Soft Sourdough Sandwich Bread Recipe
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Bake this beautiful soft white sourdough sandwich bread recipe for your favorite sandwiches.
Soft Sourdough Sandwich bread is an easy sourdough bread recipe to make. This sourdough recipe is formed into soft and fluffy loaves that are perfect for sliced bread. Make this sourdough sandwich bread once a week to always have yummy sandwich bread on hand.
This dough has delicious sweet flavor and a soft and fluffy texture. We have a few tips and tricks in this post for making the best sourdough sandwich bread ever!
Sourdough artisan breads are famous for their crusty crusts and soft holy crumb. Perfect for dipping in soups and making paninis or crostinis. Who doesn’t love that shattery crust with a steak or plate of lasagna?
However, When you want a soft squishable sandwich with Mayo or a piece of buttery toast? Eat THIS sourdough sandwich bread.
More Sourdough Bread Recipes:
See our complete sourdough bread recipe tutorial and step by step guide for Beginners in our Artisan Sourdough Bread Recipe. Find all of our sourdough Bread Recipes here.
How long does Homemade Sourdough Bread Last?
This bread will last about a week when stored in a proper airtight container. Homemade sandwich bread will mold quicker than store-bought bread. This is because homemade bread does not contain the preservatives that you will find in store-bought bread. Keep that in mind when making homemade sourdough bread. Store it properly to avoid a moldy and stale loaf of bread. This recipe makes two 1000 gram loaves of soft sandwich bread.
Is Sourdough Bread good for Sandwiches?
Regular Sourdough bread is great for sandwiches. Many restaurants use sourdough bread to make grilled cheese sandwiches, turkey, toasted sandwiches etc. A regular loaf of sourdough bread has a different shape than sandwich bread. It usually produces long and narrow pieces of bread. A sourdough sandwich bread will be shaped into a traditional bread loaf shape. This makes it easier to toast the sourdough bread in a toaster.
Soft sourdough sandwich bread is great for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, turkey, or traditionally shaped sandwiches. The great thing about this bread is it is really easy to work with and store.
Why is my Sourdough Sandwich Bread not Rising?
Sourdough Sandwich Bread not rising is usually due to a weak or inactive starter. Always ensure that your starter can pass the float test before using it to bake. It can be tempting to make the bread early before the starter is ready. Always wait until your starter can float in a cup of water before baking. There is no way to save a loaf of bread that turns out flat. It is worth it to properly prepare the starter for the best loaf of bread.
Do I need to score Sourdough Sandwich Bread?
There is no need to score a loaf of sourdough sandwich bread. This bread will rise and ferment without scoring it on top. If you wish to score the sourdough sandwich bread, you can do a gentle slice down the center of the loaf prior to baking. However, there is no need to score this type of sourdough bread. It will bake and rise just fine without going through the scoring process.
Watch our video tutorial to see all the techniques I use to make this bread recipe.
Sasha’s Soft Sourdough Sandwich Bread Recipe:
Sasha, our master baker contributor, created this sourdough recipe for her hubby. He wanted a soft white squishable bread with a soft crust. We all agree this bread makes great sandwiches.
Sasha’s family is incredibly lucky. And so are we. She is sharing her soft sandwich bread recipe with us so we all can benefit from her expertise.
Sasha also shared her Sourdough Milk and Honey Sandwich bread with us in case you missed it. Thank you Sasha!
Tips on making the Sourdough Sandwich Loaf:
This is a white bread recipe. However, you can mix whole wheat flour up to 50-50 with your white bread flour and still get good results.
- Begin with an active fed sourdough starter for best results. You do NOT need active dry yeast for this recipe.
- WATCH our video tutorial for ALL the techniques used in this bread dough making process. If you don’t know a term or technique the video will teach you.
- Good Flour is critical to the outcome of any homemade bread recipe. Use a fresh high protein bread flour (at least 5% protein).
How to Make a Soft Sourdough Sandwich Bread Loaf:
Here is a quick visual walkthrough of this recipe. The complete recipe is in our Printable Recipe Card. But here are the main points.
