Olivia Piepmeier

Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Sunday, January 22, 2023
Categories: pantry bread sourdough staples
A watercolor illustration of a loaf of bread still in a silver bread pan. There are dramatic swirls of heat above it, suggesting it's fresh out of the oven.

inspired by King Arthur Baking

Ingredients

  • 620g flour (I usually do anywhere between 120-170g white whole wheat with the rest AP or bread flour)
  • 3.5 tsp diamond crystal salt
  • 60g sourdough discard
  • 450g water

Directions

  1. Mix everything together.
  2. Cover and let the dough double in size, about 12 to 16 hours..or more! It all depends on the ambient temperature of the kitchen.
  3. Scrape into a well-greased 9x4x4” pan (usually seen advertised for gluten free bread since they need more support to rise) and cover.
  4. Let it rise until it’s within 1” of the pan’s rim. This could be 90 minutes or 3 hours. It’s all about the ambient temp!
  5. Bake in a preheated 425°F oven for 45 minutes.

Thoughts

When I think of sourdough bread, I think of a big, rustic, round, crusty loaf. However, not every snack or meal is served by that kind of bread. Discovering this recipe felt like finding treasure. I make this about once a week. Because it’s not enriched (ie. no milk, eggs, butter), it won’t be fluffy like grocery store bread. It also uses a lot of flour, which I suppose adds up in cost. But in return you get a tasty, dense, tangy loaf made of simple whole ingredients!

The blog post this comes from has very very detailed instructions. Maybe I read them once? The minimal ones above really get to the core of it which is very easy. Just pay attention to the dough more than the time suggested for the rises. In the winter, I’ve started to put it in the oven for both rises, turning on the oven for about a minute and then immediately turning it off and leaving the door shut until the first “check in” time (roughly the first times in the ranges given above).