Learn how to make the most perfect, soft and fluffy sourdough sandwich bread! An active sourdough starter gives this bread a beautiful rise without any need for added yeast.
Sourdough breads, like this amazing no-knead sourdough bread, these crusty sourdough rolls, this bread machine sourdough bread and this sourdough olive and sage loaf, are some of my favorite breads to bake. This reader-favorite sourdough sandwich bread, with more than 320 five-star reviews, is on a par with these excellent breads and one I make most often in my kitchen.
The bread turns out just right each time and the recipe makes two sandwich loaves, which last us all week long. And yes, it's mostly white flour, but I don't feel like the devil about it. Research shows that the healthfulness of white sourdough bread exceeds that of wholegrain and multigrain breads.
That's because sourdough has a powerful effect on blood sugar: when left to work its fermenting magic, it breaks down the starches in the foods it's added to, making them easier to digest. Sourdough is also probiotic, which means it is packed with healthy gut bacteria, so you can feel truly holier-than-thou when you smear this bread with some peanut butter or use it to cradle a delicious vegan burger.
Many sourdough breads need to be started a day before, but this sourdough sandwich loaf can easily be made in about eight hours from start to finish, including three rise times. So if you start your bread late in the morning, you can easily have some in time for dinner.
Table of Contents
Why you will love this sourdough sandwich bread
- Buttery and delicious. The sourdough gives the bread a wonderful, buttery flavor in addition to the soft, fluffy texture.
- Healthy bread. Because sourdough starter is fermented, it is full of healthy bacteria that are probiotic and extremely beneficial to the gut microbiome.
- Quick recipe. This bread needs about eight hours of proofing time, total, which is pretty quick for a bread leavened entirely with sourdough and with no added yeast.
- Perfect, fluffy texture. The crust is just lightly chewy and the crumb is soft and fluffy (without any eggs) and just perfect for cradling your favorite sandwich fillings. Stale bread makes great toast.
- Vegan, soy-free, nut-free recipe.
Ingredients
- Sourdough starter: Make sure you use an active, bubbling, recently fed sourdough starter for the best results.
- Unbleached all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour
- Extra virgin olive oil. Or any neutral oil of your choice.
How to make sourdough sandwich bread
Place the sourdough starter in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer.
Add to it the wholewheat flour, 1 cup of all-purpose flour, and water.
Mix well and set it aside, covered, in a warm place for four hours.
After four hours the starter should be fluffy and bubbly.
Add 2 cups of all-purpose flour, olive oil and salt to the bowl and mix.
Add more flour as needed and knead until the dough becomes quite firm but still feels a little sticky to your fingers. You can do this by hand or in a stand mixer on medium-low speed.
Turn out the dough on a flat surface and knead by hand for 4-5 minutes or until the dough feels smooth and springy. Shape into a ball and place in an oiled bowl, turning the ball of dough around once to coat the top with oil.
Cover tightly with a lid or plastic wrap and let the dough rise for two hours in a warm spot. After two hours it should have doubled.
Punch down the dough and divide into two.
Roll out each half into a rectangle, then roll it like a jelly roll and tuck in the ends to form a loaf. The dough should be very pliable.
Prep two standard loaf pans by spraying lightly with oil and then sprinkling on some cornmeal or semolina. Place the formed loaves in the prepared pans. Cover with a kitchen towel and let them stand in a warm place for at least two more hours or until the dough rises above the top of the loaf pans.
About half an hour before baking, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the loaves in the oven and bake 40 minutes. Remove the loaves from the oven, turn them out on a rack, and let them cool thoroughly before slicing.
Top tip
How much water you need for the bread could vary depending on the hydration of your sourdough starter and the weather where you live. If you find that adding two cups of water results in a very sticky dough, reduce the amount of water next time to 1 cup and trickle in the remaining water while kneading the dough, if needed.
Recipe FAQs and troubleshooting
Yes, just halve the amount of ingredients and you are all set!
