If you know me, you know I love a good sourdough. But I am also only one human and can only eat an entire loaf of bread in one sitting so many times. I needed to find a sourdough option that I could pre-slice and freeze, then just bang in the toaster as needed, for a sensible sourdough serving. Enter stage left, the Sourdough Sandwich Loaf!
It’s a goal of mine to always have a loaf of this ready to toast in the freezer, and it’s serving me very well. It’s not too fussy to put together, though being sourdough, it is a fairly long and mostly hands-off process. Worth it, I reckon.
To make sure my starter is active and bubbly I feed it equal portions water and flour the night before I want to start my loaf.
Ingredients
- 100 g active starter
- 10 g salt
- 430 g water
- 500 g high grade flour
- a few tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
How to make a Sourdough Sandwich Loaf
- In a large bowl, mix the active starter, salt and water.
- Add the flour and mix until the flour is fully incorporated with no dry spots.
- Rest the dough for half an hour.
- Perform your first “fold”. Wet your hands, reach down the side of dough ball and grab to stretch out the dough and pull it across the top of itself (the “stretch and fold”). Repeat 4-5 times rotating each time, to do this all the way around the ball then leave for another half hour.
- Repeat the stretch and fold sequence 4 times over 2 hours (or longer).
- Drizzle with olive oil and rub to coat the surface of the dough. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and set aside to rise at room temperature until increased in size by 50% (approx. 6 to 12 hrs).
- Once the dough has increased in size by 50%, line a loaf pan with baking paper or grease thoroughly.
- Drizzle dough with a few tablespoons of olive oil and rub your hands with a little bit of oil too. Use your hand to scrape the dough from the sides of the vessel out onto a bench, being careful to retain as much air in the dough as possible.
- Fold the dough in three, (like a letter going into an envelope) and then roughly shape into a rectangle.
- Transfer the dough, seam-side down to your prepared loaf pan and gently stretch to fill the shape. (If timing is an issue, you can transfer the dough to the fridge. To do this rub the surface of the dough with oil and cover with a damp tea towel before transferring to the fridge overnight.)
- Leave the dough untouched in the loaf pan until dough begins reaching the rim of the pan (approx. 5-6 hrs)
- Preheat oven to 220’C. Transfer loaf to the oven and bake for about 20 minutes.
- Reduce heat to 190’C and bake for a further 20 to 25 minutes or until golden all around.
- Remove pan from oven and turn bread out onto a cooling rack. Allow to cool at least 30 minutes before slicing to ensure the crumb is set and not sticky.
If you’re planning to freeze your loaves like I do, after resting for 30 minutes and slicing your loaf, allow it to rest for a further hour before packing into a bread bag or snaplock for the freezer. This gives the surface of each slice a chance to “set” and means it’s much easier to get out just one or two slices when you need them, without the whole loaf fusing itself back together!
Recipe timing
You can choose to make this loaf in a single day, or across two days, depending on your schedule.
Single Day Schedule
Ensure starter is fed the night before. You will need a relatively warm environment for the rises to be successful in the shorter time frames.
- 7.00am: Mix dough and leave to rest
- 7.30am – 9.00am: Complete 4x stretch and folds
- 9.00am – 3.00pm: Rest
- 3.00pm: Shape and transfer to loaf pan
- 3.30pm – 9.30pm: Rest
- 9.30pm – 10.15pm: Bake
- Leave to rest overnight and slice in the morning
Two Day Schedule
Ensure starter is fed the night before. A two day schedule gives you more room for slow rises if needed, particularly over winter when temperatures are lower.
Day 1
- 11.00am: Mix dough and leave to rest
- 11.30am – 1.00pm: Complete 4x stretch and folds
- 1.00pm – 9.00pm: Rest
- 9.00pm: Shape, transfer to loaf pan and into the fridge
Day 2
- 10.00am – Remove from fridge
- 10.00am – 4.00pm: Rest
- 4.00pm – 4.45pm: Bake
- 4.45pm – 5.45pm: Rest and slice
If you like this, than why not also try our Sourdough Pita, Sourdough Focaccia or Sourdough Boule recipes!