Sourdough Sandwich Bread (no added yeast)

We have made sourdough sandwich bread every week since I established my sourdough starter. It is crazy delicious, softer than those artisan loaves and fairly simple to make.

And I have perfected my recipe along the way to arrive at my perfect sourdough sandwich loaf. If you are new to sourdough baking, you may want to check my extensive tutorial on how to make a sourdough starter here.

You can find tons of info on sourdough in that post.👆🏻 But in summary, we are not using any commercial yeast to make this bread. Instead we are using our own homemade leavening agent (sourdough starter), which uses wild yeast.🤓🙌🏻

What’s in it?

The current version of this bread uses the following ingredients:

• sourdough starter (duh!)
• whole wheat pastry flour
• unbleached white bread flour (all purpose works too)
• salt
• honey 
• water
• oil – less than a tablespoon in the whole loaf, and I am using avocado oil
• optional: butter on the crust at the end (vegan butter, or no butter works too)

That’s it! No dairy or eggs either, which vegans and some with allergies may appreciate. We just love it because it tastes great and has the perfect texture.😍👌🏻

How to prepare starter for sourdough sandwich bread

You want to use active, fed starter for this recipe. I take my starter out of the refrigerator and feed it about 5 to 8 hours before I want to make the dough. I’ll discuss more details on timeline in a bit.🤓👌🏻

The recipe uses 1.5 cups of starter, or about 333 grams weighed out on a digital food scale (highly recommend for best results). There are two ways to do this.

If my starter has been in the fridge for a week, I will take the whole thing out and feed it, equal weights of flour and filtered water. Then I will wait the 5 to 8 hours. When I get ready to make my dough I will just measure out what I need once it has bubbled up at room temperature. I return the unused portion back to the fridge.

If your whole starter doesn’t need to be fed, you can take out what you will need, with a couple extra grams to account for what will stick to the bowl. I do 113 grams each of starter, filtered water and flour (unbleached bread flour or unbleached all purpose). This equals 339 grams, and you need 333 for the recipe.

How to assemble the dough

I always use my stand mixer with dough hook to do this. I measure everything on my food scale, which is more accurate and results in no measuring cups or spoons to wash.😎👌🏻

Tip: Always put your dry flour last, right on top of everything else.

Then use the dough hook to mix it together. Everything should come together in one cohesive dough ball, with not much sticking to the bowl. I let that go for about 8 minutes total, which allows the glutens to develop. Mine looks like this.

Next, grease or spray (with cooking spray) a standard loaf pan. I just used avocado oil, which is my go to for baking.

I never measure, but I use about a teaspoon – enough to coat all sides. Use you hand to coat it really well.

Shape your loaf into an oval, and place it seam side down into the oiled pan. Go ahead and oil the top of the bread too, about another half teaspoon.

Rub it in with your hand.

Use a damp kitchen towel, and cover it. Let it sit at room temperature, covered, for about 6 to 8 hours.

Baking the sourdough sandwich bread

After about 6 to 8 hours, your dough should have risen well above the pan. There are a lot of factors that can affect this timeline. In a warm house, this will happen faster. This batch rose for 6 hours, and my house was 75 degrees, FYI.

Here is what mine looks like.

Now, I know it probably goes against bread baking norms, but I don’t punch it down or do a second rise. Mine always does great, exactly how I am showing you. No huge air holes for me. And I have made this probably thirty times or more at the time of this writing.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.  Brush the top of the dough gently with some additional oil, about a teaspoon.

I highly recommend one of these silicone pastry brushes. (👈🏻Amazon affiliate link) They are GREAT, and I use mine all the time.

Once your oven is preheated, bake it for 25 minutes. One optional step I love to do it butter the top of the loaf right when it comes out of the oven. If you are vegan, you can use vegan butter, or skip this step.

Just LOOK at this beauty! Come to mama.😍

I always let it cool before slicing it for sandwiches. The colder bread holds together better. This makes it easier to make thin slices, which is what I like for my sandwiches.

In fact, I keep mine in the fridge in a bread bag (you can get those at WalMart). Why? No preservatives means quick spoilage otherwise. So I usually just slice it as I need it. It seems to keep it fresher that way. (Side note: if anybody has a reusable bread bag you love, let me know!)

However! If you want to eat some of this fresh out of the oven, sliced with a pat of butter, I am so here for that.

I would suggest letting it cool a bit first, about 20 to 30 minutes. It’ll be tough, I know. The bread is actually still cooking a little, even after you take it out of the oven. So be patient.

No worries. It’ll still be warm enough to melt butter, though. 👌🏻

You can also reheat the cold slices in the toaster or microwave for a few seconds. And pro tip: add a drizzle of honey if you want to experience heaven on earth.😋👌🏻

Timeline tips for baking bread

Because we are using wild yeast, the process is a little slower. It takes time, y’all. 

In my opinion, there isn’t too much actual work involved. It is more of an effort to kind of think ahead far enough to know when you need to start the process.

Here are some examples of how I do it. Now that I have my timeline and routines down, I don’t have to think too much about it.

Timeline 1: Baking bread first thing in the morning

My favorite and most used timeline!😆🙌🏻

• Take starter out of fridge at lunch time the day before and feed it. Leave it on the countertop.
• Prepare the dough while I am making dinner. 
• Transfer dough to bread pan, cover and put in the fridge.
• Just before I go to bed, around 10pm, I take it out and let it sit on the counter.
• I wake up around 6:00- 6:30am, and preheat my oven as soon as I wake up.

*Alternative for this timeline: Sometimes I mix the dough up right before I go to bed, skipping the fridge part. The fridge just allows me to slow down the process. I’d personally rather make my dough when I am already in the kitchen cooking dinner.

Timeline 2: Baking bread late afternoon or at dinner time

• Remove starter from fridge the night before and feed it before you go to bed, leaving it on the countertop overnight
• Prepare the dough in the morning after breakfast
• Transfer to loaf pan, cover and let rise on the countertop for at least 6 hours
• Bake late afternoon, or at dinnertime.

*Tip: If you want to delay your rise a couple hours, you can put the unrisen dough in the loaf pan in the refrigerator after you prepare it.

Then remove it about 6 to 8 hours before you want to bake it to let it rise at room temperature. For example, prepare the dough at 8am, place it in the fridge, take it out at 10am to rise until about 5pm to bake for dinner.

Note: If you are preparing dough in the winter, or if your house is cool, it can slow this timeline down significantly. You can expect an extra 1 to 3 hours rise time, if you home is below 70 degrees F. And every starter is a little bit different. It really varies.

My hope is that the photos and all these details can help you get the best results. I hope y’all enjoy this sourdough sandwich bread recipe! Let me know if you try it!

Now excuse me while I go make a sandwich.😉🙃

Sourdough Sandwich Bread Recipe

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