Sometimes a picture really helps. AND don’t miss our video tutorial (playing in the sidebar) if you need further examples of the techniques.
Cinnamon Swirl Bread Variation and Soft Cinnamon Sourdough Rolls:
Look at the bread baking in the oven (pictured above). The one closest to the front sideways is This soft sourdough bread made as Cinnamon Raisin Bread.
You will find This Complete recipe post for Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin bread has LOTS of tips. A complete walkthrough and guide for incorporating the plumped raisins, layering the cinnamon filling and forming the loaves.
Soft sourdough made as cinnamon raisin swirl bread is pretty darn amazing breakfast food. Give it a try.
Also make these Soft Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls from this bread dough recipe. They are absolutely scrumptious!
How to Shape A loaf of Bread:
You can bake this recipe in boules. However it is much easier to eat as sandwiches and toast when baked in pans.
Here’s how to shape the dough for baking in bread pans. I use two 9 x 5 inch bread loaf pans for this recipe.
Prepare the dough for Shaping:
- Remove Dough From Fridge and allow to come to room temperature. This will take about 2 hours.
- Divide and shape the dough into two 1000 gram balls of dough.
- Bench Rest the balls loosely covered about 60 minutes until very elastic.
Shaping:
- Choose one dough ball. Set the other aside to be next.
- Flatten the ball on a floured board with your rolling pin to degass. This may take several passes. (You will notice my bread does still have a few small holes. It needed more degassing)
- Shape the degassed dough into a rectangle and spritz with water.
- Bring the long edges into the center and form a closed seam.
- Fold the two front corners to the middle seam as shown below.
- Roll the dough tightly. tucking it as you roll to avoid air pockets.
- Pinch the ends of the loaf and flatten the seam.
- Place the dough loaf into your OILED loaf pan.
- REPEAT with second dough ball. Continue with the recipe.
For more tips on shaping your bread read our sourdough shaping guide.
The final rise is done in the plastic bags as shown. Allow the dough to rise to the pan top or slightly above.
Now when the oven is thoroughly preheated, remove one loaf from the fridge, score it deeply and bake as directed with a water bath.
Your Printable Recipe Card:
Read the complete recipe and instructions below. If you print this recipe the pictures will not print. This is to save you ink and paper.
NEW! We now have a complete video recipe demonstration of this bread in the sidebar and the bottom of the printable recipe card.
Soft Sourdough Sandwich Bread Recipe
Soft Sourdough Sandwich bread is the perfect soft squishy bread for toast and peanut butter sandwiches. You can also grill this bread for amazing grilled cheese sandwiches. The flavor is outstanding.
Ingredients
- 300 grams starter-freshly fed and active
- 650 grams warm water
- 50 grams honey
- 40 grams avocado oil
- 1000 grams White bread flour (high protein)
- 20 grams Salt
Instructions
MIXING:
- Begin with a very active recently fed starter. It should pass the float test.
- Set a large bowl on a digital food scale set to grams and press the tare button. The scale should read zero.
- Pour in the water to weight of 650 g. Press tare.
- Pour in 300 grams of starter. Press tare. The starter should form a floating mass on the water.
- Add the oil. Press tare
- Add the honey. Press tare.
- Whisk together the starter, oil, honey and water until they are mixed.
- Add the 1000 grams of flour.
- Mix the flour into the water/starter with a dough hook, spatula and your wet hands until you have a shaggy ball of dough.
AUTOLYSE: Technically our process is a fermentalyse, since we add the starter in with the flour and water initially.
- Rest dough 1 hour.
- Sprinkle salt across dough.
- spritz with water bottle and work in the salt with wet hands.
- Rest 30 mins
STRETCH AND FOLDS:
- Begin Stretch and Folds. You need 4 rounds of stretch and folds 30 mins apart. See video for technique.
LONG COLD RISE:
- Refrigerate overnight or up to 24 hours.
