Simple Sourdough Sandwich Bread (for lazy people)

Ben Starr, the Ultimate Food Geek, teaches a simple, delicious sourdough sandwich bread with no kneading, slapping, or folding, using unfed, cold starter straight from the fridge. This bread lasts for a week, or longer, on the countertop if stored properly. This recipe is slightly more complicated than my Simple Sourdough recipe, but far less complicated than most other sourdough sandwich bread recipes on YouTube.

Printable recipe: https://ultimatefoodgeek.com/2024/04/03/simple-sourdough-sandwich-bread-for-lazy-people/

My favorite kitchen scale: https://amzn.to/49PZJHb (Restaurant grade, takes AA batteries or plug in.)

My Pullman loaf pan: https://amzn.to/3vtRp1z

My favorite bread knife: https://amzn.to/49vTAQ8 (offset handle, serrated blade, cheap enough to replace every few years)

My favorite kitchen thermometer: https://amzn.to/4ajpG2J (solid company, and you can pay more for a faster version of their thermometers, but this one is just fine)

Bread box: https://amzn.to/4aFHYuJ (best for storing pre-sliced bread)

Beeswax bread cloth: https://amzn.to/3TMg1ub (AMAZING for keeping loaves fresh and soft for days, better for loaves that haven’t been completely pre-sliced)

NOTE: I am an Amazon affiliate. If you buy something from one of my links, I’ll get a few cents. Thanks!

RECIPE:

In a large bowl, add:

3oz / 85g all purpose flour (bread flour will also work)
3 Tbsp (1.5oz / 42g) unsalted butter, sliced thin
3oz / 85g boiling water

Let it sit for a few seconds to melt the butter, then stir until thick and pasty. Work all the melted butter into the paste so it’s evenly mixed. Then add:

2oz / 57g sugar (or 1oz / 28g honey)
3oz / 85g buttermilk (if you can’t find buttermilk, use half sour cream/creme fraiche/yogurt and half milk)
1 egg
6oz / 170g sourdough starter at 100% hydration (cold, unfed, straight from the fridge)

NOTE: If using robust, frequently fed starter, the recipe will work, but rise times will decrease…as will flavor.

Stir with a whisk until well mixed. Then add:

12oz / 340g all purpose flour (or bread flour..you can sub up to 6oz/170g of whole wheat flour here, if you wish, but add 1 extra ounce of water to the wet ingredients if you do)
0.5oz / 14g salt (any type)

Stir until too difficult to mix with a fork, then use your hands to bring the ingredients together into a cohesive, smooth dough, about 1 minute. The dough should be slightly tacky, but if it’s too sticky to work with, your starter is over-hydrated and you need to correct it. (https://youtu.be/zWGkUvS6ZCI?si=h-W5Z0M_ydIwd8E_&t=366) Add a bit more flour to the dough to fix the current problem.

Grease the bowl and cover with a non-permeable, solid covering. (Pot lid, sheet pan, plastic wrap, etc. NOT a kitchen towel.) Rise at room temp for 12 hours, or until double. (If using robust starter, you may achieve doubling in 6-8 hours or less.)

On a floured surface, gently stretch and pat (de-gas) the dough into a rectangle about the width of your loaf pan. Shape the loaf as you prefer. I use the King Arthur method (https://youtu.be/wx5I5O_RoeI?si=HNeXLsyGDcEsrBaG).

Place the loaf in a greased loaf pan. Cover and rise 2 hours or until double. (Robust starters may only need 1 hour.)

Bake on the center rack of a preheated 375F oven for 50 minutes, or until the internal temperature is 195F / 91C.

Cool fully before slicing, ideally 8 hours.

