Sourdough Sandwich Bread

I generally prefer crusty hearth breads, but some people apparently have an aversion to crust. In order to rescue them from the horrors of store-bought, pre-sliced, industrial "bread" (okay, it's not that bad...) I've been tinkering with a sourdough sandwich bread. Here's the most recent iteration, which is just about right.

I should mention that this is not a bland sandwich bread. It's rather robust, actually, and if you put weak ingredients on it they will be drowned out. I recommend, for example, a strong cheese, mustard, and a sour pickle, and maybe a pint of good beer with it.

This dough is a little drier than my hearth breads, and contains vegetable oil as a preservative so it'll stale more slowly. The lower hydration and specifics of baking make for a tighter crumb, which is better for sandwiches and shelf life. The dough is a little sticky, but otherwise well-behaved. The recipe below makes two 26-ounce loaves in standard loaf pans, or scale as desired.

Firm Starter

Barm 233 (10.5 oz)
Bread flour 100 (4.5 oz)

Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Firm Starter 70 (15 oz)
Bread flour 50 (10.7 oz)
Whole wheat flour 50 (10.7 oz)
Water 57 (12 oz)
Honey 7 (1.5 oz)
Oil 7 (1.5 oz)
Salt 3 (0.6 oz)

Start out by making firm starter, one or two days before the complete dough. Knead until it comes together, and let rise for about 4 hours before refrigerating. You could skip the refrigeration for a milder flavor.

Combine all dough ingredients in a large bowl and stir until they come together, then turn out to knead. Knead until smooth and elastic, passing the windowpane test, then return to the bowl and let rise, covered, for a few hours (until doubled).



Lightly grease your bread pans. Punch down your dough and divide into 26-ounce pieces. (More if you want a larger loaf, but for bread pans I wouldn't suggest more than 28 ounces.) Form them into rounds:


Then press them flat and roll them up into even cylinders. This is similar to shaping bâtards but without tapering the ends.



Place them seam-side-up in the pans and rotate so the seam-side ends up on the bottom; this gets a light coating of oil on the top crust to soften it. Cover with a cloth and place in the oven (which should be off) to proof. If you have a pilot light this will decrease proofing time; otherwise it's just convenient.


When the top of the loaf has risen just above the edge of the pan (or a little higher for larger loaves), turn on the oven to 350. Remember to remove the cloth covering the loaves first; that's not a surprise you want. The loaves will finish proofing while the oven heats up, combining it with oven spring.


After 10 minutes:


After about 25 minutes with the oven on, depending on loaf size and how quickly your oven heats up, remove the loaves from the pans for even crust formation.


Let bake another 20 minutes or so, until done (loaves will sound hollow when you knock on the bottom).


Let cool, and enjoy! This stales more slowly than most hearth breads if stored properly, but it does stale; if you're not going to eat all of it within a few days I'd recommend slicing it and freezing. You can either warm the slices in a toaster or make lunch sandwiches in the morning on frozen slices, which will thaw by lunchtime (or so I'm told by my tester).

The flavor is balanced and complex, pretty much exactly what I was looking for, and the keeping time is about as good as I expect from something that isn't a cracker. My only complaint about this batch was that the loaves were a hair too small. There will be more of this coming out of my oven in the near future. One variation that I'll try at some point is replacing the honey with maple syrup; I did that once with a whole wheat loaf and it imparted a delicate maple aroma.

Happy baking!