BENCH REST DOUGH:
- Remove from fridge and warm to room temperature. (ABOUT TWO HOURS)
- Divide the dough into two 1000 grams dough balls by weight.
- Bench rest 30 to 45 minutes until dough is elastic.
SHAPE AND FINAL RISE:
- Choose one dough ball. Set the other aside to be next.
- Flatten the ball on a floured board with your rolling pin to degass. This may take several passes. (You will notice my bread does still have a few small holes. It needed more degassing)
- Shape the degassed dough into a rectangle and spritz with water.
- Bring the long edges into the center and form a closed seam.
- Fold the two front corners to the middle seam as shown below.
- Roll the dough tightly. tucking it as you roll to avoid air pockets.
- Pinch the ends of the loaf and flatten the seam.
- Place the dough loaf into your OILED loaf pan.
REPEAT for second loaf.
- Let sit on counter 2 to 4 hours until the dough reaches to the top of the bread pans. For best oven spring chill two hours in the fridge covered.
BAKING PREP AND INSTRUCTIONS:
- Preheat oven and water bath(any pan half full of water. Set it on the shelf UNDER THE BREAD) to 400° F.
- Remove the loaves from the fridge and score them deeply. (I do three slashes diagonally accross the top).
- OPTIONAL: For a shiny loaf of baked bread, brush the dough with a beaten egg.
- Set the loaf pans in the middle of oven.
- Bake the loaves 15 minutes.
- Reduce the oven temp to 375 degrees F.
- Bake an additional 25 to 30 minutes.
- Using a digital thermometer check internal Temp of loaf. It is done at 200°. If you don't have a thermometer pop loaves out to test for hollow on bottom. Or thump the loaf. Does is have a hollow sound?
- Remove from oven and cool on racks to room temperature before cutting the bread.
Notes
- Measure the ingredients CAREFULLY for best results.
- THE SALT: I use Himalayan salt. All salt works. However, they have different volumes by weight. So you need to be careful. Weighing helps get it right.
- THE OIL: Avocado oil is recommended for best health. Use any neutral flavor oil you prefer.
- THE FLOUR: Use any high protein (On the label 12 % protein or 5 grams protein) organic white bread flour. You can make this loaf with 50/50 white and WHITE whole wheat.
- The loaf will stay soft and have a great nutty flavor. Using 100 percent whole wheat or Hard red whole wheat will give you a different result. The recipe may need some adjusting. I suggest you stick with 100 percent white or 50/50.
- 2 2/3 Cups -300 grams starter-freshly fed and active
- 2 3/4 Cups 650 grams warm water
- 2 3/8 Tablespoons -50 grams honey
- 3 Tablespoons- 40 grams avocado oil
- 8 Cups- 1000 grams White bread flour (high protein)
- 1 Tablespoon-20 grams Salt
Conversion CUPS to GRAMS:
I do NOT recommend volume measurements for best results with sourdough baking. There are differences in the starter and flours that make weighing by Scale a MUCH more reliable method. But if your not using a scale here are the approximate volume measurements of the ingredients.
Final NOTE:
The video in this post is for those unfamiliar with the techniques I use. It is actually demonstrating our Beginner Sourdough Artisan Bread Recipe. This soft sourdough sandwich bread process uses many of the same techniques.
Recommended Products
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Nutrition Information
Yield
24Serving Size
1 sliceAmount Per Serving Calories 171Total Fat 2gSaturated Fat 0gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 2gCholesterol 0mgSodium 325mgCarbohydrates 32gFiber 1gSugar 2gProtein 5g
Sourdough Troubleshooting:
If your bread doesn’t turn out the way you expect, start with our comprehensive Sourdough Troubleshooting Guide
Or jump to the specific issue you’re seeing: Find all of our Sourdough Baking guides here.
- Bread turns out dense – Why Is My Sourdough Bread Dense?
- Dough spreads instead of rising – How to Shape Sourdough Bread
- Score won’t open – How to Score Sourdough Bread
- Crust is soft or pale – How Steam Baking Sourdough Affects Oven Spring and Crust
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Contact Sasha over on Etsy if you want to buy sourdough starter. She has a well established starter just for you. She sells all over the US.
