Easy 100% Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread
An easy, soft sourdough sandwich bread recipe made with 100% fresh milled whole grain flour. A simple, healthy option for an old-fashioned overnight loaf.
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Nothing, in my opinion, beats the smell of fresh baked bread in the kitchen. The aroma captivates more than just our taste buds. It can bring back childhood memories and invokes a cozy loving environment. Plus who doesn’t love butter on a hot slice?
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The Secret To Soft Sourdough Sandwich Bread
Soft sourdough sandwich loaves are the goal of all bakers. Bread recipes that yield a soft loaf typically use an enriched dough.
What Is An Enriched Dough?
An enriched dough is a dough that calls for more than just flour, water, salt and yeast. Recipes that have eggs, milk, butter or oil create a softer slightly sweeter loaf. By adding fat to the dough you create a tender crumb (holes in the loaf) that is soft and fluffy. Too much fat though can make your gluten strands lose all structure and you’re left with a flat dense loaf.
Another tip for a soft sandwich bread is to not over bake it. If its in the oven for more than 40 minutes, its probably over-done and crunchy…I find 30-35minutes lends to a soft loaf with a perfectly browned crust.
Is Homemade Bread Healthier?
The short answer? YES!Commercially made bread has a whole host of ingredients. Most are fillers, added for shelf life preservation or to create universally consistent loaves of bread. Real bread should have 4-10 ingredients. The beginning of every bread recipe is flour, salt, water and yeast (sourdough or commercial) and then you can add dough enrichers such as eggs, butter, oil, sugar or milk and sometimes herbs for flavor. See how every ingredient can be easily pronounced!
Bread is life (and Jesus is the bread of life) and is the core staple for almost every culture in the world. The rise and fall of governments have happened due to the cost of flour. Only in our modern western world have we concluded that bread is the evil villain of our time. Sourdough bread free of pesticides and made at home, especially if you are milling the flour fresh for each loaf, is packed full of nutrition and easily digestible grains. Commercially available white flour has most of the bio-available nutrients removed for shelf stability. Freshly milled whole grains contain 40 of the 44 essential nutrients our bodies require and the nutrition of a sourdough loaf increases as the wild yeast breakdown the grains. This provides our bodies with nutrition devoid in our every day western diet.
If you’re interested in learning more about whole grains and their dietary impact, check out Bread Beckers. They are an excellent resource.
KNOW THIS! If you don’t have a mill. If you aren’t able to buy the “best” flour and you are making bread at home with basic all-purpose, you are still creating a healthier bread for your family.
Why You Should Use Fresh Milled Flour
Nutrients: Fresh milled whole wheat flour contains 40 of the 44 essential nutrients our bodies require. One of the greatest nutrients in whole grain flour is B vitamins. Vitamin B1, found in the wheat germ, is easy to obtain in fresh milled bread and is essential for our bodies. B1 can only be found in large quantities in liver, brewers yeast, wheat germ and brown rice bran. Commercial bread has either no B vitamins or contains synthetic alternatives that are added post processing. These are found in the bran and germ of whole wheat grains, so you cannot get them from sifted commercially available whole wheat flour. These have been removed to prevent spoilage.
Gut Health: Sourdough starter contains bacteria that pre-digests the grains and gluten found within flour. These enzymes not only improve the digestion of grains but help our own gut flora.
Oil Oxidation: Once flour has been milled the oils within the bran and germ begin to oxidize. That is why they are removed in commercial flours preventing spoilage and rancidity. Fresh milled home flour should be used right away or within a day to prevent spoilage. I personally mill my grains fresh for every loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread.
Storage: Unlike flour that can only be stored for short intervals of time or must be frozen to prevent spoilage, wheat berries can be stored indefinitely. INDEFINITELY! Azure Standard is my favorite source for a variety of whole grains. Store them in an airtight container for freshness. Did You Know – Wheat berries are the seeds of wheat grains and have been found in Egyptian tombs and Joseph saved grains for 7 years to distribute to the Egyptian’s and surrounding nations during the following 7 year famine in ancient Egypt.
If you’re interested in learning more about whole grains and their dietary impact, check out Bread Beckers. They are an excellent resource.
How to make Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread
Equipment you Will Need:
- Grain Mill – Always check marketplace too! My girlfriend found a brand new mill for $100
- Large Mixing Bowl
- 2 Glass Loaf Pans – These are made in the USA and are perfect for proofing in the fridge.
