Easy Seedy Sourdough Sandwich Bread Recipe
This beginner-friendly seedy sourdough sandwich bread recipe simplifies the process, stripping away most of the fancy techniques. If you’re new to sourdough baking and want a straightforward approach to creating a delicious seedy sandwich loaf, this method is perfect for you.
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Seedy sourdough sandwich bread is an essential recipe to have in your bread baking repertoire. It’s soft, tangy, and has a satisfying, healthy seedy crunch that elevates any sandwich or toast.
When I was first learning how to make sourdough sandwich loaves, I noticed that most recipes called for butter, eggs, milk, or some kind of fat. While I’m not against using fat, I simply wanted a straightforward, seedy sourdough bread made with just flour, water, salt, and seeds. And that’s exactly what we have here—no fluff, just pure, simple ingredients.
Not to brag, but this seedy sourdough bread recipe I’ve developed is hands down my all-time favourite loaf. It’s better than any I’ve gotten from bakeries, and trust me, I’ve tried many. It’s the perfect balance of flavour, texture, and simplicity.
This was also one of the favourites during my micro-bakery days. It makes a great sandwich, dipping bread, toast, and a sturdy vessel for honey, jam or butter.
Where can I source freshly milled, whole-grain flour?
If you’re living in a city, you can mostly likely find a bakery or fancy grocery store that sells fresh-milled whole-grain flour. If you’re living in the country and you can source whole-grains, you may want to consider milling your own flour. You can start without making a large investment by using a powerful coffee grinder or blender that you already own. A step up would be purchasing a KitchenAid grain mill attachment.
If you’re really enjoying working with fresh-milled whole-grains and you have a reliable source of grain, you can also consider a Harvest NutriMill which is the one I use almost everyday and love both for its beauty and practicality.
Get your Harvest NutriMill when you’re ready to invest using this link and my discount code BRONSBREAD20 at checkout to get $20 off your order!
The Seeds
This is a carefully crafted blend of seeds, tailored to my personal preference. When I say this is my favourite loaf, it’s because I made it my favourite loaf by perfecting the best combination and ratio of seeds.
- Pumpkin Seeds: The most textural seed of them all with a sweet flavour. I love the way pumpkin seeds pop in my mouth. And the flavour of toasted pumpkin seeds is unmatched.
- Sunflower Seeds: Sunflower seeds offer an earthy flavour with a chewy texture. Their mild, nutty taste adds depth, while their satisfying bite makes them a worthy addition to the loaf.
- Flax Seeds: Flax seeds contain a nutrient-rich oil and provide another nutty flavour. Its texture and flavour is more subtle than other seeds but their nutrition contribution makes them a worthy addition.
- Millet: One of the most underrated and under-used seeds for a seedy bread. I love the earthy flavour of millet and the dramatic crunch it provides to a loaf. Such and simple yet essential addition to this loaf. It also gives it a nice pop of colour.
- Sesame Seeds: Nothing beats the aroma of toasted sesame seeds. The nutty, toasty, and rich smell elevates this loaf to the next level. If you take the time to add the seeded crust, you’ll truly experience the magic of toasted sesame seeds, enhancing both the flavour and aroma of the bread.
- Poppy Seeds: I’ll admit, I’m not entirely sure what poppy seeds taste like, but they add another delightful crunch and enhance the visual appeal of the loaf. Their subtle texture offers another layer of interest, making the bread even more enjoyable.
Seeded Crust Mix
I’ve made a seeded crust including all the seeds used for the dough but I didn’t like the way the pumpkin, sunflower, and poppy seeds behaved.
The pumpkin seeds burnt easily, the sunflower seeds just fell off, and the poppy seeds are so small, they group together and get lost in the mix. So, if you’d like to do a seeded crust, stick with the medium sized ones.
I like to do:
- 1 part flax
- 1 part millet
- 1 part sesame (white and black)
Scoring Your Sandwich Loaf
Scoring is the process of slicing into the top of your dough just before baking. This helps the bread expand in a controlled way as it bakes, allowing the loaf to rise evenly and develop a beautiful crust.
When you look around, you’ll notice many sandwich loaves with a smooth, unscored top. These loaves are typically enriched with butter, eggs, oil, or other fats, which soften the dough. The addition of these ingredients breaks down the gluten network, resulting in a tighter crumb structure that doesn’t need scoring for proper expansion.
This recipe, however, is simply flour, water, and salt like an artisan loaf which means the gluten is strong and can produce large bubbles. This is also known as “tunnelling” and can look like this:
Scoring the top of the loaf allows the gas bubbles inside the dough to release in a controlled manner, preventing the formation of large, uneven holes at the top of the loaf.
Materials You’ll Need
- Medium-Sized Mixing Bowl: A heavy set ceramic mixing bowl would work best.
- Bowl Cover: Anything that covers and seals the bowl and covers your loaf for final proofing. I use these reusable elastic bowl covers.
- Dough Whisk (optional): It is cleaner to get things started with a dough whisk but it’s definitely not necessary. I like using a wooden spoon or my hands.
- Plastic Bench Scraper: I find this tool very handy for cleaning and scraping the dough out of the bowl. It can also be used for dividing dough and pre-shaping.