My two loaves are in their final rise. So far so good! But I’m wondering about the water in the pan. Do I put in boiling water? Do I put it in when I start preheating? Do I keep it topped up during the whole bake? Do I remove it after the first 15 minutes of baking? I’m used to baking boules in my cloche and have never used water before.
Hi Suzanne, For the water bath put the shallow pan in the oven when you are ready to preheat the oven. Let it heat with the oven. Spray the loaves or brush them with water when you put them into the oven. This will help keep the crust soft and thin. Please let us know how it works out for you. 🙂
Hi, been making sourdough bread for a couple of months now. Up to this point the results had been pretty disastrous. Rubbery crumb, teeth-breaking crust and stale after about 20 minutes. Anyway, tried this one the other day. Loosely followed the method (just guessed what you meant by stretch and fold, left it out at room-temp all night) and halved the ingredients (as only wanted one loaf) and WOW! Absolute belter of a soft sandwich loaf. Hadn’t thought it was possible given my previous attempts.So my sourdough starter lives to fight another day. Great recipe, thanks for sharing with the world!
Hi Charlie, Absolutely delighted you had a breakthrough in your sourdough baking with this recipe. Check out our other sourdough recipes too. There are so many wonderful ways to enjoy that starter. Happy Baking!
I am new to making sour dough bread. I was sceptical at the start. Well. I am very pleased with this recipe and I will be making it again. I forgot to score the loaves, they cracked a bit on the top. But this is a. Dry good recipe
Hi Anna Welcome to Homemade Food Junkie. I’m so happy you had success with this recipe. We have many more for your to try. Happy Baking!
I scale this recipe up ten percent for two loaves in my 16″ Pullman loaf pans. It is hands down the best sandwich bread I have ever made. I bake them at 350 degrees for 25 minutes, then remove the lids and bake until they reach about 195 degrees in the center (5-10 minutes). No water bath, just set the pullman pans on a cookie sheet.
Today I did the cinnamon swirl variation. I haven’t quite formulated words to describe how well that turned out. Let’s just say it was good. Real good. Really darned good. As I write this, I am fantasizing about some French toast made with it. Only through the sheer force of will—of which I have none—will I be able to resist the desire to make that fantasy into reality.
Thanks so much for sharing how you use this recipe and it’s cinnamon raisin companion. And for the great review. Enjoy your French toast! What a great way to use cinnamon raisin bread! You really made my day. Have a great weekend!
I have made these loaves a few times now and they turn out great every time! Thanks so much for the easy to follow instructions!
Now I’m getting braver and was wondering about adding oats and seeds like flax and chia. So I was wondering have you done that and if so at what stage would you recommend adding them?
Thanks!!
Hi Leah, I’m delighted to know you love this recipe. It’s a good one for sure. I have never added any extras into this loaf except our version of this bread as a cinnamon raisin bread. But I have made it 50/50 whole wheat flour and it turns out fine. Just a bit more dense as you would expect.
That said, I hope you do try add ins. When we add the raisins for the raisin bread we do so during the last two stretch and folds. I would say try that for larger add ins like dried fruits and chopped nuts.
The oats…you might try a soak before adding them into the dough at the beginning of the process. Especially if you use steel cut oats or regular rolled oats. They will hydrate better and incorporate more easily into a soft bread like this.
Anything ground can go in at the beginning of the mixing. Flax will absorb quite a bit of water so soak it also before adding. About one tablespoon ground flax to three tablespoon water? It’s also a leavener FYI. Whole flax seeds and other small seeds are best put in at the beginning. Anything with sharp edges like chopped nuts should wait as they can cut the gluten strands if put in too early.
Hope this helps!I’d love to see your results. 🙂
They’re cooling now! And they may be the best looking loaves I’ve made yet! Before adding the flour to the water mixture I scattered old fashioned oats and whole flax seeds in with that mixture and kind of let it sit for a couple of minutes to “soak”. (I added slightly less flour to try and compensate)
When I rolled the dough out I used ground flax meal to flour the surface then sprinkled chia seeds over them before rolling them up into a loaf. I would add a picture if I could. Thanks for the tips!