Howdy Folks I’m Ben star welcome back to
my kitchen today I am going to teach you
how to bake a simple loaf of sourdough
sandwich bread I need a lot of people
telling me that they bake my regular
simple sourdough recipe in a loaf pan
and use it for sandwiches but my core
simple sourdough recipe is a lean dough
it only contains flour water salt and
starter and lean does do not make the
best sandwich bread traditionally
sandwich loaves are made with a rich
dough that has added fat and dairy to it
it gives it a slightly longer shelf life
on your countertop and makes it nice
soft rich and yielding now as you might
expect a rich dough is slightly more
complicated than my simple sourdough
recipe where you just stir four
ingredients together and forget about it
for a day but it’s only fractionally
more effort and I’m actually going to
teach you a technique that might be
mind-blowing if you’ve never run across
it but it adds several days of freshness
to the loaf as it sits on the countertop
so your bread doesn’t stale quite so
quickly all right let’s get into it
today we are weighing our ingredients
with a scale as with all of my recipes
and if you don’t have a scale don’t try
to convert this recipe to measuring cups
get yourself a scale it is the only way
to ensure consistency especially for
beginning Bakers from loaf to loaf to
loaf my favorite scale is linked in the
video description below but any scale
will do and folks today I am speaking in
ounces so for you metric folks I’ll have
the conversions right there on the
screen as well as the written recipe
that’s in the video description below
just click where it says more or you can
go to my website ultimate foodgeek tocom
and get a principal recipe for free
right there all right we are starting
with 3 oz of flour I am using allpurpose
flour today you can use bread flour if
that’s what you prefer to use it will
result in a slightly higher rise and a
slightly chewier texture which is
definitely not something I want with my
sandwich bread I want my sandwich bread
to be super nice and soft but you do get
a better rise with bread
flour now on top of this 3 oz of flour
we are going to add three tablespoons or
1 and 1/2 o of unsalted butter we never
bake with salted butter because we don’t
know how much salt is in that butter so
we cannot control the final salt content
of our recipe that’s why unsalted butter
is always preferable to salted when it
comes to baking now I cut them into
fairly small pieces so that they will
melt quickly during the next step which
is probably going to be the step that
you might not have seen before I am
going to add 3 oz of boiling hot water
to this flour and butter and I’ll
explain why here in just a second now
I’ve got a tea kettle here that’s rare
in go but you can boil yours on the
countertop in the microwave whatever
just make sure you measure carefully as
you add the boiling water it’s best to
do it in very small amounts and all over
the bowl so that you’re contacting as
much of the flour as
possible all right now we can let that
sit for just a few seconds before we
stir it together that will help melt the
butter and something fascinating is
happening to the flour as this hot
boiling water is sitting on it if you’ve
ever made gravy or pudding on the stove
top you know that when you add add any
kind of starch like flour or corn starch
to a hot liquid it quickly thickens as
it reaches the boiling point this is
because there are little packets of
starch inside the flour and when they
meet a hot liquid they explode sending
out all these tiny little starch fibers
into the Matrix of whatever you’re
cooking this is called gelation or
gelatinization and it’s a technique
that’s exploited in a traditional
Japanese way of bread baking called Udan
we’re basically just pouring boiling
water over the flour to blow out those
starch molecules this allows those
starch molecules to hold on to liquid
for longer periods of time and in our
final loaf of bread after baking we’ve
got more water inside that loaf that the
loaf is holding on to thanks to that
really blown out crazy gelated starch
that means our bread stays softer for
longer and stals less quickly it’s a
really cool technique and you can
actually apply it to any bread that you
want to extend the bread’s shelf life
all right now we just want to make sure
we have Incorporated all of this melted
butter into the paste before we move on
to the rest of our liquid ingredients so
now we’re going to add 2 oz of sugar now
if you are diabetic and you’re trying to
limit your sugar intake you can
eliminate the sugar from this
recipe if you’re a honey household you
can add 1 oce of honey instead of the 2
ounces of sugar and we’re adding the
sugar at this step because sugar is
hygroscopic it draws moisture to it and
melts so you typically add sugar along
with the other liquid ingredients in
most recipes next we’re adding 3 oz of
Buttermilk my regular followers know how
much I preach and pray buttermilk it is
the most important ingredient in my
kitchen it’s always in my refrigerator
and it should always be in yours too
buttermilk is not as high maintenance as
people think it is it lasts Way Beyond
the expiration date and when you’re
finished with it you can make more just
by refilling the bottle with milk and
leaving on the countertop for a couple
of days now for those of you people that
are like oh I just add a teaspoon of
vinegar to my milk to make buttermilk
that is not buttermilk real buttermilk
is a naturally fermented product which
is where its acidity comes from if you
add vinegar to milk you have vinegary
milk it does not taste Pleasant it is
not good and it is not buttermilk so go
get yourself some buttermilk before you
