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Sourdough sandwich bread can be as simple as placing your basic dough into a loaf pan. You’ll certainly get delicious bread that you can slice for sandwiches. But if you’re craving a soft, light sandwich bread, your simple dough with flour, water, and salt just won’t cut it.
This recipe for a light and airy sandwich loaf is just as easy as basic recipes, and you can mix and bake in the same day!
In this post:
Key Ingredients
Flour Mixture: This recipe calls for a mix of 80% Unbleached All Purpose and 20% Whole Wheat Flour. The all purpose keeps the dough soft and mild in flavor, but the whole wheat flour adds a little bit of body to the texture and flavor while also speeding up the fermentation process.
Whole Milk: when added to breads, milk keeps the crumb tight and soft. This gives the sandwich bread that light, store-bought familiarity.
Honey: adding this little bit of sugar boosts the flavor and allows the slices to brown in a toaster as the sugars caramelize.
Avocado Oil: Extra fats add depth of flavor and extra softness to the dough. Brushed op top at the end, it aids in a soft crust.
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How to Make Sourdough Sandwich Bread
If you’ve made any sourdough, or really any bread at all, the process is very similar for this loaf. We’ll make a few adjustments, and add some extra ingredients, but it should feel familiar.
- Feed your Starter: Depending on your environment and how healthy your starter is, you might could feed your starter the morning you want to bake. But I like to bake my bread in the early evening rather than later, so I feed my starter the night before.
- Warm the Milk: This step is crucial to making your dough within the same day. Fermentation takes place more quickly with heat. Warm the milk on the stove to 100 degrees Fahrenheit. Much warmer might kill the starter in the dough.
- Mix the Dough: Add the warmed milk and all other ingredients together. Use a stand mixer or a large bowl and a dough whisk (or your hands). Mix just until shaggy, cover, and let rest for one hour.
- Develop Strength: After the first hour, perform three sets of stretch and folds, with 30 minutes in between each set. I like to do coil folds on the last set. Cover, and place in a warm spot of your kitchen for about 6 hours at 72 degrees.
- Rough shape: Dump your dough onto a clean work surface, roughly shape into a loaf, and place into your loaf pan. Cover, and leave to rise until the dough reaches all edges and mounds the top of the pan.
- Score and Bake: With a serrated knife or bread lame, score your loaf. The best two methods I’ve found are a solid slash through the middle or 3-4 diagonal stripes across the top. Bake the loaf at 400 degrees for 40 minutes.
- Cool: This step is extremely important. Brush with oil after baking, and cover with a towel to steam for at least an hour.
Tools For This Recipe
- Kitchen Scale (affiliate)
- Loaf Pan (affiliate)
- Danish dough whisk (affiliate)
Same Day Sourdough Sandwich Loaf
Equipment
- 1 Stand Mixer (optional)
- 1 Small Saucepan
Ingredients
- 125 g Sourdough Starter bubbly and active
- 350 g Whole Milk heated to 100℉
- 30 g Avocado Oil
- 30 g Honey
- 10 g Salt
- 400 g All Purpose Flour
- 100 g Whole Wheat Flour
Instructions
- Heat the milk in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir constantly to avoid scalding. Once the Milk reaches 100℉, remove from heat.350 g Whole Milk
- Place your mixer bowl (or large mixing bowl) on your food scale. Add your active starter, warm milk, honey, and oil to the bowl. Stir gently to distribute the starter.125 g Sourdough Starter, 30 g Avocado Oil, 30 g Honey
- Add your flours, then your salt, then place on your mixer. Mix on Low speed until well combined to make a shaggy dough. Loosely cover and allow to rest for 1 hour.400 g All Purpose Flour, 100 g Whole Wheat Flour, 10 g Salt
- After one hour has passed, begin building strength in the dough by performing three sets of stretch and folds with thirty minutes between sets. Most of the time, I will opt for coil folds on my last set.
- Cover with Plastic wrap or a wet towel, and allow to bulk ferment until doubled in size and jiggly but does not fall when shaken (about 6hrs at 72℉).
- Dump the dough onto a clean work surface, shape into a loaf, and place into a greased loaf pan. Cover again and allow to rise another 1-2 hours until the dough fills the pan and domes above the top edges.
- Preheat your oven to 400℉. Score your loaf with a slash down the middle or three to four diagonal stripes, and bake, uncovered, for 40 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, brush with a little more Avocado oil, and cover with a towel to cool completely before slicing.
Notes
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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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