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.
Jayan
I am enjoying making of sourdough starter as per your recipe. I had lost my mother starter as i missed feeding her.Thanks
Lynda
What size loaf pans do you use for this recipe?
Marya Wall
If I want to make something with my starter every day or a couple things in one day, should I have doubled my starter to start with? Or will it eventually be a lot of starter? I'm new to all of this, I thought I'd only be using like a couple Tablespoons for each recipe but looks like it's a cup or more each.
Vaishali
Replace the amount you remove. So if I use a cup of stater I'd feed it a cup of flour and the proportionate amount of water.
Carmen
I generally keep less than a cup of starter in the fridge. I put my starter in the fridge fed and when I take it out, I let it come to room temp and feed it again. THEN I feed it for the recipe I am going to bake, whether it's 1/3 cup, which is typical for a rustic or classic loaf or 1-1/2 as for this one. I start the night before and then check in the morning to see if it is active. If it isn't, I feed it again. When I take out the amount for my recipe I put the starter right back in the fridge as I bake once a week.
Ken
I recently created both a rye sourdough starter and a wheat sourdough starter. I named them after my Grandfathers brother and sister Jim and Emma. Jim fought in WW1, then came home to care for his sister who had mental health issues, which I now believe was ADHD. I was recently diagnosed after quitting a lifetime habit of smokeless tobacco. So I figured that since Jim and Emma never got to have any kids of their own to carry on their legacy I would name my starters after them
Elena
That is a beautiful tribute! I am named after my Opa's sister who survived the war, but not without her own wounds, and never had children of her own. But Opa's eldest sister died just about a month before he was born, a victim of the Soanish Flu. I think I know what my starter's name is now going to be.
Thank you so much for the inspiration!
Vaishali
That is a beautiful plan, Ken. Thanks for sharing your story.
Hillary
Hello,
Making your starter for the first time and am on day 4. Wondering if you could clarify what it means that the starter is “strong”. Does that mean not runny?
Also, once the starter is done, would you cut the ingredient proportions for the bread recipe in half if using a bread machine?
Thank you! I was thrilled to find a sugar free recipe,
Carmen
Depending on where you live, starter takes roughly 10 days to 2 weeks to get active. (The wild yeast that creates your starter actually comes from YOUR air)
Even though there are recipes for starters, it doesn't really matter how "runny" it is. The amount of liquid only comes into play when you are baking and your liquid ratio can affect the success of your bread.
I generally keep my starter at a medium wetness - thicker than pancake batter but not too hard to stir.
The way you know your starter is ready for baking: Put about 1/2 teaspoon in a glass of room temp water. If if floats it is active or "strong" - same thing. Voila!
Benjamin Hill
I have been using this recipe each weekend for at least 6 weeks. It mixes very wet for me. I knead with a scrapper in my right hand and left hand caked with sticky, sticky bread dough. It comes out of the oven very soft but firms-up quite a bit after 1.5 days. I’ve found the loaf stays softer longer with the addition of finely shredded Asiago cheese. I’ve found it rises better with 1/4 cup of local, raw honey. I don’t know if the author looks down on my patronization of honey-theft from the bees.
My question is this: Has anyone mastered how to freeze this particular dough? If so, when and how exactly do you interrupt the recipe instructions with the freezing of the dough?
Laurie M LaDow
At what point do you add the honey?
Ben
I add the honey before the final rise, before separating into bread pans.
I have been trying to freeze just after separating and before the final rise.
So far, with those I’ve frozen, I find myself having to add in a teaspoon of yeast (or 1/2 teaspoon per loaf), because it simply cannot muster the strength to rise much (if any at all) over the sides of my bread pan.
At 4.5” wide by 2.75” high, this bread still tastes great, but it is not as practical as a nearly-square slice for sandwiches or fishing out of a toaster.
The only shot I have of getting it to rise enough after being frozen is by letting it sit in my microwave oven with a fairly large amount of water in a pan, straight from the boiling kettle. Even then, it sometimes starts falling back down, before rising enough.
Saira
Would this work even if I put all the ingredients in one go instead of separating it into two steps?
I'm thinking to make the dough before work so that it's ready to bake when I get home.
Lisa
This is a lovely recipe. I make sourdough but wanted a sandwich loaf. I did cheat and add an egg for extra lift and some extra oil. The bread was fantastic and the dough was so easy to handle. This is my new favourite recipe!
Vanessa
Thanks for sharing! Do it keep long?
Michele Holland
New to sourdough. Need to let the second proof rise at least 12 hours, but by that time the top is hard, so slicing it deflates the loaves. I have oiled the tops and covered also. any advise is appreciated. Michele
Vaishali
Hi Michele, are you covering the loaf pan during the rise? I use a shower cap which fits snugly around the pan and also gives the loaf room to rise. 🙂
Michele
I have just started making sourdough, and like this recipe quite a bit. I am having trouble with the long time it takes to rise the second time because by the time it is a good size, the top of the crust is hard despite my having oiled it. When I go to mark the crust before baking the top deflates a bit. Any advise would be appreciated. TIA Michele
Joann
Hi Vaishali,
On your 75% hydration of 3/4 c of water and 1 c of flour, how much starter? Looking forward
to trying your loaf pan recipe.
Anonymous
Is there a sourdough shortcut with yogurt? Very much appreciate your inputs!
Irene
Love this recipe! I'm a very relaxed Baker who is not very finicky with Rufus (my sourdough). Because I don't always have time for waiting, I use a slower fridge rise regularly. I'll put it in the fridge after kneading, sometimes for a few days. Then I shape or right out of the fridge, and either let it rise, or throw it back in the fridge. If I put it back in the fridge, I bake it straight into a hot oven right from the fridge. No kidding this week I got a cold and forgot about the bread in the fridge, so I'm currently baking two loaves that got started a week ago! So nice and forgiving!!!
Fiona
Ive been trying out sourdough sandwich bread recipes and this is absolutely the best ive found.
Worked really well. wish i knew how to post a photo of it here. Lovely golden crust(dark tins) Had to turn them upside down for 10 minutes at low gas 4 to get the bottoms cooked properly and that hollow tap.
Im not Vegan, but enjoy Vegetarian/vegan days and try to cover all dietary requirements at my BnB in Scotland UK
Wee point...I will put a bit of extra salt in the next bake.
Thank you
Tanja Turney
Hello,
Thank you for the recipe. I have made it twice and I Love the Taste. I do have a question, I have followed your recipe exactly and my starter is very active. The dough rises fine during the proofing phase but it won’t rise for the last proofing phase after it put it in the pans. Any ideas? I am using the starter recipe from King Arthur flour.
Michele
Hi
I made this recipe, all seemed to go very well throughtout the process. But after rising over 3 hours the dough in the pan didnt rise over the top. However, it did rise above the top during the bake. But the top split on one side. It doesn't have the same shape as your photo. I used an 8x4 pan and made 2 loaves. It was a little crustier than I thought it would be.
Did I do something wrong or just expected different results?
Thanks for sharing the recipe, I will make it again.
Michele
Vaishali
Hi Michele, one of the wonderful aspects about cooking with sourdough is that you can never quite tell how the bread will change in the oven. Usually it's a good surprise. 🙂 I wouldn't worry too much about the split top, because that's just the gases escaping -- you can try to control the split the next time by making a quick cut on the top of the loaf with a serrated knife before baking, to let the gases escape. And this bread does have a slightly crisp crust, but that too can change depending on your baking pan and even the weather where you are.