Oh!! I want to see! Tag me with pics and stories on instagram or FB. You can also email me at homemadefoodjunkie@outlook.com. I’m so excited to see what you did. And congrats! I’m so happy you went your own way and it worked well for you. That’s encouraging. And now I have to try too.. I’m currently playing around with a cinnamon roll version of this bread. It’s SO versatile:)
I ran across this recipe a couple of weeks ago, and every time I make it, I fall more in love. Another batch just came out of the oven looking amazing! This bread is so delicious, light, and beautiful .. perfection. Your instructions are great with detailed photos, and I appreciate having the ingredients by weight. Thank you!!!
Hi Carrie, Thanks for the great review! We so appreciate you sharing your story for others bakers.It’s wonderful to know your having repeated consistent results with this recipe. Have a great day!
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I decided to learn how to make sourdough bread a couple of weeks ago and have since learned that there is a bit of a learning curve. This recipe is my 4th attempt. I started the process last Friday and baked on Saturday evening. It turned out with my first try on this recipe. The bread is delicious! My family loves it.
How wonderful! Thanks for the great review Tina. Happy Baking!
Wonderful recipe. I’ve been playing around with sourdough for 6 months and this is the best sandwich bread I’ve found.
Nice thin crust, perfect for sandwiches and toast and it fits in my 9×5 pans! All the other recipes I’ve found are for 8.5×4.5 pans and no matter how I altered them they were always too small.
This is my new favorite sourdough recipe. I scoured the internet for a good sourdough sandwich bread and half of them had commercial yeast in them or the breads looked flat. This came out so delicious and I am so happy that you have shared this recipe. Thank you! I will have to start making this again soon because my husband said we will probably run out by tomorrow….we can’t stop eating it!
Hi Valerie, you made my day. Thanks so much for the lovely review. Enjoy!
I finally got around to making bread using this recipe, after the over night cold proof my loaves took forever to rise. I am a brewer and have the ability to control the temps of the dough and kept them at a steady 80-83 degree’s after removing them from the fridge. When they finally started to rise it took almost 12 hrs to get to a decent height for a sandwich loaf. I baked it the loaves late last night anyways, they came out alright despite being a bit dense. They are very springy and have great chew, but because I left them out to rise so long they are extra sour. What could I do to get them to rise better in the future?
Hi Perry,
For rising issues: I can point to a few things that you can check. Are you using a high protein flour? Your flour label should read 5 grams of protein or 12 % protein. I have good luck with Montana brand all purpose flour and also King Arthur. But any good bread flour with high protein will help with developing the bread structure during the rise.
The Starter: Possibly the starter was out of balance. This can make even a strong starter sour and hungry. If you haven’t already, next time to prep the starter feed it this way.
The night before you bake mix together 100 grams starter with 100 grams warm (80 degrees) water and 100 grams flour. Leave it out overnight at 75 degrees. (This is a 100% hydration starter) In the morning smell the starter (or taste it) and see if the sourness is gone. If it passes the float test your ready to bake. If your starter is still too sour feed it as instructed again up to three times in a day until your starter develops a fruity mild taste. That should help with the rise and the flavor.
I just made this recipe last week and have had several people on instagram and pinterest put up pics of their results. This bread recipe has pretty consistent results.
Remember this is VERY different from a yeast bread. We are not looking for the dough to double like a commercial yeast dough. The long cold rise is not about developing rise. It’s all about the fermentation and dough structure. At the final rise the dough will just barely reach the top of the pans. This is fine.
One more thing: Once you get the dough formed for loaves. Score the dough DEEPLY. An inch deep is good. This will help release the dough for the rise while baking. I hope something in here will help you have a better experience next time. Best of luck!
Hi Diane.
Thank you very much for offering this recipe!