make this recipe and watch my buttermilk
video linked up here at the top because
it will actually change your life in the
Kitchen buttermilk is a really cool
ingredient we are adding 3 oz of it to
our
dough one egg straight from my
chickens and finally 6 oz of sourdough
starter cold unfed straight from the
refrigerator if you’re new to my channel
we bake all of our breads with cold
unfed starter we never discard and feed
our starter we only feed our starter
when we need to make more It’s a
Wonderful Life over here people so if
this is a bit shocking to you don’t
worry you can bake any sourdo recipe
with cold unfed starter straight from
the fridge you just have to give it a
little bit more time to ferment that’s
all and in return for that you get more
flavor so we are adding 6 oz of
sourdough starter at 100% hydration 100%
hydration means every time you feed your
starter you’re feeding at equal weights
of flour and water so a feeding might be
12 O of flour and 12 O of water as long
as you’re feeding equal weights your
sourdough starter is at 100% hydration
unless the hydration has gotten screwed
up somewhere along the line and if this
dough ends up too sticky for you to work
with this means you either mismeasured
your liquid ingredients or your starter
is over 100% hydration I have a video
called troubleshooting simple sourdough
that will help you fix your starter’s
hydration level if your starter is
overhydrated and you end up with a dough
that’s too sticky to work with that is
fairly common I get lots of comments
about people saying oh the dough was so
sticky I couldn’t work with it that
extra liquid is coming from your
starter now we want to get in here with
a whisk or a Danish Brut piser and get
this all really well mixed together
while I love my Brut piser I find that
the Whisk actually makes this particular
technique happen a bit more quickly so
we want to just get all of that starter
broken up and distributed throughout the
Matrix of the rest of the liquid
ingredients yes you could definitely do
this in your stand mixer if you have one
but I try to make my videos accessible
to everybody and you do not need a stand
mixer to make this recipe if you do use
the stand mixer I would use the Whisk
attachment rather than the paddle
attachment for the first part of this
mixing process and then switch to your
dough
hook all right liquid ingredients are
well mixed it’s still a little bit lumpy
but not terribly and that’s perfect
perfectly fine now we add our dry
ingredients which consist of 12 more
ounces of all-purpose flour or bread
flour and half of an ounce of
salt now my recipes do have a higher
salt content than most traditional bread
recipes this is by intent the salt helps
strengthen the gluten Network and helps
us protect against over proofing you can
lower the salt to 0.3 Oz is if you are
on a salt restricted diet and the recipe
will still turn out okay you just have
greater risk for over proofing your
dough all right now I’m going to get
these stirred together I’m starting with
a fork
here and at some point that’s going to
get a little bit too hard to stir so
we’re going to switch to our hand unless
you’re using a stand mixer now this is
technically a no need recipe and while
this looks like kneading you would
typically knead this dough for 15
minutes by hand and we’re not going to
do that we’re to let the gluten develop
overnight as the bread sits but you do
need to get in there and get everything
mixed together until your dough is
uniform and
cohesive gather all the dry ingredients
from the side of your bowl as you’re
working and as you start to get well
mixed the dough is going to become
slightly stickier that’s perfectly fine
as long as you don’t have any dry crusty
bits on the outside it’s mixed enough
now I am going to give this bowl a quick
spray with some olive oil
I know some of you have a contion when
you use cooking spray so you can just
use regular oil or butter if you want
now we’re going to cover this loaf
securely with a lid that’s not very air
permeable we do not want it to be
completely airtight otherwise the carbon
dioxide that’s being produced by the
fermentation might blow the lid off but
we don’t want to use a kitchen towel or
anything that’s air permeable like that
because this is going to ferment for at
least 12 hours and if you use a kitchen
towel you’re going to develop a hard
crust on the outside of your loaf that’s
going to prevent it from rising and you
don’t want that to happen so if you
don’t have a lid that fits your bowl use
a pot lid or a baking sheet some Saran
Wrap something like that on top of there
just to make sure you don’t have a lot
of air in contact with the dough all
right this dough is going to ferment at
room temperature on the countertop until
it’s double for most of you that’s going
to take about 12 hours if you happen to
be one of those people that really does
feed your starter like every day but you
still want to use this recipe it’s
entirely possible that your dough will
double in 6 to 8 hours and if that’s the
case at that point you really do want to
get it shaped and then baked but for the
vast majority of you that use the cold
starter method this should sit for 12
hours until it has doubled unlike my
simple sour dough recipe this dough
ferments more quickly because we’ve got
sugar and dairy and other ingredients
that are providing more diverse food for
the yeast and bacteria to consume
however there’s a Counterpoint to this
we’ve added quite a bit of fat to this
dough in the form of that egg yolk and
the butter and the negligible amount of
fat that’s in the buttermilk fat in a
Rich dough prevents the gluten from
linking up into really long tight chains
as it does in a lean dough this is why
