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Sourdough sandwich bread

A wet sourdough baked in a loaf pan for everyday slicing and toast. The lever is the second rise; don't bake until the dough reaches the rim.

Serves
12
Active
30 min
Total
11 hrbulk can stretch to 18h; plan around a day

One loaf, about twelve slices: a plain, chewy, mildly sour bread for sandwiches and the best toast you'll make at home. It's the focaccia approach (wet dough, folds instead of kneading, a pan doing the shaping) carried over to a loaf. The pan means no banneton, no Dutch oven, and no scoring. What it teaches is the two rises and the difference between them: the bulk rise builds flavor and strength and should stop early, at about half again; the pan rise builds height and has to go all the way, to the rim.

Ingredients

  • 100g (½ cup) active sourdough starter 100% hydration (equal weights flour and water), fed and at its peak
  • 10g (2½ tsp) kosher salt
  • 430g (1¾ cups) water, at room temperature start with 400–420g in a humid kitchen or with all-purpose flour
  • 512g (4 cups) bread flour
  • ~2 tbsp olive oil, for coating the dough and your hands
  • Butter, softened, for greasing the pan

Method

  1. Mix: in a large bowl (a straight-sided one makes the rise easy to judge), stir the starter, salt, and water together. It doesn't need to be smooth. Add the flour and mix until no dry flour remains. The dough will be wet and sticky.
  2. Stretch and fold: after , with a wet hand, pull one side of the dough up and press it into the center, give the bowl a quarter turn, and repeat 8–10 times around. If you're home, do a set every for the first . If not, even one set is enough.
  3. Bulk rise: drizzle a little oil over the dough, turn it to coat, and cover. Leave at room temperature, about 21°C (70°F), until it has risen about 50%, typically depending on the kitchen and starter ( in hot, humid weather). Go by the rise, not the clock, and don't use an oven with the light on; it gets too warm. (Fridge option: once risen, refrigerate the dough covered overnight and shape it the next day.)
  4. Butter a 25×13cm (10×5 in) loaf pan (a 23×13cm / 9×5 in pan works but gives a taller loaf that's slower to bake through).
  5. Shape: oil your hands. Loosen the dough from the bowl and turn it out onto the counter without punching it down. Fold it like an envelope (top to middle, bottom over, then the sides in) and, with a bench scraper, tuck it into a rough rectangle. Lay it seam-side down in the pan and nudge it to fill the length.
  6. Pan rise: cover and leave until the dough has crowned to the rim of the pan, usually . Be patient here; a loaf baked below the rim stays short and tight.
  7. Heat the oven to 220°C (425°F). Bake , then turn it down to 190°C (375°F) and bake another , until golden all over, sides included, and the center reads 97–99°C (206–210°F). (Optional: invert a second loaf pan over the top for the first for a bit more rise.)
  8. Turn the loaf out onto a rack straight away and let it cool at least before slicing.

Why it works

  • Two rises, two jobs. The bulk rise is fermentation: the yeast makes gas while the bacteria make acids and flavor, and the folds build the gluten. Stopping it at ~50% leaves the gluten strong and the yeast still with food, which is what powers the second rise. Let bulk go to double or past, and the acid and enzymes start to break down gluten. The dough slumps in the pan and can't rise again. The pan rise is the opposite: its only job is volume, so it has to go fully to the rim.
  • The pan replaces the shaping. At about 85% water to flour (counting the starter's), this dough is far too slack to hold a free-form loaf without real shaping skill. Pan walls hold it up and push all the expansion upward, which is why a pan loaf is the forgiving way to bake sourdough.
  • High heat, then lower. The 220°C start gives the most oven spring: the outside stays soft long enough for steam and expanding gas to push the loaf up before the crust sets. Dropping to 190°C bakes the dense center through without burning the top. A second pan inverted over it holds steam in, keeping the crust soft a little longer for more rise.
  • Bake to temperature. The crumb sets as the starch gelatinizes and the proteins firm, and a loaf this wet needs a center of 97°C+ to stop being gummy. Golden sides, not just a golden top, mean the edges are done too.
  • Cooling is the end of the bake. Straight from the oven the crumb is still steam and soft starch. The loaf finishes setting as it cools and moisture moves outward. Slice early and the knife smears the crumb into a gummy, compressed slice.
  • Classic pitfalls: fermenting the bulk to double (the old instruction, and the usual cause of a flat, sour loaf); baking before the dough reaches the rim; a starter that isn't at its peak; underbaked edges in a 9×5 pan; and slicing hot.

Wine pairing

This is everyday bread, so the pairing follows whatever is on it. For the bread itself, warm and buttered or as toast, the best match is Champagne. Bottle-aged on its lees, it develops the same toasty, bready, slightly sour notes that a sourdough crust has, and the acidity and bubbles cut through butter. For a sandwich lunch, a dry Riesling (Alsace or Germany's trocken): high acidity and low oak suit ham, cheese, mustard, and pickles alike.

Sources

  • Alexandra's Kitchen — the recipe followed here: quantities, water adjustment, folds, the 50% bulk-rise cue, rim-high pan rise, the two-temperature bake, internal temperature, cooling, and the fridge and inverted-pan options.
  • Serious Eats / The Food Lab — the fermentation, oven-spring, and starch-setting reasoning.