If you love a soft, sliceable loaf with just a touch of sweetness, this sourdough sandwich bread is going to become a staple in your kitchen. It’s tender, lightly sweet from honey, and beautifully balanced thanks to the depth of flavor from slow sourdough fermentation.
This loaf doesn’t need a swirl or mix-ins. it stands completely on its own. It’s the kind of bread that makes the best toast, holds up perfectly to sandwiches, and fills your home with that warm, fresh-baked aroma we all love.
This loaf contains egg, butter and milk. if you’d like a recipe without dairy or egg, Please see my other sandwich bread recipe
Ingredients
For the Dough
- Active sourdough starter
- Water
- Honey
- egg
- milk
- melted butter
- Olive oil
- Bread flour
- Salt
Making the Dough
Begin by combining your sourdough starter and water, melted butter, milk and egg mixing until the mixture looks milky and fully incorporated. Add the honey and olive oil and mix again until smooth.
Next, add the bread flour and salt. Mix until a shaggy dough forms. You can do this by hand in a large mixing bowl or use a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. The dough will look slightly rough at this stage. that’s exactly what you want.
Cover the dough and let it rest for one hour.
Stretch, Folds & Fermentation
After the first rest, perform a round of stretch and folds. I like to go around the bowl twice during this first set to really help build strength in the dough.
Let it rest for another thirty minutes, then do a round of coil folds. Repeat this process two more times, allowing a rest in between each round. These folds help develop gluten structure while keeping the dough soft and airy.
Once your folds are complete, cover the dough and place it in the refrigerator overnight, or for at least eight hours. This slow fermentation develops flavor and makes the dough easier to work with the next day.
The Next Morning
Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let it sit on the counter for about two hours to come back to room temperature.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll it out with a rolling pin. Rolling helps release any large air bubbles
Shaping the Loaf
To shape, fold the two sides of the dough into the center. Then, starting from the edge closest to you, roll the dough up tightly into a log. Rolling tightly is key to getting that beautiful, defined swirl.
Pinch the seam and the sides closed to seal everything in. Place the loaf seam-side down into a loaf pan or bread pan.
Cover and let it rest for one more hour.
Baking
Bake at 400° for 55 minutes.
If you are using a bread pan without a lid, score the top of the dough before baking. Cover the top loosely with foil, leaving space so it forms a little bubble over the loaf. Bake covered for the first portion of time, then remove the foil and continue baking until the crust is golden brown.
If you are using a bread pan with a lid, bake covered for the full time.
As soon as the bread comes out of the oven, remove it from the pan and place it on a cooling rack. Let it cool for a couple of hours before slicing. This helps the crumb set properly and keeps your swirl clean and beautiful.
These are my Favorite bread pans!
How to Serve
How to Enjoy It
This sourdough sandwich bread is incredibly versatile. It makes soft peanut butter sandwiches, perfect grilled cheese, and the most delicious buttered toast. It’s slightly sweet, beautifully tender, and sturdy enough to hold whatever fillings you love.
Simple. Classic. Reliable.
A homemade loaf that proves you don’t need anything fancy to make truly amazing bread.
Ingredients
Method
- Combine all the wet ingredients and then add bread, flour and salt and mix until you get a shaggy dough. Cover and rest for one hour and then perform around a stretch and folds. Then every 30 minutes do a round of coil folds. 3 times. After the final round, cover and place in the fridge overnight.
- The next day, bring it out and let it sit on the counter, covered, for two hours. Roll it out getting out all the bubbles, and then roll it up by folding each side to the center, and then rolling it up, place in an oiled bread pan, cover and let it rest for one hour.
- preheat oven to 400°
- Bread pan with no lid: Score of the top and lightly cover the top with foil, leaving space in between the bread and the foil. Bake at 400° for 30 minutes then take the foil off and bake for 20-25 minutes.
- Bread pan with lid (what I use) No need to score, place in the oven with the lid on at 400° for 55 minutes.
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