Sourdough was my pandemic hobby, but I’ve been making it ever since. In 2020, a friend gave me some sourdough starter, and I quickly started realizing how easy it is to make delicious sourdough bread for my family. Since then, I’ve made countless loaves of sourdough sandwich bread, and I’ve been discovered a quick and easy way to make fancy sourdough dinner rolls.
I can’t take credit for the original recipe for the sourdough sandwich bread that I use. I found it at this blog. However, I have modified the recipe slightly, and I make it so often that I have it memorized.
For this recipe, you will need a food scale. When making sourdough, it’s easiest and most accurate to measure everything in grams.
Sourdough Sandwich Bread Recipe
Ingredients:
100 g sourdough starter
10 g salt
430 g water
512 g bread flour
2 tbsp olive oil
Cooking spray
Method:
Feed your sourdough starter as usual, and once it’s bubbly and doubled in size (which typically takes 4-6 hours), you can begin this recipe. I usually start in the evening so the first rise is overnight, but you can do whatever works best for you.
In a large bowl, combine the starter and the salt. Add the water. Stir the ingredients a few times to start to mix everything together.
Add the flour, and then stir well until everything is combined.
Cover the bowl with a dish towel or lid. If using a lid, don’t seal it tightly – just set it on top gently.
Fifteen minutes later, uncover the bowl and gently pick up one edge of the dough and fold it over the top. Repeat this lifting the folding process about 8 times, working your way around the dough in the bowl. You should feel the dough get more elastic as your work with it. Cover the bowl again as before.
Repeat the step above every fifteen minutes two or three more times, but honestly, it’s fine if you only do it once. I often get busy and forget to come back to it.
About 8 hours later or when doubled in size, get your bread pans ready. I use two average size bread pans and spray the inside of each one with cooking spray so the dough doesn’t stick.
Pour the olive oil on top of the dough in the bowl and gently use your hands to spread the olive oil over the dough to coat it.
Gently split the dough in half with your hands and fold shape the dough into a rectangle to fit in each bread pan.
Cover the bread pans with a dish towel and leave them to rise until they almost reach the top of the pans. How long this takes depends on how warm your home is. It could be anywhere from 4-8 hours.
Preheat the oven to 425.
Bake the bread for 20 minutes.
Reduce the temperature to 370.
Bake another 10-20 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven and remove from the pans so that the bread can cool on a cooling rack.
Notes:
If you’re eating this bread the same day you bake it, I’ve found that it’s easiest to cut when you turn the load on the side and cut it from the side.
I store my bread in thin plastic bread bags not sealed tightly and then put inside a bread box on my counter. It lasts for several days or until we eat it all.
You can refrigerate the bread, but I recommend toasting it before eating it if it has been refrigerated because it doesn’t taste as good in the refrigerator.
You do NOT have to use regular bread pans for this recipe. You can use fancy, shaped bread pans.
You can also use muffin pans to make this recipe or fancy cupcake pans to make fancy dinner rolls. Watch the video below to see how I turned this bread recipe into fancy sourdough dinner rolls.