The culprit here is your sourdough starter. If it is not active and fed recently (as in eight hours to 24 hours before use) you simply won't have enough natural yeast in the starter for the dough to rise.
For a softer crust, replace half the water with soy milk.
Bread flour will give you a crustier loaf and the crumb won't be as soft. But it will still be a pretty good loaf of bread.
Storage instructions
- Refrigerate: The bread can be stored at room temperature for four days and in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
- Freeze: Freeze the bread for up to three months in a freezer-safe bag, whole or sliced.
- Thaw fully before reheating.
More sourdough bread recipes
Sourdough Sandwich Bread Recipe
Equipment
- Large mixing bowl or stand mixer
- 2 loaf pans
Ingredients
- 1½ cups sourdough starter (bubbling and active)
- 1½ cups lukewarm water
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 4-5 cups unbleached all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (or any neutral oil of your choice)
- 1 teaspoon sea salt (or any salt of your choice)
Instructions
- Place the sourdough starter in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Add to it the wholewheat flour, 1 cup of all-purpose flour, and water. Mix well and set it aside, covered, in a warm place for four hours.
- Add 2 cups of all-purpose flour, olive oil and salt and mix. Add more flour as you knead until the dough becomes quite firm but still feels a little sticky to your fingers. You can do this by hand or in the stand mixer, using the dough hook attachment, on medium-low speed.
- Turn out the dough on the kitchen platform or any flat surface and knead by hand for 4-5 minutes or until the dough feels smooth and springy to your fingers and barely sticks to the platform.
- Shape into a ball and place in an oiled bowl, turning the ball of dough around once to coat the top with oil.
- Cover tightly and place in a warm spot (like an oven with the light turned on) for at least two hours or until the dough has doubled.
- Punch down the dough and divide into two. Roll out each half into a rectangle, about seven by 10 inches, and roll it up like a jelly roll. With the seam side down, tuck in the ends to form a loaf.
- Prepare two loaf pans by spraying or brushing lightly with oil and then sprinkling on some cornmeal or semolina on the bottom and sides.
- Place the loaves into the prepared loaf pans. Cover with a kitchen towel and let them stand in a warm place for at least two more hours or until the dough domes above the top of the loaf pans.
- About half an hour before baking, preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Place the loaves in the oven and bake 40 minutes.
- Remove the loaves from the oven, turn them out on a rack, and let them cool thoroughly before slicing.
Recipe notes
- You can increase salt by another teaspoon if you want to.
- If your sourdough starter is made using someone else's recipe, you may need more or less water to form the dough. In that case add 1 cup water in step 1 and trickle in more as needed when kneading the dough in step 2.
Nan
Would love to see this demonstrated on video. I wish you have a Youtube channel. I've never made bread and not sure what you mean by 'punch it down'.
Jess
I have made this several times... I have never gotten it to rise out of my loaf pans. Wondering if it may be my pan size verses yours? I know my starter is good- when you add it to the ww flour, water and all purpose flour it bubbles well.
Vaishali
You can try making it in a different pan -- I use a standard pan which is around 8 X 4 inches, I think.
Bridget
My bread turned out more like a bagget as my husband put it..but still very good and flavorful..it definitely was not sandwich bread like I hoped not sure why but at least it turned out good
N
Loved your bread. Just cant get over throwing away the starter every time you feed it. Does anyone have ideas of how to use the discarded starter?
Vaishali
Hi N, I just started a post for five delicious recipes to use sourdough discard and I'll post it this week. Stay tuned.
JoAnn
I don’t discard anymore. Once I had a good, mature starter, I just found it easier to keep it in the refrigerator. That way you don’t have to feed it daily. Take it out the evening before you want to use it, feed it, then leave out overnight. Take out what you need for your recipe the next morning, then feed it again. Leave out a couple hours, then put back in the refrigerator.
