A crispy crunchy delicious crust encasing a soft tangy bubbly buttery interior?! This perfect sourdough loaf is a wonderful addition to your savory and sweet meals and snacks! The longer fermentation yields a bubbly interior and baking with steam makes it crispy and delicious! If you're an experienced sourdough bread baker I recommend you try this! The dough is 70% hydration, and with the sugar and butter it is sticky!
To make one day sourdough sandwich bread
The original recipe, which I modified, is from: https://www.homemadefoodjunkie.com/soft-sourdough-sandwich-bread-recipe/
The recipe is here, and pictures of the process are below:
Ingredients:
150 g sourdough starter at it's peak rise after feeding
325 g room temperature water (70°F)
25 g honey or white sugar
20 g melted unsalted butter (or a neutral oil)
500 g white bread flour (high protein)
10 g uniodized salt
1 egg for the egg wash (optional)
Directions:
Day 1:
Notes: I fed my starter at 6 am and it was doubled in size and passed the float test at 10 am. The room temperature of my kitchen was 55-60°F, the refrigerator I did my cold proof in was 38-40°F. Then the oven that I did the final proof/rise in was 73-79°F.
Add the water and starter to a bowl. Lightly mix together.
Then add the honey, melted butter, and flour. Mix well to combine, until there are no lumps or dry flour remaining, which takes about 5 minutes.
Cover and rest 30 minutes.
Sprinkle the salt over the dough and with wet hands squish it into the dough and mix to combine. This is tricky because the dough is sticky and takes about 5 minutes to do.
Cover and rest 1 hour.
Note: My dough temperature during the initial mix and through the last stretch and fold was about 70-72°F.
Four sets of stretch and folds: Do one set of 4 sets of stretch and folds every 30 minutes (so 2 hours total) Cover and rest between each set.
The dough should pass the windowpane test (mostly) by the end of the stretch and folds.
If you're doubling the recipe then divide it into two balls. Cover the bowl well and refrigerate (10-24 hours). I did 17 hours cold proof with the loaves seen below!
Day 2:
Take the dough out of the fridge and let warm up on the counter for 1 hour.
Grease your 9x5" baking pan well with butter and set aside.
Remove the dough onto a large clean surface. Roll out into a large thin rectangle (see picture below). Use a little flour if necessary.
Then fold the long sides in to meet the middle (see picture below) and start rolling it up as tight as possible, stretching and rolling as you go. Then seal it well, then sort of smoosh the ends of the loaf together, closing the open swirl and shaping it into a tighter loaf (see picture below).
Use your wet or floured hands or a bench scraper to deposit the dough, seam side down, into the greased baking pan.
Cover the dough and rise in a warm place until about doubled in size and rising ~1 inch above the sides of the pan (about 3-4 hours). I use my oven with the light turned on.
When ready to bake, place a heat resistant tray on the bottom shelf and fill it with water (we want to create steam to get a crispy crust when baking). You can also add a baking tray on the center rack to place your loaf pan on (optional). Note: I have a back-left burner that emits excess heat so I cover that while preheating to create even more steam.
Preheat the oven to 425°F. Also prepare a cup of water which will be poured into the oven to make more steam (optional but recommended).
Once the oven is preheated, lightly brush the loaf with egg wash or water or milk and slice it with a sharp blade to help it expand while baking.
Working quickly, open the oven and put the bread pan on a middle rack/pan on the middle rack, pour in the cup of water on the bottom of the oven (optional). Quickly close the oven and reduce the temperature to 400°F.
Bake for 15 minutes with the steam. Then open the oven and remove the dish with water and let steam out of the oven. Close the oven and reduce the temperature to 375°F. Bake another 25-35 minutes, or until the loaf reaches 200°F internally.
Remove from the oven and pan and place the loaf on it's side on a wire rack to cool for at least 3 hours before slicing into (trust me, the texture is better this way!)
Can be kept at room temperature up to 4 days, or frozen in a freezer-safe Ziploc bag with the air sucked out in the freezer up to 1 month.
Makes one giant and delicious loaf!
Here I showed how I made the loaf! Keep in mind that I made a double batch of the dough because I was also making a cinnamon raisin loaf :)
Day 1:
Everything I used to make the main dough!
This is what my starter looked like right before preparing the dough (it's at it's peak rise). For the last feed I gave it 100% bread flour.
And it passed the float test, so ready to start making the dough!
Add the starter and water to a large bowl. Then you'll mix them together before adding the butter, honey, and flour.
Before mixing in the flour.
After mixing the flour together. It will be sticky and difficult to work with. Now cover and rest 1 hour. Remember this is 2x as much dough since I was making two separate loaves.
After 1 hour it looked like this. Clearly puffier! Next we add the salt.
After sprinkling the salt on.
After mixing the salt in (with the help of some water). Now cover and let rest 30 minutes.
Before the first stretch and fold.
After the first stretch and fold. Now cover and rest 30 minutes.
Before the second stretch and fold.
After the second stretch and fold. Now cover and rest 30 minutes.
Before the third stretch and fold.
After the third stretch and fold.
Before the fourth and final stretch and fold.
After the fourth stretch and fold. It should pass the window pane test at this point.
Next I had to divide the dough since I was making 2 loaves, but skip this if you're making one loaf.
The sandwich loaf dough before the long cold proof!
I wrapped both and placed them in the refrigerator overnight.
Day 2:
After taking the dough out of the refrigerator and letting come to room temp for one hour.
Grease the pan (I used butter) before working with the dough!
Take the dough out onto a clean surface.
And roll it out until it's a long thin rectangle!
Fold the edges to the middle. Then you will start rolling!
While rolling up tightly.
Once rolled up, mine was very uneven but I kind of fixed it in the next picture :)
I pinched the open ends closed and squished the dough around to make it more uniform. It's not perfect but that's okay!
Flip it seam side down into a greased baking tray. Now we have the final rise!
The breads rising (I was preparing the cinnamon raisin loaf at the same time).
After rising! Time to prepare the oven.
I had a pyrex dish with water on the lowest rack with a metal baking tray on the middle rack. I preheated the oven with both of these inside.
I also put a cast iron over my stovetop burner that releases steam to trap more steam for the first part of the bake!
Right before baking brush the loaf (loaves) with egg wash and score them.
Then bake for 15 minutes with the steam.
After the first 15 minutes remove the steam tray (and cast iron skillet on the stovetop if using). Then continue baking!
After baking! The sandwich loaf on the left is marvelous! They both are!!!
Remember to remove it from the pan and leave it on it's side to cool!
So beautiful!
Such a golden beautiful crust!!!