we call Fat shortening because it
shortens the chains of gluten so while
the dough will ferment faster it will
not rise quite as high because there is
less gluten development to trap the
carbon dioxide being produced so we are
looking at a shorter initial bulk
fermentation for this dough than we do
with my typical simple sourdough I don’t
want you to let this dough sit around
for 24 hours before you shape it so I
want you to check it at 12 hours and at
12 hours it’s probably going to be
double and at that time it is time to
shape I’ll see you tomorrow after 12
hours it is time to shape our loaf now
you need to choose which loaf pan you
are going to bake this in and this loaf
Works beautifully in your standard 8 or
9 in loaf pans you can also use the
skinnier longer loaf pans if that’s more
the size of the sandwiches that you like
to make now I actually like to bake this
sandwich bread recipe in a Pullman loaf
pan Which is enclosed on all four sides
it’s got this neat little lid here that
slides right on it covers your loaf as
it’s rising and when you bake it the
loaf Rises and fills in this entire
block so that your sandwich slices come
out almost perfectly Square it’s super
cool now I have formulated this recipe
specifically in volume for my pulman
loaf pan Which is 4×4 by 8 if you’ve
already got a pulman loaf pan and it’s a
different size you may need to scale
this recipe up a little bit or down a
little bit if you want to achieve like
full Square Rising inside your Pullman
loaf pan if you want to get this one
it’s linked in the video description
below it’s certainly not necessary but
it’s kind of cool to have a perfectly
Square loaf of bread all right the first
thing that we’re going to do is grease
our pan and yes you can rub oil or
butter in there you can line it with
parchment if you want to waste money I
am just using an olive oil spray and if
you’re using a pulman loaf pan you need
to grease the lid as
well all right we want to flour the
surface
that we’re working
on and your hands as
well then we are going to gently remove
the dough from the bowl and now we want
to stretch this loaf into a fairly even
rectangle that’s about as wide as the
long end of our bread
pan it’s also a good idea to gently Pat
the go down because sandwich bread does
not rely on large holes as the aesthetic
currently is trendy for regular
sourdough bread we don’t want giant
holes because where’s the mayonnaise or
the mustard going to sit right our
ingredients are going to fall out
through the holes so we do want to degas
the loaf just a little bit collapse
those larger air bubbles so that those
don’t end up turning into giant holes in
the middle of our dough as it’s baking
all right so we’ve got our dough just
about the width of of our loaf pan and I
like to use the King Arthur method of
loaf forming I’ve been using this for
the last several months and I found that
it works out a little bit more nicely
than just rolling the dough up so what
we’re going to do is take the top of the
dough fold it down to about 2/3 of the
way down the loaf give that a nice
little Pat back out and then we’re going
to take the two corners here and fold
them down sort of like we’re making a
paper airplane right then we’re going to
give that all a nice Pat as well make
sure it’s nice and flat and even
now we’re going to take the pointy end
and begin rolling It
Forward giving it a nice seal every time
we roll it we’re going to roll it
forward and gently push back towards the
end of the loaf this is creating nice
surface tension that’s going to help the
loaf rise beautifully and we definitely
want it to rise quite a bit and when you
get down to basically that original scam
where you first folded the dough down
we’re going to take the corners here
fold them in just a little bit and kind
of tuck them right like that going to
another little fold and seal and then we
can take the bottom here fold it over
nice and tight and pinch it to seal now
it’s very important that that seam be at
the very bottom of your loaf pan once
you put the loaf into the pan all right
so we’ve got our nice cute little loaf
here it may end up because the dough is
fairly slack it may end up slightly
longer than the loaf pan Which is
perfectly fine cuz you’re just going to
kind of smoosh it together as you set it
into the loaf pan all right and now I
like to just kind of press it down to
even it out and if you’re using the
Pullman pan you want to slide the lid
right back on top of it if you’re using
a regular loaf pan you can cover it with
a kitchen towel or some Saran Wrap and
you want this to rise at room
temperature for about 2 hours you want
it to double in size but it’s not going
to come all the way to the top of your
loaf pan the rest of that rise is going
to happen in the oven 2 hours later and
you can see that the loaf has has
doubled in volume so now it’s time to
bake I have preheated my oven to
375° and put the rack in the center of
the oven and this bread is going to bake
for about 50 minutes or until the
internal temperature is above 195°
[Applause]
f after 50 minutes you want to check
your
bread
if you have a thermometer that is the
best way to determine whether your bread
is done you want to make sure the bread
is over 195° fhe and mine is at 2011 so
in my case 375 for 50 minutes was
perfect we’re going to let this cool for
a couple of minutes and then take it out
of its loaf pan to fully cool so here we
have our beautiful little square
sandwich loaf fresh from the oven now do
not try to slice it until it has cooled
fully that means at least 2 hours out
outside of the loaf pan at room
temperature and no hint of warmth at all
radiating from that loaf ideally leave