Viv
Hi Vaishali. I love this Sourdough Sandwich Bread recipe, which is how I found the recipe for your starter. My question concerns how you measure. I prefer to bake by weight measurements but when I tried that my sandwich bread was a huge fail. Since the hydration rate is key to success, will you be so kind as to share your preference for measuring flours by “cup”, ie: the spoon and sweep method, dip and sweep? The results are startling different by method used. Thank you so much!
carol
I made this today! well, yesterday and today.... great recipe! My starter is 100% hydration. I didn't modify any of the ingredients, but after the levan (first step) i let it go overnight in the refrigerator. This morning, i did the next step, doing most of the kneading in the stand mixer, then let it rise 4 hours instead of 2 for the first rise, and around 3 or 3.5 for the second. The bread is AWESOME!!! i will probably let it rise more the second rise next time, to make it a bit taller, but the flavor and crumb are perfect for us!
Marcella
I made this bread this past week and it is great! Really easy to follow recipe and the bread is good. It slices easy, holds together for sandwiches, and has a great classic sourdough aroma and taste without being too strong. Thank you for this recipe:). I plan to make some rolls with this dough next week
Katie
I am fairly new to baking bread and have tried several recipes looking for something to replace my weekly purchase of bread at the store. This is it!! I cut it in half because it is just two of us and add flour during the kneading until it is just barely sticky. I also butter the top while still warm to make it a deeper shade of golden. Otherwise it is exactly as described and so good! Thank you so much for sharing!
ROB
I made this today, turned out great. Thanks for the recipe.
Vaishali
Happy to hear! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
Annette
Thank you for the recipe, it turned out great! I didn't read the comments first about the water ratio in the sourdough starter and ended up using another quarter cup of flour, and luckily it was a forgiving recipe. Can't wait to make it again with the correct sourdough starter.
Denise
Since my comment, I've been researching how bakers work with starter. I've learned a TON about sourdough and how to work with starter for a variety of approaches! Cultures for Life has some helpful information, and I tried their bread recipe, but it was not as good as this one. I've finally figured it out, and this recipe is - hands down - our favorite. The biggest secret to sourdough is to work with it visually vs. timing - it may take five hours to rise instead of two. I also went with a longer first ferment time (the 4 hrs can be up to 24 hrs) for an even more sour flavor, and just one rising time in the pans after kneading. The second biggest secret is that sourdough is way more sticky than regular bread dough, and that's okay! I've learned to appreciate and manage the 'taffy' style. I LOVE having learned all of this, thank you very much for encouraging it! I can't imagine my life without sourdough bread - we eat this every day!
Kirsten
So, I tried it, But ended up doing not following the instructions correctly. I used rye flour to start my starter dough. Its winter here in South Africa so the fermentation was pretty slow. I fed it every second day, which allowed for more fermentation. I made the bread on the seventh day from the discarded feed (had it stored in the fridge, and I hate unnecessary waste) which I left on the counter top overnight to ferment and combined it with the starter dough. I mixed everything together adding one cup flour at a time without the initial step of fermenting the starter dough with 1 cup of flour. It rose but not very high. I kneaded out the air and stuck it in the oven over night to rise and it worked, it doubled in size but I forgot to rise it in the pans I was baking it in, so I had to transfer the mixture to the baking pans. Its quite dense, heavy almost like a ciabatta and such a beautiful flavour... Im now slowly adding in AP flour to my rye starter to create something less dense. Can't wait to try your brioche loaf but will wait until i've worked out the rye out of my starter dough. Thank you for all the wonderful recipes!!
Fran
How do you measure your starter, do you flatten it?
Vaishali
The starter is not very firm, so it should level out on its own when you measure it to the top of the cup. Don't heap it.
Pam
Could you elaborate on your starter? Did you start with wheat flour and feed with all purpose? Thanks
Denise
I'm running into the same problem as others. The first few times I made this recipe it was great. Now, every time, I get the taffyish dough. It kneads up nicely, but then won't rise and is like gooey taffy when I try to shape the loaves. It doesn't rise at all in the pans. And then barely in the oven. So sad. What's going wrong? I tried the no knead loaf and the same thing is happening. Taffy dough. I make quick dosas from the sourdough, and those are amazing. Help?