Sourdough Sandwich Bread

How to make sourdough sandwich bread from scratch:

• First, grab a large mixing bowl and use a whisk to combine the sourdough starter and filtered water. After that, stir in the all-purpose and bread flours. Use a wooden spoon for this step.
• Now, sprinkle the salt over the wet, sticky dough and pinch it with your fingers. Afterward, cover the bowl with a clean kitchen towel or plastic wrap and let it rest for 60-minutes (or 1-hour).
• Once the hour has passed, you need to stretch and fold the dough. Kim recommends 4-sets of stretching and folding.

How to stretch and fold the dough:

• Start by wetting your hands with water. Grab a piece of dough near the top of the bowl and pull it straight up to stretch the dough out. Make sure not to tear the dough, only pull it upward a little. Afterward, fold the pinched piece toward the center of the dough and press it down lightly.
• Continue the pinch and fold process on each side of the bowl and on the bottom. Imagine the bowl is divided into fourths or quarters. Each time you pinch and fold all four quarters and the bottom of the dough, you will have completed one set.
• The dough will need to be pinched and folded for a total of 4 sets. To be completed over a 2-hour time span. Meaning, you will complete 1 set, every 30-minutes. If my instructions are a little difficult to understand, try Kim’s explanation in the recipe card.
• You’ve spent the last 2-hours pinching and folding sourdough, it’s time to move forward with the recipe. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and place it into your fridge for at least 8-hours or overnight to chill. Then, remove the dough from the fridge and let it slowly come to room temperature.
• Meanwhile, go ahead and grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan and set it aside. Once the dough reaches room temperature (1-2 hours later), transfer it to a lightly floured (all-purpose flour) surface.
• Using a floured rolling pin, roll the dough out into a rectangle. Try to roll out as many air bubbles as possible.At this point, it’s time to wet your hands and a dough scraper with warm water.
• You can use your hands and the scraper to fold each side of the dough in, towards the center. Be sure to start with the long sides first and pinch them together when they form a seam in the center.
• Repeat the process with the shorter sides of the dough. You should have a short, thick loaf of dough. Transfer it, seam side down, to the loaf pan. Grease a large piece of plastic wrap and loosely cover the pan.
• Place the pan in a warm, draft-free spot and let the dough rise until comes up over the sides of the pan. This rising process could take any from 2-6 hours depending on both the humidity and temperature in your kitchen.
• Once the bread is ready to bake, preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. and bake the sourdough loaf for 40-45 minutes. The crust should be golden brown. If the top starts to brown too quickly, then place a foil tent on top of the loaf pan.
• Once baked, remove the bread from the oven. Let it cool for at least 5-minutes before moving it to a cooling rack. Additionally, the bread will need to cool completely before slicing.

Recipe Tips:

• Let’s be honest, this recipe is long and takes a lot of time and patience to complete. I recommend starting it on a Friday evening and finishing it the following day. Just be sure not to have anything planned for Saturday because, you’ll have a date with bread dough.
• The sourdough starter needs to be active in order for this bread recipe to work. If the starter isn’t bubbly and gassy, then it’s not ready to use.
• For the foil tent method; form a large piece of aluminum foil into a tent and place it over the bread as it bakes. Kim usually does this about halfway through the cooking process.

Other sourdough recipes you may enjoy:

• Rustic Sourdough Bread
• Sourdough Doughnuts