Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Christina

A soft, delicious, tender-crumb sourdough sandwich bread that holds its shape and is delicious for sandwiches or with butter and jam.

5 from 6 votes

Prep Time 45

Cook Time 40

Resting Time 22

Total Time 23 25

Course Appetizer, Breakfast, Side Dish

Cuisine American

Servings 24 slices

Calories 147 kcal

12-24 hours ahead of the time you intend to mix the final dough, make this "child" starter from the "mother" rye sourdough stater.
In a clean jar, mix 30 grams of Rye Sourdough Starter with 130 grams warm water until the sourdough starter is broken up and you have a slurry. Add 130 grams of Bread Flour, mix until thoroughly combined and no dry flour remains.
Set aside at room temperature for 12-24 hours until you see small carbon dioxide bubbles form. Once this has happened you are ready to move on to the final mix. You can see the levain with tiny bubbles in the photo below in the upper left hand corner of the ingredients.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix together the water, Rye Sourdough Starter and the Levain.
Add the rest of the ingredients to the mixing bowl.
Using the dough hook, mix the ingredients on Level 1 for two minutes until all dry ingredients are incorporated.
Switch to Level 2 and mix for another 6 minutes until a smooth soft dough is formed. The dough is somewhat wet, so it will stick to the lower sides and bottom of the bowl and begin to crawl up the dough hook - see image.

Prepare your container with spray oil.
Scrape the dough with a bowl scraper onto a floured work surface. Pull the sides of the dough into the center. Flip it over so folds are at the bottom and form a loose dough ball as best as you can (it is a wet dough and is okay if it is not perfect).
Place the loose ball of dough into the prepared container.
Cover the container and allow to rise until doubled in size, 6-8 hours depending on the warmth of your kitchen. (Mine was quite warm (77F degrees) and my bread doubled in size in about 7 hours).

Flatten the first half of the dough into an 8" square.
Roll dough up tightly into a log, tucking the ends under. Pinch together and flip over so the seam is facing down.
Repeat with the second half of dough.

Prepare your bread pans with a light spray of oil.
Gently lift your shaped dough and place into the prepared pans. Ensure the seam is facing down (the bottom of the pan) and the ends are neatly tucked under.

Cover with oiled plastic wrap and set aside to rise in a warm location for 1-2 hours.
Once they have doubled in size, you are ready to move on to the next step.

Preheat oven to 375 F degrees.
While oven is preheating, remove plastic wrap from dough, cut a parallel line in the top of the dough to allow steam to escape while baking.
Brush the top of the dough with egg white and sprinkle with desired topping, I used sesame seeds.
Place in preheated oven and bake 35-40 minutes until golden brown and hollow sounding. Check half-way and turn pans around if they are browning unevenly.

Once bake is complete, remove these from the oven, and remove baked loaves from the pans.
Place on cooling rack for one hour or until completely cool to the touch.

When completely cool, store in plastic bag. Thanks to the addition of sourdough, milk powder, honey, and butter, this bread remains fresh for three days.

Keyword sandwich bread, Soft bread, sourdough, white bread