The easy, foolprooth path to lovely sourdough sandwich bread.
Making sourdough bread can be quite an involved and very complicated process … or it can be really quite simple. I’ve tried both methods. When I used the long, complicated process, sometimes there was success, and then other times my bread just sucked (in our picky minds, anyway). My kids are total bread snobs, so when results were less than stellar, I found myself stashing more and more bread in the freezer, to the point where I started wondering what is the point of that? Nobody is ever going to actually EAT the bread.
The point of making homemade sourdough bread is NOT to stash it away in the freezer … the point is to have some delicious, fresh, hot, lovely bread to EAT! So I knew I needed a new approach if I wanted bread that would actually get eaten at my house.
After looking at many many online sourdough bread recipes and trying several (including THIS totally complicated one) with varied results, I really wasn’t sure how to make the perfect sourdough loaf, so I texted my sister, who is an excellent baker of bread. Her breads are ALWAYS beautiful. The last time we were at my mom and dad’s house, she made a loaf of bread … and it rose beautifully and came out HUGE! My sister doesn’t do sourdough, but she does do dough fermentation by making a sponge. I thought if I got HER recipe for bread, perhaps I could adapt it for sourdough. All the experts on the internet let me down, I think it’s time to try my sister’s recipe.
So I texted her … and she texted me back her recipe. I wasn’t sure how to adapt it for sourdough … but then I just decided to give it a shot. And it worked! The loaf was gorgeous. My kids ate it. They wanted me to make more. So I made it again. And it worked the second time too … I just made it yesterday and it’s almost gone, so I think it’s safe to declare it a success and share it with you.
The crumb is not like your typical open-crumb sourdough. This is more like a normal sandwich bread, with a tighter crumb, but it rises nicely. It’s great for toast and sandwiches.
Where to get sourdough starter?
You can purchase sourdough starter, or make your own … or if you don’t want to bother with sourdough and prefer to use my sister’s “sponge” method, I’ve included that below as well. My one recommendation is not to toss the “discard” when you’re making sourdough starter. Use it for making this bread … or crescent rolls … or crackers. I’ve also heard of people making tortillas, bagels, muffins, waffles and more … Sourdough has so many uses. If you want to make your own, King Arthur has a good tutorial. I use a little more water to feed my sourdough (1 cup flour, 3/4 cup water) and I started with the refrigeration immediately because I couldn’t bear to discard the leftovers. I mean, it’s flour and water … there are SO many uses for flour and water! There’s no need to go throwing it away.
What is “folding”? Do I have to fold the dough?
Folding is a technique I learned from The Kitchn when I was trying my first attempt at “real” sourdough bread. You grab onto the bottom of the dough, grab a bit and pull upward and over the dough. Then you turn the dough and do it again until you’ve folded all around. Folding really isn’t necessary for this loaf. I did a little bit of folding on the first try, but I didn’t do any on the 2nd try and it turned out even better than the first one.
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Artisan Sourdough Sandwich Bread
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours 25 minutes
- Yield: 1 loaf 1x
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 1/2 – 3 cups bread flour
- 4 – 5 oz. sourdough starter (about 1/2 cup)
- 1 – 2 Tablespoons sugar or honey
- 2/3 teaspoon yeast
- 1 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together the olive oil, egg, water, sourdough starter, sugar, yeast and salt with 2 cups of flour until the dough starts to come together. It will be very shaggy at this point.
- Add flour, a bit at a time, and mix with your hands until you have a nice dough. Set the dough on a floured surface and knead just a bit to get it to incorporate at least another 1/2 cup of flour. I used about 2 3/4 cup flour total.
- Oil the dough with a bit of olive oil, set in the bowl, cover and let rest for a couple hours, checking it and folding it a couple times if it doesn’t look like it’s making a nice smooth dough.
- Shape the dough into a nice round ball and set on a piece of parchment paper. Cover with a towel and let rise in a warm place until roughly doubled in size.
- Set a dutch oven or large covered casserole in the oven and preheat the oven to 450 F. Let the casserole sit in the oven for 10 minutes or so after the oven is up to temp to get it good and hot.
- Slash the top of the bread with an oiled bread lam or very sharp serrated knife, then carefully remove the casserole dish from the oven, remove the cover and gently pick up the loaf on the parchment paper and set it in the hot dish. Cover and put back in the oven. Bake for 15 minutes without peeking.
- After 15 minutes, you can look at the loaf and see how brown it’s getting. Cover and bake for another 5 – 10 minutes or until the loaf is a nice dark golden brown. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 10 minutes before cutting.
Notes
If you prefer to use a sponge instead of sourdough starter, stir together 1 cup flour and 1 cup water with 1 teaspoon yeast. Cover and let sit on the counter for 1 – 3 days. You can use the full amount of sponge in this recipe (in place of the sourdough starter above) or save a bit of the sponge, feed it again with 3/4 cup water and 1 cup flour and store it in the fridge for future sourdough. I store my starter in a quart size mason jar with loosely fit lid.
Is it sourdough if you add yeast? I would contend that it IS sourdough because it contains sourdough starter, but if you’re concerned about adding yeast, then leave it out. Rise times will be longer without the yeast and your bread will taste more “sour”.
RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/
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Looking for other sourdough recipes?
Once I got started with sourdough, I am always looking for ways to use my starter! Here are a few of my favorites:
- Soft buttery sourdough crescent rolls
- Everything bagel whole grain sourdough crackers
- Nutty oat bran bread (with sourdough!)
- Whole grain sourdough bread
3 comments
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You use commercial yeast, that’s not sourdough.
I would argue that it IS sourdough if you have sourdough in it! You can definitely make it without the commercial yeast, John, but it will just take longer to rise.