- Metal Bench Scraper: I use this tool for dividing dough, pre-shaping, and cleaning the table. Not essential though, as the plastic bench scraper can serve similar purposes, but I like using both.
- Kitchen Scale: I prefer sharing most of my recipes in grams so there is less room for error as I’m not in the kitchen with you! Everyone scoops things differently.
- Bread Pan: I really like 8″ x 4″ size for this recipe but you can use a bigger bread pan, your loaves might just be a little shorter. These are my FAVOURITE BREAD PANS. Don’t need to grease or line with parchment paper, they are truly truly non-stick. If you don’t have these pans, you’ll just have to flour and grease your pan or line with parchment paper so the loaf doesn’t stick.
- Razor Blade, Bread Lame or Sharp Knife: I haven’t found a bread lame I really like so I just use razor blades as is.
- Deep Metal Baking Tray or Muffin Tin (optional): This vessel is placed at the bottom of your oven to hold water to produce steam.
- Cooling Rack: For cooling down your loaf.
Ingredients
White Flour: I use all-purpose flour, nothing fancy.
Whole-Wheat Flour: I use fresh-milled organic whole-grain flour but any whole-wheat flour from the store will get the job done.
Active Sourdough Starter: An active sourdough starter is bubbly with large bubbles, a domed top, double to triple in size, sweet and sour smelling, and floats in water. A perfectly active starter is essential for the perfect loaf but it’s not essential to make sourdough bread. You can work with the starter you have even if it’s not perfectly active, just expect inferior results.
Salt: I use Himalayan sea salt but any salt is good.
Water: Any drinking water can be bread-making water.
Seeds: Pumpkin, sunflower, flax, millet, sesame, and poppy.
How To Make Simple Seedy Sourdough Sandwich Bread
Mix – Add water + starter to your bowl, mix until dissolved. Add white flour, whole wheat flour and seeds. Mix until no dry bits. Rest 30–60 min (autolyse).
Add Salt – Add salt with a splash of water, squeeze in until fully integrated and dissolved. Rest 30 minutes.
Strengthen – Perform a series of stretch and folds. Let rest for another 30 minutes.
Strengthen (pt.2) – Perform another series of stretch and folds.
Bulk Ferment – Let the dough rest until doubled in size, jiggles, and has a domed surface. (Warm 4–6 h; cool 8–12 h.)
Shape – Pre-shape into a ball and let it bench rest for 20–30 minutes. Final shape into an oval log shape. Grease and flour your loaf pan (or line with parchment paper) and place your loaf into it, seam side down.
Proof Options
Same-day bake: cover and let rest on the counter at room temperature until risen and puffy (1-3 hours).
Next-day bake: cover and place in the fridge 8–24 hours for enhanced flavour, structure, fermentation & easy scoring.
Score & Bake
Loaf Pan (with added steam): Preheat the oven to 500°F. Once hot, add a tray with water (around 1 cup) to the bottom rack. Once that water starts to bubble and boil, lightly flour the surface of your loaf, score as you wish and place your loaf in the oven. Drop temperature to 375°F. Bake for 35–45 minutes, until a dark golden crust is achieved.
Cool – 1 hour minimum before slicing to ensure the crumb has fully set and then enjoy with a generous amount of butter!
Notes
If you want to do a seeded crust, refer to text or simply mix 1 part millet, 1 part flax, 1 part sesame. Lightly wet the surface of your dough and roll it into the seed mix.
Video Tutorial
Recipe & Method
Seedy Sourdough Sandwich Bread
Ingredients
- 250g Water
- 150g Active Sourdough Starter
- 250g All-purpose Flour
- 125g Whole-wheat Flour
- 10g Salt
Seed Mix
- 25g Pumpkin Seeds
- 25g Sunflower Seeds
- 10g Flax
- 20g Millet
- 10g Sesame
- 5g Poppy
Instructions
- Mix – Add water + starter to your bowl, mix until dissolved. Add white flour, whole wheat flour and seeds. Mix until no dry bits. Rest 30–60 min (autolyse).
- Add Salt – Add salt with a splash of water, squeeze in until fully integrated and dissolved. Rest 30 minutes.
- Strengthen – Perform a series of stretch and folds. Let rest for another 30 minutes.
- Strengthen (pt.2) – Perform another series of stretch and folds.
- Bulk Ferment – Let the dough rest until doubled in size, jiggles, and has a domed surface. (Warm 4–6 h; cool 8–12 h.)
- Shape – Pre-shape into a ball and let it bench rest for 20–30 minutes. Final shape into an oval log shape. Grease and flour your loaf pan (or line with parchment paper) and place your loaf into it, seam side down.
- Proof Options –
- Same-day bake: cover and let rest on the counter at room temperature until risen and puffy (1-3 hours).
- Next-day bake: cover and place in the fridge 8–24 hours for enhanced flavour, structure, fermentation & easy scoring.
- Score & Bake (with added steam): Preheat the oven to 500°F. Once hot, add a tray with water (around 1 cup) to the bottom rack. Once that water starts to bubble and boil, lightly flour the surface of your loaf, score as you wish and place your loaf in the oven. Drop temperature to 375°F. Bake for 35–45 minutes, until a dark golden crust is achieved.
- Cool – 1 hour minimum before slicing to ensure the crumb has fully set and then enjoy with a generous amount of butter!
Notes
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