Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread

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If you have been on the hunt for a soft sourdough sandwich bread that uses freshly milled whole grains, then this recipe is for you!

The crusty sourdough loaves baked in a dutch oven are beautiful and tasty, but sometimes you need a sandwich loaf for practical reasons; like sandwiches or toast.

Ingredients

• Whole Wheat Flour: For this recipe, you will need to use a hard wheat variety, I use hard white wheat. You probably already know this, but in case you don’t, I use freshly milled flour for almost all of my recipes. That means that I buy organic wheat berries and grind them in my at-home electric mill right before I plan to bake with them. This gives me the freshest, healthiest and most nutrient dense flour to work with. If you want to learn more about this process, you can check it out here.
• Sourdough Starter: I use and maintain a white flour starter. I feed my starter equal weights flour and water which means it is a 100% hydration starter. I will talk more about sourdough starter in a minute, but you will need a nice active and bubbly starter for this whole wheat sourdough sandwich loaf.
• Water: I like to use my berkey filtered water for just about everything. This ensures that there is no chlorine in the water which can affect the sourdough starter.
• Salt: As always, I use Redmond Real Salt. Been using this salt for over 12 years and it’s just the best.
• Sweetener: I have used raw honey for this bread recipe and cane sugar. They both worked well and I didn’t notice much difference in flavor. However, honey has a tendency to darken baked goods, so just keep that in mind. The whole grains are already dark and if you use honey it will darken them a little more.
• Oil: I use organic cold pressed olive oil or avocado oil in most of my recipes. Either one works great in this recipe!
• Egg: I LOVE the addition of the egg in this recipe. I don’t typically use eggs in my bread recipes but this one needed it. That being said, if you have an allergy, you can totally skip it and it will still turn out just fine. I have tried it both ways and it works.

Equipment

• Grain Mill: I have been using my wonder mill for 12+ years and I love it.
• Large Bowl: I like to use glass when working with sourdough.
• Stand Mixer: I LOVE my Ankasrum mixer and cannot recommend it enough. A kitchen aid or bosch mixer will also work great as well.
• Kitchen Scale: I like to weigh some of my ingredients, like when feeding my sourdough starter and flours. A kitchen scale is very handy.
• Loaf Pans: You can use stainless steel or glass pans for this recipe. I have used both and they turned out great each time. I recently purchased these glass pans and I have to say that I love being able to see the edges of the loaves to see if they are browning evenly.
• Plastic Wrap or Tea Towel: You will need something to cover the dough while it is rising. I don’t love plastic, but it works so well for really sealing off the dough. Sometimes when using a tea towel it can allow too much air in and a “skin” will form on the dough and stop it from rising properly.

Sourdough Starter

Like I mentioned above, I keep and maintain a white flour sourdough started. I used to keep a whole wheat starter but it was too much to fuss with grinding the wheat each time I needed to feed it. The starter is such a small part of the recipe that i don’t think there is any reason not to use white flour in the starter.

For this whole wheat sourdough sandwich bread you will want an active and bubbly starter. The sourdough starter will need to be freshly fed within the last 6-12 hours and be rising nicely with lots of bubbles.

How To Make Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Grind The Wheat

Use a grain mill to grind the hard white wheat berries into a fine flour. Hard wheat varieties work best for yeast breads and I like the milder flavor of the hard white in this recipe. It would work well with hard red also, if that is what you have.

Mixing The Dough

This is one of my favorite parts about this recipe; everything goes into the mixer at once! No fussy steps. Just toss it ALL into the mixer.

Starter, flour, starter, salt, honey/sugar, egg and oil.

If you have a dough hook on your mixer that will work great. The paddle attachment on the kitchen aid will also work.

Otherwise, roll up your sleeves and knead by hand.

You want to knead until the dough is smooth and elastic and *almost* passes the window pane test. I say *almost* because that test is difficult with sourdough and freshly milled grains, but it still works. When you stretch the dough to test, just make sure the dough doesn’t break immediately. You want it to have some good elasticity.

In my Ankasrum mixer(this mixer is a splurge but if it’s in the budget, it is *such* a luxurious mixer. It is a workhorse and has a lot of power. I absolutely LOVE it for bread making) the kneading takes about 8 minutes. In the kitchen-aid it takes 10-12 and by hand it would probably take 15-20 minutes.

Bulk Fermentation For Freshly Milled Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Take a large glass bowl and pour a little olive or avocado oil in the bottom. Collect the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a ball at the bottom of the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or something similar.

There are two options for the bulk fermentation;

1. Long rise on the counter for 6-8 hours or until the dough has doubled in size and bake after that.
2. Or you can do a shorter room temperature rise of 2-4 hours and then transition the dough to the fridge for 12 hours or overnight. I prefer the shorter counter rise and then fridge overnight, but you can do either one.

Shaping The Sourdough Sandwich Loaf

Once the dough has finished the bulk fermentation, whether that is on the counter or counter & fridge, it is time to shape it into a loaf.

• Flatten the dough into a rectangle on a clean counter. You can use a little flour or oil if needed, but I haven’t found my dough to be very sticky.
• Roll the dough up like a tight log.
• Next, turn the dough 90 degrees and flatten into a rectangle again. At this point I am trying to keep the width of my rectangle about the size of my loaf pan. A little large is okay, but you don’t want it too large.
• Then begin rolling the dough up again. With each roll use your pinkies and ring fingers to tuck the outermost edges inward. You want to seal the ends up and I find it is easiest to do that while you are rolling it up.
• After it is rolled up, pinch the bottom seam together before carefully lifting the loaf into the bread pan and placing it seam-side down.

Second Rise

If you don’t want your loaf to rise quickly, feel free to cover the loaf with a towel and allow it to rise at room temperature.

Baking The Freshly Milled Sourdough Sandwich Loaf

Once the bread is almost done rising, go ahead and preheat your oven to 400 degrees F.

After the dough has risen to the top of the pan or slightly above it, place it in the oven for 10-12 minutes.

With the oven closed, lower the temperature to 350 degrees F. and bake for an additional 30 minutes or until the loaf is golden brown and cooked through. Loaf should be 200 degrees F. on a kitchen thermometer.

Storing

Because this bread is fresh and made with fresh ingredients, you will want to store the bread properly. If the loaf will get eaten in 5 days or less, you can safely store it on the counter in a ziplock bag or, my personal favorite, a beautiful cake stand(see photo below).

Longer Term Storage

I love baking large batches of breads at a time and storing them for later. My favorite way to store breads are in ziplock bags in the freezer. We have eaten breads as old as 5 months from the freezer and once they are thawed, you can’t even tell they were frozen. I think it’s one of the benefits of using freshly milled wheat.

I bake large batches of muffins, tortillas, bagels, english muffins and store them this exact same way.

Yes. If you are a sourdough lover, then this sourdough sandwich bread is perfect for sandwiches. I have also used this bread as a side for Italian night by adding some butter, garlic and toasting the bread. Yum! My kids’ favorite way to eat this bread is with grilled cheese – they love it!