Simple ingredients for an old fashioned sourdough sandwich bread at its best!
Yield: 3 regular loaves (9×5” pans about 28 oz ea)
Ingredients
- 360 g (11.5 oz) sourdough starter
- 680 g (24 oz) water, divided
- 22 g (.7 oz) kosher salt*
- 60 g (2 oz) vital wheat gluten flour
- 230 g (8 oz) whole wheat flour (can use less but not more)
- 900 g-1.10 kg (32-38 oz) all-purpose flour, divided
Planning
Allow 5-8 hours to bulk ferment. Plan availability as to when the dough will need to be shaped into loaves then allow about 90 minutes for loaves to rise before baking. See notes below to speed up rising time.
Step One Getting Ready
- Measure and set aside ingredients. Early morning or the night before.
- Remove dough hook from mixing bowl and add sourdough starter. Cover and set this aside.
- Add salt to a small bowl and add water. Stir together to dissolve and set this aside.
- Add to a separate bowl the gluten flour, whole wheat flour and about 14-16 oz of the unbleached white flour. Whisk together and set aside.
- Be ready to clean as you go. Dried up sour dough starter is very difficult to remove after it dries.
Step Two Autolyze
- Add the remaining water to the bowl with the sourdough starter. The starter will be very sticky. To avoid lumps, add only a little bit of the water at a time, mixing well in between each addition.
- Gradually add the whole wheat flour mixture. Stir well to combine. The dough will be very thick.
- Cover and set this aside for the dough to rest. Leave this for a minimum of a couple of hours or as long as overnight. This allows time for the flour to hydrate (the autolyze process) while the fresh flour provides food for the sourdough starter.
Step Three Making the Bread
- After the resting period, add the water with the dissolved salt to the batter. Attach the dough hook and start machine to incorporate.
- With machine still running, while being careful to not add more flour than what is needed, gradually and steadily add the flour. Let the machine do the work. Continue adding flour until the dough is no longer sticky. You want the dough to be slighly tacky, not sticky. You should have very little flour left over, if any. Flour absorption is dependent on the how much whole wheat flour you are using as well as the weather and humidity.
- Let the machine knead the dough until the dough has developed gluten. This can happen in as little as 3-4 minutes but can take longer. Do not over knead as it will break down the gluten. Do window pane test (see notes).
- Transfer dough to greased bowl. Cover and let double in bulk. Make sure the dough won’t dry out. I divide the dough into three loaves right away and use Cambro containers. They come with lids and it makes it easy to see when dough has doubled in bulk. Depending on room temperature, this can take as little as 5 hours, up to 8 hours or even longer (see notes).
Step Four Shape Loaves and Baking
- Divide dough into three loaves and put into greased pans. To keep dough from drying out while it’s rising, place loaf pans in container with lid. Allow about 1 ½ to 2 hours. Confirm when bread is ready to bake by doing poke test (see notes).
- When the bread is ready, you can bake it in a preheated oven or from a cold oven. In both situations the baking temperature will be 350°F. Make sure the loaves are placed with ample space around the pans to allow for heat circulation.
- For a preheated oven bake for 35-40 minutes. For a cold oven bake for 45-50 minutes. Internal temperature is between 190 and 210°F.
- Immediately after baking, remove loaves from pans and place loaves on a wire cooling rack.
- Once cooled, put bread in resealable bags, and keep at room temperature. Use with 3-4 days or freeze 6 up to weeks.
Notes/Tips
Salt
- Iodized salt can slow down the fermentation process.
- I prefer to use kosher salt. Kosher salt tends to be granulated. In bread making, it needs to be dissolved in water before using. If you are using a fine salt then just mix the salt in with some of the white flour.
Window Pane Test
- Stop the kneading process and pinch off a small ball of dough. While using both hands, gently pull on the dough. It should stretch without tearing. When the gluten is fully developed, it will stretch paper thin.
Speed Up Rising Time
- Preheat oven to 120°F. Turn oven off and leave the light on.
Poke Test
- When the loaf is nearing to be double in bulk, gently poke it with your finger. There should be some resilience. If your finger leaves a dent, it had over proofed or is close to being over proofed.