This delicious seeded sourdough sandwich loaf is inspired by my favorite store-bought bread. It is perfectly soft and full of healthy fats from a variety of seeds. This sandwich loaf comes together quickly as well, making it a staple for us.
Whether you’re an expert baker or brand new, you’ll love this recipe. Chewy, soft, and slightly sweet, it’s both nutritious and impressive.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
This seeded sourdough sandwich loaf can be made quickly with very little hands-on time. I like to mix my dough in my stand mixer. After that, it only needs two sets of stretch and folds. This means that my active time is about 10 minutes total for the whole recipe.
I also suspect you’ll love the ingredients in this recipe. You can adjust the quality and type to your own preference.
The Ingredients
Sourdough Starter- It’s important to use active and bubbly starter. Make sure it is fed and has had time to rise before mixing your loaf.
Flour- This recipe uses a combination of Unbleached Bread Flour and Whole Wheat Flour. You can also use All Purpose flour if it’s what you have. I have on multiple occasions. The whole wheat flour lends a slightly more ‘sour’ flavor when fermented. This adds a little bit of tang to each slice.
Pumpkin Seeds- These are the largest seed in the loaf, adding a lot of texture and bite to this loaf. Get salted, but not roasted when purchasing your seeds.
Sunflower Seeds- Also make sure that these are salted, but not roasted. Similarly to the pumpkin seeds, these add delicious texture and variety to every bite.
Whole Flax Seeds- Flax seeds are highly regarded as a good source of healthy fats. But even if you aren’t concerned with that, they are a great addition to this recipe. Just make sure you aren’t using ground, but whole.
Sesame Seeds- this seed has a slightly toasty flavor, adding great variety to this loaf. This recipe doesn’t call for much, but we really enjoy the flavor.
Combine the Ingredients
To make this loaf, you’ll first mix together the dough ingredients. This includes the starter, water, flour, oil, honey, and salt. The dough will be loose, but it will strengthen with stretch and folds later.
Performing the Stretch and Folds
The stretch and folds in this recipe are extremely important. During the first set, I like to do eight to ten stretches to build the greatest gluten strength. The second set of stretch and folds is where you’ll add the seeds. Dump about a third of the seeds in and perform a few stretches. Repeat this process until the seeds are well incorporated.
Seeded Sourdough Sandwich Loaf
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer with Dough Hook Or regular mixing bowl
- 1 Standard Loaf Pan
Ingredients
Dough Ingredients
- 350 g Filtered Water
- 100 g Sourdough Starter Active and bubbly
- 20 g Avocado Oil or Olive Oil
- 30 g honey
- 15 g Sea Salt
- 400 g Bread Flour or unbleached all purpose
- 100 g Whole Wheat Flour
Add-Ins
- ¼ cup Rolled Oats
- ¼ cup Sunflower Seeds
- ¼ cup Pumpkin Seeds
- 1 Tbsp Sesame Seeds
- 1 Tbsp Whole Flax Seeds
Instructions
- In a bowl on your food scale, add the dough ingredients to your mixing bowl. Mix together until well combined. The dough will be loose and sticky, but resist the urge to add more flour.
- Allow the dough to rest for about 30 minutes, then perform one set of stretch and folds. I usually do 8-10 stretches during this set to get ahead. Leave the dough to rest again for another 30 minutes.
- Mix together your seeds into a small bowl. This will help to evenly disperse them when added.
- During your second set of stretch and folds, add in the seeds and oats about a third at a time. Continue the stretch and folds until the seeds are well dispersed and the dough is strong and smooth.
- Cover the dough and allow to bulk ferment 8-10 hours.
- After the bulk ferment, dump your dough from the bowl, lightly shape into loaf, and add to a loaf pan. From here, you can allow it to rise for just an hour before baking, or you can place in the fridge for a cold proof to develop the flavor a bit more. If you chose a cold proof, allow the dough to rise a bit before placing it in the fridge.
- When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 400℉, score your loaf once down the middle, and bake for 10 minutes. Remove the loaf from the oven, and turning your lame at an angle, expand the original score. Place back in the oven for another 30 minutes.
- Once the loaf is finished baking, cover with a towel on the counter to cool. The towel will allow it to steam and soften the crust for that familiar sandwich bread texture. Allow the loaf to cool completely before slicing and enjoying a delicious sandwich.
Notes
- Feel free to change up the seeds if you’d like. I wouldn’t suggest chia seeds as they don’t do well when exposed to liquids, but any other seed should do well.
- The Bulk fermentation time may be different depending on environmental factors, but due to the desired texture of this loaf, it’s hard to over-proof this too much.
- Whole wheat flour does tend to get more ‘sour’ with fermentation than white flour does. If you expect your family wouldn’t like this flavor, you can always make this with 500g of unbleached all purpose or bread flour.
- Whether you bake right away or do the cold proof, it is important to allow to loaf to rise a bit again after shaping. This will help you get the desired height for a good sandwich size.
Thank you for visiting Headed for a Homestead Blog. I’m Rebekah, your creator and author since 2023. As a new blogger in this big space, I’m still learning the ropes, and just as excited as when I began. I hope you’ll take some time to look around and maybe find a recipe or project you’d like to try.
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