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No-Knead Overnight Sandwich Rolls
By Alexandra Stafford
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Last Updated: 02/09/2026
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
This 4-ingredient dough takes five minutes to mix together, and from there, time does the work. After an overnight rise, the dough is ready to be portioned, balled up, and after another short rest, the rolls are ready to be baked. Crusty with a light and airy crumb, these rolls are perfect for sandwiches!
Do you have access to a great bakery? Where you can buy freshly baked baguettes and light and airy ciabatta rolls? You do? I’m jealous.
When I crave a crusty roll to house sandwich fillings, I make my own. In short, I use the peasant bread recipe — but I give it the Lahey treatment: I cut the yeast way back, use cold water, and extend the rise to overnight (or about 12 hours).
Here’s a thought: set aside 5 minutes to mix this dough together this evening. Tomorrow, when you are rewarded with a delicious vessel to sandwich anything your heart desires, or perhaps balsamic-roasted eggplant and arugula, you will thank yourself. Effortless and delicious. You’re welcome.
How to Make No-Knead Overnight Sandwich Rolls, Step by Step
Whisk together flour, salt, and instant yeast. Add cold water.
Mix until you have a sticky dough ball. Cover the bowl, and…
… let it rise at room temperature for roughly 12 hours or until it looks like this:
Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface, and portion it out:
Shape the portions into rough balls and transfer to a baking sheet:
Bake for 20 minutes:
Once cool, the rolls can be halved and filled as you please.
I love these rolls for these balsamic-roasted eggplant and arugula sandwiches.
No-Knead Overnight Sandwich Rolls
- Total Time: 12 hours 20 minutes
- Yield: 6 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
This 4-ingredient dough takes five minutes to mix together, and from there, time does the work. After an overnight rise, the dough is ready to be portioned, balled up, and after another short rest, the rolls are ready to be baked. Crusty with a light and airy crumb, these rolls are perfect for sandwiches!
Notes:
- This dough is super wet, so go big on the flour when shaping—seriously, don’t hold back.
- I have been making these for these balsamic-roasted eggplant and arugula sandwiches.
Ingredients
- 4 cups (512 g) unbleached bread or all-purpose flour + 1/4 cup (32 g) for shaping
- 2 teaspoons (10 g) kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon (1 g) instant yeast
- 2 cups (439 g) cold water (tap is fine)
Instructions
- Make the dough: In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and instant yeast. Add the water. Using a rubber spatula, mix until the liquid is absorbed and the ingredients form a sticky dough ball. Cover the bowl, and let rest for 30 minutes, then stretch and fold the dough — this is an optional new step (1/14/2026), but if time permits, do it: I find it makes for an especially bubby dough. Fill a small bowl with water. Using a wet hand, grab an edge of the dough and pull it up and towards the center. Repeat this stretching and folding process 8 to 10 times, moving your hand around the edge of the dough with every set of stretches and folds. As you stretch and fold, you should feel the dough transform from being sticky and shaggy to smooth and cohesive. Find video guidance here.
- Let it rise: Cover bowl with a tea towel or bowl cover and leave to rise at room temperature overnight or for up to 12 hours.
- Prepare for baking: The following morning (or after about 12 hours), the dough will have risen, and its surface will be covered with bubbles. Line a sheetpan with parchment paper or a Silpat. Preheat the oven to 425ºF.
- Shape the rolls: Spread the 1/4 cup flour over a work surface. Turn the dough out onto the surface. Using as much flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to the board and your knife or dough scraper, divide the dough into 6 roughly equal portions. Again, using as much flour as necessary on your hands and work surface, shape each portion into a ball. Use two hands to stretch each ball gently into a rectangle—doesn’t have to be perfect—and transfer to the prepared sheetpan, spacing evenly. Let the shaped rolls rest for 20 minutes. (Alternatively, store the shaped rolls in a floured, lidded vessel for as long as 2-3 hours; then proceed with the recipe.)
- Bake the rolls: Transfer the pan to the oven. Bake 15 minutes. Rotate pan. Bake 5 minutes more or until nicely golden. Transfer rolls to cooling rack to cool completely.
- Prep Time: 12 hours
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Category: Bread
- Method: Yeast
- Cuisine: American
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
104 Comments on “No-Knead Overnight Sandwich Rolls”
Hi Ali!
These look so delicious! How do you think using bread flour might change anything? Thank you!!!
Bread flour would be great!
Do you think you could shape these into a hoagie/sub bun?
Yes, absolutely!
Thank you so much for this recipe! I made the dough last night and baked them this morning. I divided into 8 portions so the buns were a bit smaller. The buns are deliciously soft but have more of a dense texture with fewer air bubbles, and the crumb is a bit tacky. The tops are quite pale. Could this be a result of overworking the dough in the shaping process, and/or underbaking? I’m not an experienced bread baker so I followed the recipe to a T, timing and all, on this first try. Any insight would be appreciated! Excited to eat the fruits of my labour this week and to try this one again!
Hi Rebecca! Apologies for the delay here. Questions for you: are you using a scale to measure? And what type of flour are you using?
Regarding the paleness, next time try baking them at 450ºF for the entire time.
Next time, you can extend the second rise: it’s possible the rolls need to proof for longer, more like 40-60 minutes before you bake them, especially in these colder months.
No problem at all! Thanks so much for your reply. I’m using a scale to measure, and I used Robin Hood AP Organic flour (only one I could find that was unbleached). I’ll try these tips next time. It’s quite cold in our place (Ontario winters!).
Unbleached is perfect! Let me know how the second round goes 🙂
Can I sub have Srpouted wheat flour for AP flour for the sandwich rolls? There is a slight chance the rolls will be denser, but I’ve had great success with sprouted wheat flour, so go for it 🙂
Yes!