it on the counter top for 8 hours and
then it will be much easier to slice
I’ll be back tomorrow to talk about
slicing and storage all righty our
sandwich loaf has staled for about 8
hours so now it’s going to be nice and
easy to slice slicing sandwich bread is
actually something of an art you
definitely want to make sure you have a
sharp knife and note that I said sharp
knife not expensive knife if you were
knife knob it is absolutely not worth
spending 60 or 70 bucks on an expensive
bread knife because your bread knife is
going to get dull after a year or two of
continuous use and it is very difficult
to sharpen a serrated blade to the same
sharpness that it came from from the
factory so do not waste your money on
expensive bread knives I love this
offset bread knife it lets me go all the
way to the bottom of the cutting board
without bumping my fingers onto the
cutting board or the work surface so for
me an offset shaped bread knife is
absolutely critical to getting a good
slice I buy a new one of these every
couple of years they’re about 20 bucks
on Amazon and I’ll put the link to this
in the video description below if you
want to get my favorite bread knife but
look for a serrated bread knife with an
offset handle and you’ll be good to go
now when you slice into your loaf you
want to let the knife do the work back
and forth with very little pressure and
let the knife guide you towards the
bottom of the cutting board you also
want to make sure sure your knife is
held at a perpendicular angle to the
cutting board surface it’s very tempting
when we’re slicing bread to hold the
knife at a slight angle and that will
mess you up you do not get even slices
if you’re cutting down at an angle so
really focus on holding the knife
perpendicular to The Cutting Board now
we go back and forth nice and gentle and
slow watch that knife angle to make sure
you’re not cutting
inwards and then you get your perfect
slice now folks they also make a whole
bunch of gadgets for slicing sandwich
bread evenly and I’m going to tell you I
have tried a lot of them I’ve tried the
ones made out of plastic the ones made
out of metal and the ones made out of
wood and I don’t like any of them I find
that I can get more consistent slices by
focusing and paying attention to what
I’m doing and slicing the entire loaf at
a time and then storing it not only is
that more convenient for you when you
just need to pull a couple of slices out
of the container or the bag but when
you’re slicing all at once you can
really f focus and make sure you’re
doing everything evenly and precisely
who needs another big bulky Gadget
around the house for something as simple
as slicing bread right just follow the
pointers that I’ve given you and you’ll
be slicing perfectly in no time let’s
get a full pure slice out of this bread
and see what it’s
like that’s a really really lovely slice
of bread we’ve got wonderful sourdough
smell it’s nice and Rich very soft and
tender but still sturdy enough where
it’s not going to fall apart on you like
a lot of the Ultra Soft sandwich breads
will you definitely want this to be
sturdy enough to hold all of your
sandwich makings
together y’ that flavor is really really
wonderful that beats the heck out of
anything you can get at the supermarket
and thanks to that udana method where we
pulled the boiling water over the flour
in the very beginning step this bread is
going to stay soft and tender for 2 to 3
days longer than an equivalent homemade
loaf made without that technique you
still have to figure out how you’re
going to store the bread for my sandwich
loaves I have this little bread box that
I got on Amazon it’s kind of fun because
you can set the month and the day that
the bread was baked on the top so that
you know how long it’s been there it
keeps moisture in without it suffocating
the bread like it would in a plastic bag
or a Ziploc bag so I can slice all of my
bread put it in here close it and seal
it and it can stay on the countertop for
use throughout the week now I do have
one other storage option to share with
you that’s fairly new to me I’ve only
been using it for a few weeks but I’m
absolutely in love with it this is
beeswax infused cotton fabric and the
beautiful thing about it is that it
sticks to itself but not to bread so you
can give it a fairly tight
wrap and it is only barely moisture
permeable which really controls the rate
at which the bread stals it radically
slows down that process but you don’t
end up with a weird soggy bread like
sometimes you do when the bread is in a
Ziploc bag or a plastic bag I get two
sometimes three extra days of freshness
with my homemade breads when I have
wrapped them in this wonderful beeswax
cloth now these aren’t the cheapest
things they’re about $15 for each cloth
however the cloth will last you a year
or more with regular use if it gets
dirty you can simply wash it off with
cool water and let it dry and I have
been super super impressed by the
performance of these beeswax cloths ever
since I started using them so I’ll link
to both of these little storage
solutions for you in the video
description below if if you want to
check them out if you enjoyed this video
on simple homemade sourdough sandwich
bread please give this video a like And
subscribe to my channel I have got so
much more cool stuff headed your way as
always hit me up on my website ultimate
food geek.com for free printable recipes
please comment in the video description
below especially if you are struggling
with this recipe and need some help I
try to get around to all the comments
especially those from people that need a
little bit of Assistance or advice I am
Ben star the ultimate food geek thanks
for watching everyone and have a great
day