Learning to make soft sourdough sandwich bread is a good journey for any home baker. This bread is a real treat — tangy flavor that combines with soft, fluffy texture and makes a great sandwich bread, toast, or just a slice with a pat of butter. In this article, I’ll go from prepping your sourdough starter to the end of the golden loaf. From starter to rest time to the finishing toppings, this guide to making perfect sourdough sandwich bread at home is something every budding sourdough baker — beginner or pro — will love.
What is Sourdough Sandwich Bread?
A sourdough sandwich bread is made using naturally fermented sourdough starter that is the key behind a signature tangy flavor. Unlike commercial bread made with yeasts, fermentation here is done slowly, maybe even longer, so it develops complex flavors. Soft sourdough sandwich bread has a perfect texture for sandwiches because its crumb is soft but sturdy. With practice, you can make a homemade loaf that is better than any store-bought bread.
Why Choose Soft Sourdough Sandwich Bread for Your Loaf?
Baking to soft sourdough sandwich bread means you’re in the driver’s seat regarding ingredients and flavor profile of your bread. What makes this such a good choice for sandwiches is that it’s succulent but holds its shape as you layer toppings on it. In addition, fermentation provides the loaf with a better digestibility than is possible using commercial yeast. Baking your sourdough sandwich bread from home means you can get nice fresh bread with the distinctive yeasty tangy taste warm out of the oven.
How to Start Your Sourdough Journey: Activating the Sourdough Starter
The perfect sandwich sourdough starter requires an active sourdough starter. The secret to perfect rise and flavour in your loaf is this. If you feed your sourdough starter equal proportions or 1 part bread flour and another 1 part water at room temperature. Now, when you’re starting from scratch, you’re looking at a few days before you should be making this bread, but if you’ve gotten your starter started, you’re ready to rock and roll. If you use an active starter, your sourdough sandwich bread will be light, fluffy, and full of flavor!
What Ingredients Do You Need for the Perfect Sourdough Loaf?
From bread flour, water, salt, and an active sourdough starter, you can make a great soft sourdough sandwich bread. But some bakers throw in a little bit of whole wheat flour or all flour to add even more flavor and texture. If you want a softer loaf, add a little oil or butter; if you’d like to sweeten the dough a little, use a teaspoon of sugar or honey. Sourdough sandwich bread is as simple as they come and these ingredients combine to make a perfect everyday recipe you can use all the time.
How to Make Sourdough Sandwich Bread: A Step-by-Step Recipe
In a stand mixer bowl, combine bread flour, water, sourdough starter, and salt. After there knead the dough for about 10 minutes until it becomes smooth and elastic. When the dough is ready, put it on a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let it rise. If you choose to let the dough rise, though, give it several hours for the bulk to rise, more likely several hours rather than several minutes, as this will take longer in cooler temperatures. Short rise, shape the dough into a loaf, put into a loaf pan, second rise, and bake.
What Tools Do You Need for Sourdough Baking?
Here are a few things necessary to bake the perfect sourdough sandwich bread. The right loaf pan is all you need if you want the right shape loaf. The stand mixer makes mixing and kneading easier, and especially for a beginner, the task gets considerably easy. A kitchen scale to measure your ingredients with accuracy and a dough scraper to handle the dough are other good tools. Finally, you’re going to want a warm environment like an oven with light on to help your dough rise.
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How Long Should You Let the Dough Rise?
Letting the dough rise long enough is the secret to a soft, airy sourdough sandwich bread. First rise, or bulk fermentation, should take 4-6hours, or depend on your room temperature. However, it’s essential to allow the dough to rise until doubled. The second rise in the loaf pan should take 1-2 hours after shaping the dough to the loaf. That soft, fluffy texture of a good soft sourdough sandwich bread is dependent on proper fermentation.
What’s the Best Loaf Pan for Baking Sourdough Bread?
Shaping your sourdough sandwich bread means you need to pick the right loaf pan. Most recipes will use a standard 9×5 inch bread pan. Grain lightly as sticky the dough makes in the pan before placing inside. This lets the loaf keep its shape while it rises the second time and bakes, making for a tall, organically shaped loaf. If you are baking sourdough bread, nonstick or ceramic-coated pan would be the best option.
How to Achieve the Perfect Soft and Fluffy Texture?
The balancing act between hydration and kneading is the secret for a soft and fluffy sourdough sandwich bread. Good elasticity can be built only with the right ratio of water to flour, usually bread flour. Other things to do with the dough are important, too, say kneading because it gets the gluten to develop in the dough, and those breads are then structured and soft. You also want to knead the dough enough to get a smooth consistency. In addition, they also help to control the time of fermentation, thus making sure that it gets to rise properly and thus provide it with a soft texture.
How to Store and Keep Your Sourdough Sandwich Bread Fresh
Soft sour dough sandwich bread keeps well with plastic bread bag or in an airtight container. It helps retain the moisture and softens the air bread for couple of days. Freezing the slices in individual portions is the method to use if you want to store it for a longer period, as it will avoid a ‘bad’ environment for the dough to stay in. Always have fresh, homemade bread anytime, and when you’re ready to eat, just reheat the slices in a toaster or oven.
Key Takeaways:
- My two favorite sandwiches are made with Sourdough sandwich bread and it has a tangy flavor and soft texture (not mushy or too floppy!).
- The way to make a light and fluffy loaf is with an active sourdough starter.
- For tons of flavor, use a mix of both bread flour and whole wheat flour.
- Letting the dough rise twice is best for the texture, give yourself enough time.
- To keep bread fresh for longer, store your bread in plastic bread bags.
- You’ll never go back to store bought soft sourdough sandwich bread once you enjoy baking your own.
FAQs
How do you make soft sourdough sandwich bread?
If you want to make soft sourdough sandwich bread, your starter should be well-fed. Start with your sourdough starter being active, bubbly, and at room temperature. They use some combination of bread flour and all purpose flour for a soft texture. Use a trusted sourdough sandwich bread recipe that requires a thorough kneading technique, allows good rise, and bake in a preheated loaf pan.
But how did I activate my sourdough starter for this recipe?
To activate your sourdough starter, feed it with equal parts of flour and water (typically, a 1:Let this sit at room temperature for several hours until it is bubbly and magnified (1 ratio). This process usually runs about 4 to 6 hours, depending on the temperature of your kitchen. Once you’ve activated it, you can make this recipe with it.
Can I use whole wheat flour in my sourdough sandwich bread?
A tip: whole wheat flour works well in your sourdough sandwich bread, too. But you should only use it mixed with bread flour or all-purpose flour for best results. Half-bread flour and half-whole wheat flour is a common ratio when bread remains soft and fluffy without being too healthy because we don’t want our bread to have that ‘diet food’ brick quality.