Soft and fluffy sourdough sandwich bread is the perfect bread to have on hand. Made with all purpose flour, sourdough starter, butter and a little honey, this fermented bread has a lighter texture and tangy flavor.
One of the main complaints I hear about making crusty sourdough from readers is that they miss the soft sandwich loaf style of bread.
Not only is this recipe absolutely delicious (making it really hard to ever go back to store-bought bread), but it is also super simple. No strange ingredients, no stretching and folding every 30 minutes… Just mix, rise, shape, rise again, and bake.
Let it cool, slice and slather it with butter. It’s so yummy and it reminds me of a bread you would get on a breadboard from a restaurant.
Let’s be honest, though, it’s way better since it’s made from scratch and has that wonderful sourdough tang.
Make sure to save this sourdough loaf bread recipe for the future. It will be a go to for sure.
Tips:
- Use really soft butter and cube it up so it blends easier.
- Don’t over ferment the dough. It will turn into a wet sloppy disaster that won’t rise well. Still edible. Maybe. It could also be turned into sourdough croutons.
- When making the dough, using a stand mixer makes the process much easier and hands off. You can also do this with your hands.
- If you are new to sourdough, you can check out how to make a sourdough starter here, find my sourdough conversion chart, and baking glossary of terms.
This post contains affiliate links, which means I make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
Tools you may need:
Measuring cups and spoons. You could also use a kitchen scale
FAQ:
Does sourdough bread make good sandwiches?
Yes. The delightful tanginess adds to the flavor profile of the sandwich, making it a wonderful addition. You can use crusty sourdough bread or this soft sourdough sandwich loaf.
Why is my sourdough sandwich bread not rising?
There could be a few reasons for this. The most likely one is that your sourdough starter may not be active enough or is weak.
Another contributor could be the temperature of the room where you are placing your dough to rise. The cooler the temperature the longer it will take for bread to rise.
Lastly, the water you use in your dough mixture could be a factor. If the water used was too hot, it may have killed the starter. Additionally, if you are using city water the chlorine could potentially kill the yeasts in the starter.
Are sourdough sandwiches healthy?
Sourdough is one of the healthiest breads since the grains are fermented, which makes it more digestible and the nutrients more available for your body to absorb.
Top with your favorite healthy toppings and you can have a wholesome and filling meal in one sandwich.
Ingredients:
Butter (softened) or coconut oil – I prefer using butter for that savory buttery flavor. If you are wanting to make a vegan version, you can use softened (not melted) coconut oil.
Honey or sugar – I like to use honey since it is a natural sweetener.
Salt – This gives the bread so much flavor and skipping it will leave you with a tasteless loaf.
Sourdough starter – You want a nice active and bubbly starter to make bread. Starter that isn’t ripe won’t produce nice fluffy bread.
Water – Room temperature.
All-purpose flour – The best part of this recipe is that it uses good ol’ plain all-purpose flour. Nothing fancy.
How To Make Sourdough Sandwich Bread
To a stand mixer, add all of the ingredients. I like to add the flour last, so I can add a bit less or more depending on my starter’s hydration.
Knead until dough is stretchy and smooth. You want it to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl and be smooth and elastic – about 10 minutes. It should pass the windowpane test. Grab a small ball of the dough and stretch it into a square. It should stretch thin enough to see through without breaking.
Tip: This isn’t a super hydrated dough and won’t be very wet like other doughs.
Allow to bulk rise for 10-12 hours in a warm place like on top of a stove or refrigerator. You can go longer if you want the benefit of the fermentation, but if it gets over-proofed the dough will turn into a sloppy mess!
In the summer, I ferment mine more like 8 hours but can get away with longer in the colder months.
Shape The Loaves And Rise
Grease two loaf pans or add parchment paper.
Divide in two equal parts.
Shape by rolling the dough flat into a rectangle and rolling it up.
Add to parchment lined or buttered loaf pans.
Second rise for 2-4 hours at room temperature, or until doubled. Again this depends on the temp! It could be as little as 1 hour if the house is warm and the starter active. Do not skip this step.It adds volume and strength to the dough.
Bake
You can add an optional egg wash for more browning.
Bake at 375 for 45 minutes, or until golden on top.
Allow to cool completely before slicing.
Storage:
Store in an air-tight container for up to five days for best results.
You can also freeze loaves in freezer safe plastic bags for 3-6 months.
Find More Of My Sourdough Recipes:
- Sourdough Zucchini Bread
- Easy Homemade Sourdough Pasta Recipe
- Sourdough Coffee Cake
- The Best Soft Sourdough Pretzels
- Sourdough Brioche
If you try this recipe and love it, I would love if you could come back and give it 5 stars! Tag me on Instagram @farmhouseonboone .
Sourdough Sandwich Bread
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup butter, softened or coconut oil (113 g)
- 2 tablespoons honey or sugar, 42 g for honey or 24 g for sugar
- 1 tablespoon salt, 17 g
- 1 cup starter, active and bubbly (227 g)
- 2 1/2 cups water, 590 g
- 8 cups all purpose flour, 1120 g*
Instructions
- To a stand mixer, add all of the ingredients. I like to add the flour last, so I can add a bit less or more depending on my starter's hydration.