I have made it a couple of times and had to add about 2 extra cups of flour, both times.
I just thought I ask, even though, I measure all ingredients (other then the two extra cups of flour), by weight with my scale. The dough is too wet to even try to form anything.
I use good quality flour and do the water test with the starter.? Would you have any insight to this?
Thank you very much.
Kindly,
Claudia
Hi Claudia, This is a high hydration sourdough. That means it is a wet somewhat sticky dough. It can be tricky to work with. The video in this post is of me working with another (beginner sourdough) high hydration dough. You might pick up some helps from it.
This dough is nothing like a regular (drier) commercial yeast dough. It’s really fine if you want to add the extra flour as long as you are happy with the results.
Bringing the hydration down will help you manage the loaf forming. Just make sure the dough is passing window pane test. The dough will be a little more dense with a bit heavier crumb. However, if you are getting frustrated with the wet dough your doing what you need to do. I’m glad you’re sticking with the recipe. Enjoy!
Thank you very much for your reply, Diane!?
I will watch your videos and try to stick to the amount of flour in the recipe!
I guess I am new to sourdough, I usually bake regular bread, the consistency and preparation is different.?
Sourdough baking really is a different world. Try bringing the flour down by half and see if you can work with it. Wet hands and tools help a LOT when working with this dough. It might help you to read through our tutorial on the Beginner sourdough bread. That is a very different bread but also high hydration so a lot of the steps are similar and the tips apply. Best of luck!
Thank you Diane for your generous and kind support! I will do that.
If I want bread today (and have already finished the stretch and folds) can I proof on the countertop for a few hours rather than the fridge overnight? That’s usually how I do most loaves!
Thanks!!!
Hi Janice, The long cold rise is meant to retard the dough for optimal dough structure, fermentation and flavor. If you hurry it up on your counter I can’t see that the texture of the bread and the flavor will be very good. If you want to give it counter rising a try please let us know how it works out. Sourdough is very different from yeast bread making. The long cold rise method is also very different from other baking methods to optimize the sourdough benefits. All the best!
Update: I proofed on the counter for about 4 hours until very puffy and elastic, then shaped and followed your directions from there. It turned out great! Super soft and fluffy, but holds together well! Rose well above the lip of the loaf tin in the oven. Flavor isn’t as sour as my other loaves, which is welcome in this application.
It worked out!! You can see pictures on my Instagram stories 🙂
Thanks for the recipe!
Oh That’s wonderful to hear! I’ll go check them out on instagram. Thanks so much for sharing how you made this recipe work for you. So many other bakers will benefit from your experience. I’m delighted to know the flavor and crumb held up too. 🙂
Hi i have made the sourdough sandwich bread four times now and I love the taste and texture. however on the second and fourth time I made the dough it did not rise during bulk fermentation in the fridge and was hard to work with. I am curious if you can help me find out what i may have done wrong so I can correct it thanks. Matt
Hi Matt, I am wondering if the dough was over proofed on the counter. If you have really high kitchen heat this can happen during the stretch and fold and bulk rise. If that is the case you need to cool the dough. Keep it at 75 Degrees F. for all counter processes if possible. The other thing is your starter and flour.
I’m assuming you are working with good high protein (12% or 5 grams of protein on the label). If not, your starter may not always be strong enough to raise the dough. But I’m guessing over proofing. A low protein flour can also account for low rise. The starter itself MAY be the problem but if you are properly feeding it to prep for baking (100 grams starter to 100 grams flour to 100 grams water (80 degrees F.).) And it floats after doubling you should be fine there. Hope this helps!
Getting ready to out another 2 loaves in the oven. This is the best bread! I like this better than the yeasted bread I made and it turns out pretty good. Definitely keeping this one. Very easy to follow all the steps. Thanks for a great recipe!
Hi Sherry, Thanks for the great review. Enjoy!
New bread baker here. When you say “recently fed” starter what exactly does that mean? I’m excited to finally bake with mine.
