White Sourdough Sandwich Bread

This white sourdough sandwich bread, for us, is an absolute winner! Really? Yes, really! Why? Here we go:

It is not only delicious and looks really nice (look at the shiny crust!) but it is also very versatile. It’s actually 2 breads in 1 – like those jackets you can flip around and have a totally different look. Only that this bread is prettier than any jacket 😉

It comes very close to what you may know as „butter sandwich bread“, the ones you can buy in the supermarkets. Only difference is that this one is tastier, saltier and it doesn’t contain all these preservatives.

When just taking it out of the oven and eating it while still warm, it reminds of milk bread rolls and the taste is more sweetish.

See, very versatile and absolutely worth trying out this recipe! Enjoy and let us know how you like it in the comments below. We would love to read your opinion!

Things to know before you start

Time Schedule

In under 16 hours you will have a shiny white sourdough sandwich bread on the table.

Total ingredients

You will have a dough of about 917 g in total. If you have 2 loaf pans you can also just double all ingredients and make 2 sandwich breads at the time like we did.

Make sure to have a mature sourdough starter that is active and healthy. If you think your starter is not, then you can add 2 g of fresh yeast to help with the rise.

Difficulty

This is another simple recipe for a white sourdough sandwich bread that everyone will like.

Feel free to check out our sourdough bread for beginners recipe that contains a lot of details for the different steps you will be executing here.

Baking tools

You will need one loaf pan of 23 x 10 cm. Also have a look at our should have baking tools to find some more baking tools we are constantly using for baking breads.

Steps

1. Mix

Total ingredients

• Mix all of the mentioned ingredients except the butter in a stand mixer for 5 minutes on speed level one and 7 minutes on speed level two
• Add the butter after 5 minutes of mixing
• The dough shouldn’t stick too much to the bowl after mixing

2. Bulk Fermentation, Stretch & Fold

• Cover the dough and let it rest for a total of 3,5 hours at 20-22°C (68-71,6°F)
• During that time stretch & fold the dough every 30 minutes (3 times in total) and after the 3rd time, let it ferment further for 2 hours until 3,5 hours are reached in total
• The dough should rise about 25-50% after the final 2 hour bulk fermentation
• After each stretch and fold put it back to the bowl and cover it again so it doesn’t dry out

3. Pre-shape

• Get the dough in shape by roughly rounding it
• Afterwards look for a dry spot on your surface and flour it
• Transfer the pre-shaped dough ball on the floured surface
• Cover it with a towel and let it rest for 20 minutes
• Tip: If you realize that the dough starts sticking to your hand or bench knife, just clean the bench knife of any dough and flour it a bit again

4. Shape

• Get the dough in the final shape by long moulding it again

5. Proof

• Grease your loaf pan with a bit of butter on the bottom and all sides
• Put your previously shaped dough seam-side-down in the loaf pan and cover it with a towel
• Let it proof for 8 to 10 hours in the fridge at 5°C (41°F)

6. Bake & Coat

• Preheat oven to 220°C (428°F) for ~35 minutes with the upper and lower heat function
• Separate the egg white and yolk of 1 egg (unfortunately the egg white is not needed for anything)
• Whisk egg yolk and coat the dough with it
• Put the loaf pan in the oven and bake for 40 minutes
• After 30 minutes lower the temperature to 190°C (374°F)

7. Cool

• Tip the sandwich bread out of the loaf pan immediately after baking and allow to cool down on a grid for about 2 hours

Conclusion

Crust

Firm and shiny but not crunchy.

Crumb

Taste

As already mentioned in the introduction, this white sourdough sandwich bread actually has 2 tastes. A toasted and an untoasted one. The toasted one really reminds of toast and has this slightly salty flavour. The untoasted reminds a lot of milk bread rolls with that specific sweetish and soft taste. Both are very good.

Goes good with

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