Name: Simple Sourdough Sandwich Bread
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1515 min
Ingredients: 125g Water (~ 1 cup); 150g Active Sourdough Starter (~ 1 cup); 250g White Flour (~ 2 cups); 125g Whole-Wheat Flour (~ 1 cup); 10g Salt (~ 2 tsp)

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

This is my go-to everyday sourdough sandwich bread — 4 ingredients, beginner friendly, and reliable every single time. A hint of whole grain flour adds just enough depth and nutrition without compromising the soft, sliceable texture everyone at the table will enjoy

This post may contain affiliate links, please read our privacy policy for details.

I’ve gone through quite the trial and error trying to create the perfect sourdough sandwich loaf. I wanted it to be soft on the inside, crunchy on the outside, with an even, hydrated, open crumb.

I often double or triple this recipe, it’s that good.

I also wanted to use only simple ingredients – flour, water, and salt. It seemed like every sourdough sandwich bread recipe out there required enrichment such as an egg, butter, oil, or sugar. My goal was to keep it simple and still achieve a soft loaf for sandwiches.

This is the method and recipe I used to make bread for my bread business. Once you understand the process, you can explore more techniques and inclusions to achieve your perfect loaf. But for now, let’s learn the basics.

Bronwyn’s Sourdough Notes

This is your loaf! I’m here to share my tips, experience, and what’s worked for me — but sourdough is wonderfully flexible. Whether you’re a seasoned baker or just starting out, feel free to experiment and make this recipe your own. There are a bajillion ways to make a great loaf of sourdough, and my goal is simply to help you find the methods and rhythms that suit you best.

Water: If you can drink it, you can bake with it. I’ve used city, tap, well, and filtered water — all with great results. Don’t overthink it.

Salt: Use whatever fine salt you have. Unrefined salts like Himalayan or Redmond Real Salt support fermentation beautifully, but table salt works fine too. Don’t let people tell you your salt isn’t good enough.

Sourdough Starter: Start bread with an active, bubbly starter for best results. Learn more about your starter here.

Temperature: Dough rises best around 23–26°C (73–79°F) dough temperature.
Colder = Slower fermentation (6-12 hours)
Warmer = Faster fermentation (3-6 hours)
Adjust with warm or cool water depending on the season.

Flour: I always do a blend of standard all-purpose flour and freshly-milled whole grain flour as my whole wheat flour. Use whatever flour works for you.

Hydration: In summer, I use cooler water and slightly less. In winter, warmer water and a touch more can help balance fermentation speed.

Autolyse: This step involves holding back salt and sourdough starter at the mixing stage. I prefer a simpler variation called fermentolyse — I mix in the starter right away but hold back the salt for 30–60 minutes. This short rest gives the dough time to hydrate and relax, especially important when using whole grain flour, which takes longer to absorb moisture.

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!

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.

new ebook

getting started with sourdough

and the “why” behind each step

Whether you’ve never touched sourdough or you’re tired of every recipe being different and not knowing why – this guide will help clear things up.

Learn the basics, avoid common beginner mistakes, learn why you’re doing what you’re doing and finally bake an edible loaf!

Grab Your Copy

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 Rogers 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.
Water: Obviously.
Salt: I use Himalayan sea salt but any salt is good. Avoid highly processed table salt. The more mineral content, the better.

How To Make Simple Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Mix – Add water + starter to your bowl, mix until dissolved. Add white flour and whole wheat flour (and oats/seeds if using). 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./Flour your banneton basket and place your loaf in it, seam side up.

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

Starting the bake at a high temperature improves the initial rise before a crust is formed. Dropping the temperate ensures an even coloured crust while still benefitting from the initial high heat.

Keep an eye on your loaf while it’s baking. Every oven is different and you may find it gets dark too quickly at 375F. Feel free to reduce the temperature to 350F and extend the time to achieve a more even crust.

Make sure to remove the loaves from the pans when you’re finished baking. Leaving them in the pans too long while cooling down will produce condensation and cause the sides and bottom to get soggy and soft.

Watch Me Make Simple Sourdough Sandwich Bread!

In this video, I add the salt right away. You can do that, I just find holding back the salt produces a better outcome – quicker rise, more strength, better hydration, etc.

Recipe & Method

Save