinders and more! Want to know the difference between all those types of sandwiches? See this article from The Kitchn 🙂 I like to make Philadelphia hoagies, meatball sandwiches, and veggie hoagies with mine! Philly cheesesteaks are pretty awesome as well. 

How to store sandwich or hoagie rolls? 

It’s best to slice and freeze these rolls if you aren’t going to use them all on the day you bake them. They are probably okay to use the day after you make them as well. I recommend storing them in a paper bag or sealed plastic, although you may lose some of the crisp by sealing in plastic. 

How to make rolls: step by step

Okay! So…ready to make some sandwich rolls?? These were really fun to make!

Here is a step by step overview of how to make these rolls. 

• Start by adding all of your ingredients (flour, water, salt, sugar, yeast) to a mixing bowl of an upright mixer.
• I highly recommend using a kitchen scale (as you can see below, all of my ingredients are listed in weights) – it’s SOOOO easy to weigh the ingredients. And kitchen scales are not expensive. I use an OXO Good Grips with a pull out digital display. And I love love love it. It makes things so much easier as I don’t have to deal with measuring cups and the extra mess.

Mixing the dough

• Combine on low for about 4 minutes and then increase speed to medium high and continue to mix for another 15 minutes or so.  
• Here’s what the dough looked like about halfway through the mix: 
  
• The dough after about a 20-minute mix (notice that it is still not completely smooth, needs a bit more time to develop: 

Divide and pre-shape the dough

• Divide the dough into 12 portions and ball each piece like so: 

First rise and shaping

• Cover the dough balls and let rest for 20 minutes.
• After letting the dough rest for 20 minutes, flatten each piece to about 1/4 inch thick (I used a pasta roller to help but you can also use a kneading pin)

• Run each piece through the pasta roller (I used the widest setting, “0” and then “1” and then let the pieces rest for a bit) but again, you can use a rolling pin.

• To continue shaping the rolls, roll each piece into a log like so: 

• Continue rolling until each piece looks like so: 

• After rolling up each piece, rolls so that seams seal up and apply more pressure on ends so that the shaped dough looks like so: 

• Line up the shaped rolls on a parchment lined baking sheet and set aside in warm and damp environment (I placed in cold oven with a hot pan of water) and let rise for 1 hour:

Rising and scoring 

• After 1 hour, your rolls should look something like this: 

• Slash each roll with a clean razor blade (about 1/4 inch slash) and mist with water: 

Tips and techniques for making sandwich (hoagie) rolls: 

• Use high quality, bread flour – this is the main ingredient in your recipe so make sure it’s a good brand
• Use a kitchen scale if you have one. Weighing ingredients is one of the easiest ways to improve your bread baking
• Ensure you are mixing the dough enough initially. This recipe calls for a 20-minute initial mix
• I also recommend weighing out each dough ball after you portion the dough so that each roll is about the same size
• Make sure the rolls rise enough before baking. The rolls should be at least 30 to 50% larger than when they were first shaped
• If you kitchen is cold, place a pot of water on the stove with the tray of rolls next to it to heat things up
• Using a thermometer such as a Thermapen is very helpful to make sure your dough is not too hot or too cold (target dough temp about 80 degrees after mixing)
• Make sure your oven is hot enough – I found the best place to bake these rolls was right in the center rack of the oven
• Don’t forget to mist the rolls with water as well as the oven so you get a bit of oven spring (oven spring is the sudden increase in volume of bread during the first several minutes of baking)

Like to bake? Try some of my other bread recipes!

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