Hi Salim,
Recently fed means your starter is active (bubbling and doubling when fed in about 5 hours) and it’s been fed within the last week. This particular recipe for soft sourdough bread actually requires an active starter that is fed the night before and passes the float test.
I feed my starter this way to prepare it for bread baking.: Mix together 100 grams starter to 100 grams flour to 100 grams water (80 degrees F.). Let it sit at room temperature overnight. (under 80 degrees F. room temp is best) It should double in size and pass the float test in the morning. This means you can float a teaspoon of starter in a cup of water.
Our Beginner sourdough bread may be helpful if you have never baked sourdough before.
The video in this post is from our beginner recipe and will help you with techniques used in this bread recipe too. Best of luck!
The video’s are on the side bars! I tired looking on your youtube page, but couldn’t find them there either! Help!
Excited for this recipe! Thanks so much.
Hi Abby, I’m using the tutorial video from my beginner artisan bread as a support in this post. All the techniques (except shaping the loaves and the processes are the same. Here is the youtube link if you need it. Let us know how this recipe works out for you. Happy Baking!
I’m making this sourdough sandwich loaf for the 2nd time – it turned out DELICIOUS the first time around! I had come across some really helpful info in the comments section the first time around, and when I went back to find that info again, the website isn’t loading anything when I click on “Older Comments.” It just keeps showing the same 3 comments posted on 5/10/20. Is that something you all can help with? I’m just trying to remember how long the last rise in the loaf pans is, and I remember that being addressed in the older comments somewhere!
Thank you for the help 🙂
Hi Sarah,
I appreciate you bringing this up. I have my tech person working on this problem. In the meantime I’ll answer you. The dough will rise in the pans to only the top of the pan before baking. This should take from 2 to 4 hours depending on your room temperatures. Try not to proof the dough at over 80 degrees for the best flavor and structure. Don’t hurry soughdough. Hope this helps!
Hi I’ve made your recipe a few times now and had good success. One challenge I have is that the loaves, despite scoring, really explode during baking and the top crust is bursting off. Any tips on how to avoid that from happening? Thanks!
Hi Irene,
Well I just made this and the loaves did not explode. HOWEVER, I did not score the loaves.(I forgot.) The loaves came out nice and high but did not erupt.
So try not scoring and see if the top holds together. The scoring is to allow the dough to expand with control. Apparently you have a strong dough that rises well. I have also scored on the diagonal three deep scores and the top came out smooth.
TIP: When forming the loaf the seam should be down and the ends pinched to keep the dough from escaping through those areas.
Best of luck!
Almost ready for this to go in the oven. I think I’m going to love it. I think I saw in one of the previous questions/answers that you can put your loaf pan in your Dutch oven? The comment went away but curious about this. Do you still reduce the temp after 15 minutes? And would you remove the lid or keep it covered for the whole bake time?
Hi Melissa, I have baked this recipe both as directed and in my large 6.5 quart oblong dutch oven. If your dutch oven can handle the loaf pan size that is actually ideal. We want steam around the dough. A covered dutch oven with keep the steam around the dough when it is developing the rise. But also DO the water bath as directed.
Spray the loaf liberally and put the loaf pan in your dutch oven. Bake as directed. Yes take the lid off when you reduce the heat. And now your water bath will finish steaming the loaf for a soft crust. Enjoy! I made this yesterday and it’s SO good. Enjoy!
Hi, I’m a newbie when it comes to breadmaking, I wonder if the dough is supposed to be very sticky during the degassing stage. I had a hard time forming it into a loaf. I had to sprinkle the dough with flour and bit on my hands when shaping the dough, I now wonder if I handn’t handle to dough too much. It’s now rising in the baking pan. Keeping my fingers crossed. 🙂
High hydration sourdough is very sticky. wet hands and tools to help. This will all get better with experience. I actually just made this recipe since we love it. The dough fought back a bit when degassing as you say. It still rose fine after rough handling. I’m sure yours will be fine. Remember this is NOT a commercial yeast. Adjust your expectations. You just want the bread dough to rise to the top (or almost) of the bread pans not double in size.