- Knead until dough is stretchy and smooth. You want it to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl and be smooth and elastic – about 10 minutes. It should pass the windowpane test.
- Allow to bulk rise for 10-12 hours in a warm place like on top of a stove or refrigerator.
- Divide in two equal parts.
- Shape by rolling the dough flat into a rectangle and rolling it up.
- Add to parchment lined or buttered loaf pans.
- Second rise for 2-4 hours at room temperature, or until doubled.
- Bake at 375 for 45 minutes, or until golden on top. You can add an optional egg wash for more browning.
- Allow to cool completely before slicing.
Notes
- *Some people have said making two loaves is too much for their stand mixer to handle. This depends on the type of stand mixer you have. If you have a standard KitchenAid mixer, you may want to halve the recipe and make one loaf.
- Use really soft butter and cube it up so it blends easier.
- Don’t over ferment the dough. It will turn into a wet sloppy disaster that won’t rise well. Still edible. Maybe. It could also be turned into sourdough croutons.
- When making the dough, using a stand mixer makes the process much easier and hands off. You can also do this with your hands.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
THANK YOU! My goal over the summer (I teach, I’m off) was to be able to get a sourdough starter going and maintain it so I could bake bread for my family.
I binged your sourdough videos on YouTube and found this recipe here. This has made it easy to get my own starter going and to make loaves. 10 years ago I would’ve laughed at the thought of putting so much effort into bread, but there’s so much hands off time it really is easy. Thank you for making it seem not so difficult and for posting these sourdough videos! My family thanks you, too – they love eating “Bilbo bread!” (That’s what we named our starter.)
Thank you so much for sharing this and for your kind words!
Can you use this recipe in a breadmaker on the dough cycle? Thanks.
This recipe would most likely be too much dough for a bread maker. You could half it, or use this recipe: https://www.farmhouseonboone.com/bread-machine-sourdough-bread-recipe
THANK YOU FOR DOING THE GRAMS MEASUREMENT! been following your recipes for years and tell all my friends, but I love weighing my ingredients especially flour, so thank you!
Glad the weight measurements help!
Please remind me what the window pane text is?
Taking a small amount of dough, stretch it between your fingers into a square to see if it can stretch thin enough to be able to “see” through it without breaking. This is a good indicator that enough gluten formation has been created to capture a good rise and large holes in the crumb.
Everything about this recipe came out perfect!!! I started with your sourdough starter recipe as well. I just would like to know if there is a way to take away that ‘tangy’ taste?
Glad you enjoyed it! The tangy taste is a signature sourdough flavor.
My 9 year old has found a love for sourdough through your instructions. She started making your sandwhich bread now and our family is VERY happy. Thank you!
That is amazing! Kids in the kitchen are the best!
Hi Lisa!
I made this for the first time today! Although, it turned out pretty tasty, it’s a little too dense to be sandwich bread. Any ideas as to what I can do differently?
Hmmm I wonder what happened. Was your sourdough starter super active and pass the float test when starting the dough? Did you knead it until it passed the window pane test? Lastly, did it rise until almost double each time and not too long or too short. Those are usually the main culprits for a dense bread.
I tried this recipe and though some things seemed a bit off, it worked out in the end with some last minut adjustments. The thing I couldn’t figure out was the amount of flour. I’m a digital scale kind of baker. Your ingredient list has 8 cups of flour (or 1200 grams). I didn’t double check and weighed out that much flour and it was a lot, probably too much. When I checked King Arthur Flour’s site on measurement conversions, they have 1 c of AP flour as 120 grams. So the 1200 grams is really 10 cups! Which is why my dough almost broke my KitchenAid, lol. I had to divvy it in half and add a bit of water to get it going properly. In the end I did end up with two delicious loaves. Will definitely keep using this recipe for sandwich bread, but with 960 grams f flour. Thank you!
I’m glad you found a way to work for you Myriam! If you have a tilt head stand mixer, it may be too much dough and many have found they have to half the recipe or mix it in batches. The reason it is 1200g is because this recipe was originally created in cups rather than grams and was converted to grams based on how I typically measure (so what a cup of flour scooped out how I normally scoop it and then weighed). It was then recipe tested to confirm. So it should’ve worked with 10 as well. With sourdough recipes, the hydration of the starter and the environment may also change how wet the dough is. Hope that helps!
Dear Lisa, I discovered your YouTube Channel a few weeks ago when I was looking for sourdough sandwich bread recipes. Last night I made the dough and this morning I baked the two loafs. The recipe turned out beautiful. Thank you!
Kind regards from Braunschweig, Germany. Michelle
So glad you enjoyed it!
Love this bread!! I have not bought store bought bread in so long ever since I started making this bread! Thanks for all of your helpful tips. Love what you’re doing and super thankful for all of your tips. You’ve taken the anxiety that I had about sourdough and if me a mom of 6 kids could actually make time to do it! Thank you! Thank you!!
Thank you for your kind words! So glad you are enjoying making sourdough!