- Parchment paper – This one is my favorite, I’m able to bake with each piece multiple times.
Mixing and First Bulk Ferment
To a large mixing bowl place warm water (around 100ºF) sugar and starter. Add oil and salt to the mixing bowl and combine. Finally add the flour to your wet ingredients and mix well until all ingredients are well incorporated and a rough dough forms. I keep a half cup of flour to the side in case the dough is still sticky and needs any additional flour.
Allow dough to rest for 10 minutes. Then add an additional 1/4 cup of water. This will let your dough hydrate and create a barrier for you to do stretch and folds. Rest again for 10 minutes.
Stretch and fold your sourdough twice within an hour. After second stretch and fold, shape your dough into a rough round and coat with 1 tablespoon of oil. This will allow your sourdough bread to rise without drying, cover with a tea towel and allow sandwich bread loaf to rise on the counter overnight, approximately 12 hours. I rise all my sourdough recipes overnight and this whole wheat sandwich loaf is no exception.
Second Sourdough Fermentation
After 12 hours, your sourdough sandwich dough should be doubled. Prep 2 Glass Loaf Pans by lining with parchment paper. This will prevent your loaves from adhering to the pans, making them seamless to remove. Remove dough from bowl and cut in half. Shape each half of dough into a loaf and place in parchment lined bread pans. Allow dough to rise in loaf pans until they begin to mound – 1-2 hours. Preheat your oven to 350ºF while loaves are finishing their second rise. Going out for the day? Cover the dough and proof in the fridge for several hours until you are ready to bake.
Bake loaves for 30 minutes until crust is browning. Remove and let cool fully before slicing.
Between this and my sourdough boule recipe our bread cravings are fully satisfied! If you want a quicker version of this bread, try my Traditional Yeast Sandwich Bread Recipe. You can still use fresh milled flour for all the nutrient benefits.
Best Tip For Warming Fresh Sourdough Bread
Also, my husband created THE BEST TIP I have for you! We all love warm slices of fresh baked bread and he found a way to recreate it….the broil function in the oven.
Cut a slice of bread and place it either onto a cookie sheet or straight onto the baking rack and broil on low for 3 minutes per side. You’ll end up with a soft warm slice of bread, reminiscent of fresh baked. Slather on some butter and enjoy!
– Making Sandwiches? Check out my Quick and Easy Traditional Homemade Mayonnaise.
100% Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread
Ingredients
- 500 g Warm Water 100º
- 80 g Sugar
- 150 g Sourdough Starter
- 30 g Olive Oil
- 15 g Salt
- 900-1050 g Whole Wheat Flour
Instructions
- Mill 900g of Hard Red Wheat Berries
- Place warm water, sugar and starter in a large mixing bowl.
- Add oil and salt to mixing bowl and combine.
- Add 900g flour and mix well until all ingredients are well incorporated and rough dough forms. If too wet, sprinkle in small amounts of flour until rough dough forms.
- Allow dough to rest for 10 minutes. Then add an additional 1/4 cup of water. This will let your dough hydrate and create a barrier for you to do stretch and folds. Rest again for 10 minutes.
- Stretch and fold dough twice within 1 hour.
- Shape dough into a round and allow to rise in mixing bowl overnight (12 hours) or until dough has doubled.
- Once doubled, remove dough from bowl and cut in half.
- Shape each half of dough into a loaf and place in parchment lined bread pans.
- Allow dough to rise in loaf pans until they begin to mound (1-2 Hours)
- Preheat oven to 350ºF
- Bake loaves for 30 minutes until crust is browning. Remove and let cool fully before slicing.
This whole wheat sourdough sandwich bread loaf looks divine! I’ve been using dry active yeast lately, but want to make the jump to sourdough. Now that I’ve got my baking rhythm, I’m ready to try and keep sourdough alive too!
I love the simplicity of this bread. Delish!
I’ve been experimenting with fresh milled flour, but so far have only been doing half fresh milled and half regular flour. This is a recipe I will be trying soon to use ALL milled flour in my bread!
Excellent article with lots of explanations!
Fresh wheat is full of so many valuable nutrients we need for optimal health. So glad to find articles that help explain how to use it well.
The bread turned out great! My kids devoured it!
Oh I am so pleased you loved it and so did your kids!