Want to start making healthy sandwich bread for your family, but don’t love the crunchy crust of the artisan loaves?
We make this loaf on repeat in our home, because my kids don’t like the crunchy crust of artisan loaves. We use this bread for PB&Js, grilled cheese, toast, french toast, or stacked deli sandwiches!
It’s like wonder bread but actually GOOD for you! And adding in the benefit of the sourdough, it’s gut healthy as well.
Ingredients you’ll need:
- Hard white and Hard red wheat (we get our berries from Azure Standard)
- A healthy, strong sourdough starter
- Organic olive or avocado oil
- Organic maple syrup or organic raw honey
- Pasture raised egg
- Salt (Redmond’s Real Salt is the GOAT)
- Filtered water
Tools you’ll need:
- Mill for your wheat (We both love our Nutrimill mills!)
- Stand mixer (optional, but I prefer using this over stretch and folds)
- Stainless steel bowl
- Tea towel
- Wooden spoon
- 9×5 Sandwich pan (I love using these stainless steel pans)
Tips for success:
- Autolyse your dough for a good hour before adding in salt! This will allow the water to fully absorb into the bread. Most people struggle with difficult dough with FMF because they do not autolyse long enough.
- If using your mixer, mix low and slow so you can develop gluten but not break it down by getting the dough too hot.
- Your dough should be pliable but not firm. Squishy but not wet!
Why bake with fresh milled flour?
Fresh milled flour offers several health advantages over store bought, shelf stable flour. When wheat berries are freshly milled, they retain their nutrient rich bran and germ, which contain fiber, B vitamins, vitamin E, healthy fats, and minerals like iron and magnesium. Commercial flour has these components removed during processing and sits on shelves for months, losing nutritional value as the oils in the germ oxidize and vitamins degrade. Shelf stable flour also has many harmful ingredients added to it, like bromine, synthetic folic acid and preservatives.
Because fresh milled flour is whole grain by nature, it provides more sustained energy and better blood sugar stability compared to refined white flour. The natural oils and enzymes are also intact, which can make baked goods more flavorful and aromatic. It’s healthy AND delicious!
Soft Sourdough Sandwich Loaf
Ingredients
Equipment
Method
- Mill your flour and set aside
- In a bowl, measure water, egg, maple syrup, oil, sourdough starter and whisk together.
- In your stand mixer, add wet ingredients to your flour. Mix together until all clumps are gone. Let dough autolyse for 1 hour.
- After autolysing, add your salt. Knead dough with dough hook on speed 2 for 5-10 minutes until dough has a windowpane.
- Let the dough bulk ferment in a flat sided clear container and let bulk ferment until the dough has risen 40-50%. If you allow it to rise too much your dough will overferment and be difficult to work with.
- Dump out your dough on an oiled surface. Divide your dough into 2 900g loaves and place into your parchment lined stainless steel loaf pans.
- Allow your dough to rise in the pans until nearly doubled, are puffy and about 1 inch above your sandwich pans.
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees as your loaves get close to being done rising.
- Brush your loaves with an egg wash.
- Once your oven is preheated, add your loaves to the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes. Your loaves will be 200-205 degrees in the middle when finished.
- Remove your loaves from the oven and out of the sandwich pans. Take off the parchment paper and let cool on a wire rack.
- Let your loaves cool fully before slicing into them to avoid gumminess.
- Store in a ziplock or bread bag for up to 5 days. You can also freeze your loaves and thaw later if you want!
Notes
- If doing the stretch and fold method instead of in a stand mixer:
- Gently grab one side of the dough and stretch it lightly. Fold it onto itself and repeat in a circular motion around the bowl. Do 2 full circles of this motion.
- Allow 15 minutes between stretch and folds to let the dough rest.
- Repeat 4 stretch and folds before allowing to bulk ferment.
- Measurements for different bread shapes:
- Small buns: 50g
- Large burger buns: 150g
- Hot dog buns: 95g
- Small dinner rolls: 75g and place in a 9×13 pan
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