Healthy Sourdough Sandwich Bread Recipe

Dough Hydration

This sourdough sandwich bread dough has a high hydration level, meaning it’s very wet and sticky. The wholemeal flour and the chia and flax seeds absorb some of that moisture, but the dough will still be wet.

Don’t worry though, a wet dough (coupled with an excellent starter) makes beautiful bread.

Just wet your hands well each time you touch the dough so it doesn’t stick to your fingers.

The Sourdough Starter

Before we start with the process, as with all sourdough a good starter is key.

For my recipes that means one starter that is very active with low acid content. Each time I feed my starter, it’s with a small amount of original seed starter and plenty of fresh flour and water. This keeps the acid content nice and low in the starter. Too much acid makes a very hard to work with dough.

My starter at its peak is light and airy. If you’re familiar with sourdough starters I’m sure you’ll know what I mean.

Sourdough Sandwich Bread Timing

I’m going to run through my timings with this sourdough sandwich bread and how I fit it in my days.

You don’t need to follow this exact schedule, you can change it to fit around your own timetable.

The Night Before: Feed Starter

The night before I want to bake, I feed my starter. Because it’s being fed so far in advance, I feed my starter 3 times the amount of fresh flour as I do seed starter. This is so it slows it down so it doesn’t peak overnight before I’m ready to use it.

So, overnight I’d feed my starter 1:3:3 (that’s 1 part starter, 3 parts flour, 3 parts water). Fresh flour is the food source for yeasts and bacteria. Always remember that the more flour that is added, the more they have to get through and the slower the rise.

If I am feeding my starter on the day as opposed to the night before, I would feed it 1:2:2, for a quicker rise.

Starter feeding

The dough needs 120g of active starter, so you could take 20 grams starter, 60 grams flour, and 60 grams water ( a ratio of 1:3:3).

Mix this together well and you’ll have a total of 140 grams of starter ready for the morning of which you can measure out 120g.

The Following Morning (8:30 am) – The Autolyse

Combine all the dough ingredients except for the starter in a bowl and mix it into a sticky dough. Leave the dough to sit for around 30 minutes to hydrate. Cover the bowl with a plate to stop it from drying out.

This step is called the autolyze.

After the dough has hydrated, add in the risen starter. This is a sticky job. Wet your hands to stop the dough from sticking to you and squish it together until it has combined.

Once it is combined, drop the dough into a low dish, like a glass pie dish.

9am – 11:30am: Folding

I let this dough rest for around 30 minutes, then perform 4 x sets of coil folds, one every 30 minutes. In between each fold, cover the dish with a plate to stop the dough from drying out.

See the video on how to perform a coil fold as shown on my rustic honey oat sourdough bread

Over time this gently strengthens the gluten in the dough.

You can see how the dough changes in structure in these next three pictures.

The dough is technically still very sticky. If you squished a dry hand into it, it would get stuck to your skin. However, wetting your hands thoroughly when folding and doing quick and smooth motions will help the dough slide off.

After 4 folds are completed, leave the dough to rest for another 30 minutes, then it’s time to shape the dough. Unlike my regular usual sourdough bread loaf, the bulk ferment for this bread happens while it is already shaped and in the loaf tin.

12pm – Shaping

On a floured bench, tip out the dough and gently stretch it out into a square.

Flour your hands, then take one edge of the square and bring it into the middle, then repeat with the remaining edges and form a ball.

With the seams facing up, push the ball out onto the bench, and roll it up like you would a sleeping bag or a Swiss roll.

Place the dough, seam side down into a paper-lined loaf tin. I use 8x4inch/21x11cm loaf tin.

I really recommend lining it as every time I have tried it without baking paper, my bread has stuck. A home-compostable baking paper can be reused multiple times, and composted when done.

12pm onwards

Now leave it to rise in a warm place until has bulked out by about 50%. It doesn’t need to double, only fill out by half the amount.

A warm room temperature will help the dough to rise. If necessary, create a warm spot such as an oven that has been lightly preheated and then turned off. In a warm spot like this, it should take approximately 3 hours, but it may take longer in cooler temperatures. It’s best to watch the dough and not the clock.

The risen dough should look and feel airier if gently prodded with a wet finger.

During this rise, cover the loaf tin with a dampened tea towel to stop the dough from drying out.

3 pm – Cold Proof

Now the dough is put in the fridge for cold-proof, where the fermentation is slowed down and the flavour is developed. This can be for a minimum of 4 hours or all the way up to 20 hours. During the cold-proof, cover the loaf tin with a dampened tea towel to stop the dough from drying out.

The longer the cold-proof, the sourer the sourdough will taste.

I like to bake the bread that evening, so it has cooled by morning and can be sliced for school sandwiches, so I leave it for a cold-proof of around 5 hours.

8 pm – Baking Time

Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F.

The bread is baked for around 30-35 minutes. You will know it is done if you lift the dough out of the tin and tap the bottom of the bread. It will give a hollow sound when done.

Now it needs to cool right down, for a minimum of 2 hours before slicing it.

Want more sourdough breads? Try these!

• Pita bread with sourdough starter
• Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread
• Sourdough Bagels

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