Can this dough be kept in the frig longer and portioned out as needed. It is just my husband and I.
Yes! Just be sure to store the dough in an airtight container to ensure it doesn’t dry out. If you don’t have a container, you can slick the surface of the dough with olive oil, and cover the bowl with plastic wrap.
Just discovered this recipe last night and the rolls are baking as I type! Planning to serve them for lunch with leftover chicken piccata and pasta (using your pesto recipe with homegrown Thai basil). THANK YOU as always for your wonderful recipes and making me look like the home lunch hero!
Woohoo! I hope they turned out well, Kelli! Chicken piccata + pasta with Thai basil pesto sounds absolutely heavenly! Thank you for your kind words 🙂 🙂 🙂
Hello Ali,
I love your website and enjoy your recipes. This recipe calls for instant yeast. I don’t use instant yeast. Is it possible to use active yeast after it has proofed or is this recipe different?
Thank you.
Yes, absolutely! Go for it 🙂
I have made these rolls as directed, they are excellent for portobello or other sandwiches.
I am thinking of making them for a Christmas Eve appetizer spread in a smaller slider size. What should I do differently (besides the portion shape and size)?
Great to hear, Barbara! I don’t think you need to do anything differently, but I might consider shortening the bake time, though not by much — 5 minutes or less depending on how much smaller you are making them.
what if they stay in fridge longer than 12 hours more
like 24 hours
?
Hi! Do you mean the initial rise? Or the shaped rolls? The initial rise is at room temperature, but if you wanted to shape the rolls and stick them in the fridge, that would work, too. And they would be fine for 24 hours as long as they are in an airtight container.
I prepped these last night and baked them this morning. We used them as sandwich rolls and they were delightful! My husband raved about them all day!
I was curious about doubling the recipe – anything I need to be aware of?
Thank you!
Great to hear, Micki! Thanks so much for writing. Nope, no changes need to be made when doubling. Go for it!
Holy guacamole these are easy and delicious!!!
Great to hear, Sarah!
Every one of your recipes (and I mean EVERY ONE!) that I have made have been fantastic. Your directions are clear and well written, and the results are delicious. It’s at the point where I always check your site first when I need a recipe. THANK YOU!!
Awww thank you 🙂 🙂 🙂 This means a lot. Thanks for writing.
I’ve been making these for years, since Ali posted the recipe around 2016. They’re really good! I’ve used them for sandwiches but more often than not I treat them as little loaves of bread: tear them up, cut them into slices and chunks, toast em, make croutons. These seem to keep better and are more handy and appealing (to me!) than making a loaf of bread. Your mileage may vary. Versatile, tasty. Superb ratio of ease to deliciousness!
I use a lot of flour for working them into shape to keep them from sticking to my hands and the work surface. I gently roll them around on the cutting board in the flour so they’re easy to handle. I make mine with King Arthur organic bread flour.
So nice to read this, Jericho! Thanks so much for writing and sharing these notes. I love the idea of using them as little loaves and then for croutons. Yum 🙂
I make these frequently but instead of an overnight rise (not always planning ahead as I should) I sub a cup of light lager beer for half the water and bump up the yeast to a tsp. Gives a great flavor.
Smart!! Great to read this Gale. I will try that!
Can you yell me about how long these are? Do you think these would be good for making say…an italian sub? If these are 6” or less in length, do you think I could cut dough into thirds and make longer? Would I bake the same amount of time?
Hi! Apologies for the delay here. If you are looking for longer rolls, I think cutting the dough into thirds is a good idea. And yes, I’d bake them for roughly the same amount of time.
Quick question after the bulk ferment step. In your narrative description you write “punch it down on a well floured surface and portion it out” yet there is no mention of the “punch it down step“ in the recipe section. Could you clarify? Also, do you shape the portions into balls as if you were making pizza balls or just create the bun shape?
Thanks in advance. I love the Pizza Night Cookbook – it has upped my pizza game as has the baking steel I’m slowly working through the book and site with great delight
Hi Keith! Sorry for the confusion here. When you turn the dough out onto your floured work surface, you’re essentially punching it down then… it will completely deflate when you turn it out. I will edit the post/recipe to clarify.
And yes, I do shape the portions into balls. I will edit this part of the recipe, too.
I’m likely not getting to you in time, but I’ve been using this recipe to make giant sandwich rolls. I wrote about it in my newsletter on Saturday and shared the recipe in this Google Doc. I am going to make the smaller rolls (as per this recipe) again this week, but I think I’ll extend the final rise to be 2-3 hours, which I think will make for a much lighter crumb. Because the second rise will be much longer, I’ll place the shaped balls in a DoughMate container or a floured 9×13-inch baking dish covered with a lid or plastic wrap.
Thank you for your kind words re Pizza Night. Means so much 🙂
I made these yesterday and had a question. They looked beautiful. The top halves were exactly how I wanted them to be. Light. Airy. perfect for sandwiches but the bottom half of each roll was dense. We ate the bottoms as toast and they were delicious but I just was wondering if you had any suggestions. Thanks!
Hi Verity! My only suggestion would be to extend the final proof. After you stretched the round into an oval, how long did the dough proof for? And are you using an Xlarge sheet pan or a half sheet pan?
Thanks for this recipe and the giant sandwich loaf – both of which I will make in the coming week 😊 Is it possible to make these buns using sourdough starter in lieu of commercial yeast? Thank you. Also love the pizza night recipe book ❤️
I think so! Do use the updated recipe on this post however. For sourdough, I would use 50 grams of starter. Omit the yeast. Keep everything else the same.