Sourdough Sandwich Bread
- Stephanie Hamley
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
This Sourdough Sandwich Bread is my favorite and will make you forget about store-bought options! It's incredibly delicious, and you'll be thrilled with its fantastic flavor!
This sourdough sandwich bread is among my top bread recipes to prepare! It takes two days to make, but the actual hands-on time is minimal, totaling no more than 30 minutes. Preparing the preferment or "levain" takes around 5 minutes, while mixing and kneading the dough requires about 15 minutes. Shaping takes around 5-10 minutes. The remainder of the time is just waiting. I encourage you to try this recipe! I'm confident you'll be pleased with the results!
Happy baking!
Pantry Items
All-Purpose Flour – I love King Arthur's unbleached all-purpose flour.
Instant Yeast - if you use active dry yeast, it will need to bloom first. See notes below.
Butter - unsalted is best but I've used salted as well with no issues
Whole Milk
Salt - sea salt or kosher will be best. Do not use table salt.
Sugar
Equipment
Measuring Cups & Spoons
Lame or sharp knife for scoring
Cooling Rack
Ingredients
Preferment or "Levain"
31g active sourdough starter
66g unbleached flour
66g cold water
Dough
345g unbleached all-purpose flour
29g sugar
7.5g fine sea salt or kosher salt
3g instant yeast
33g unsalted butter
219g warm milk
Instructions
Day 1: Gathering Ingredients and Make Preferment
To make your preferment, weigh out your flour, water and active sourdough stater, mix together with a dough whisk until no dry bits remain. Cover, and let it rest at room temperature (65°F to 75°F); it will almost double in size and will take about 12-16 hours to ripen (ferment). When perfectly ripened, there'll be large bubbles (mostly below the surface) creating a somewhat rippled effect. It'll appear almost fluffy.
Day 2: Making the Dough & Bulk Fermentation
In a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix and then knead together all of the dough ingredients (flour, sugar, salt, yeast**, butter, warm milk, and the levain, to make a smooth, supple, and not overly sticky dough. The dough should start pulling away from the sides. This will take about 5-8 minutes in a stand mixer on medium-low speed.
Cover, and let the dough rise for 1 to 2 hours, until doubled in size.
Shaping & Second Rise
Lightly flour your work surface, then use a plastic bowl scraper to ease the dough out of the bowl. Gently deflate the dough and press into a 12" x 8" rectangle. Do a letter fold by bringing the short sides toward the center, overlapping them slightly. Flatten the dough in an even layer, and then starting from the top, gently roll the dough toward you, pressing in as you roll. Pinch the seam to seal, placing it seam side down in a lightly greased 8" x 4" bread pan.
Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap or your favorite reusable wrap, and let the loaf rise until it's crowned about 1" over the rim of the pan, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Towards the end of the rising time, preheat oven to 375˚F
Score & Bake
Just before loading the bread into the oven, lightly dust the top of the loaf of bread with flour, then score if desired.
Bake bread until the crust is golden brown, the sides of the loaf feel firm, and the internal temperature reaches 190˚F, about 35 minutes.
Remove the loaf from the oven and immediately turn it out of the pan onto a cooling rack; doing this right away helps the bread come out of the pan easily and preserves the crust.
Let cool completely before slicing.
Notes
Yeast
If you use instant yeast, there is no need to "bloom" it. Which is fancy for putting it in warm liquid to wake it up. Simply toss it in with all the other ingredients.
If you use active dry yeast, it's best to "bloom" it so that all the granules will dissolve and you won't be left with little yeasty dots in your dough. To do that, all you need to do is simply warm your liquid and drop the yeast in there. Leave it for 2-3 minutes to get everyone happy and warm and then you can resume your recipe.
Watch me Make it Here
Special Tools & Equipment Links:
Affiliate Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. I may earn a small commission at NO additional cost to you. 😁 This is not a sponsored post. Thank you for your support ❤️
Scale - https://amzn.to/4vU4aeR
Dough Whisk: https://amzn.to/4fEseMG
Spurdle: https://amzn.to/45Tu7R8
8x4 Bread Pan 2pk: https://amzn.to/46kYkZo
Measuring Cups & Spoons Set: https://amzn.to/4nKA6z1
Cooling Rack: https://amzn.to/3Spqhfv
King Arthur Big Book of Bread: https://amzn.to/4d2aDO2
Glass Mixing Bowl with Lid: https://amzn.to/3UlnvIG
Wooden Lame: https://amzn.to/4gh6tUJ
Retractable Lame: https://amzn.to/4gsZlU2
Spurdle: https://amzn.to/45Tu7R8
Instant Read Thermometer: https://amzn.to/3STDSfe
Stand Mixer - https://amzn.to/4lEgwmV
Printable Recipe
Recipe from King Arthur Big Book of Bread
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