Easy Sourdough Discard Sandwich Bread Recipe
This post may contain affiliate links.
This quick and easy sourdough discard sandwich bread is a great sourdough recipe to have in your repertoire for when you need to use up some discard or you need a loaf of bread in a hurry. You'll get a super soft, light and airy crumb with a soft crust that's easy to eat.
This bread takes around 2 to 3 hours from start to finish, depending on how warm your house is. It utilises 100g of sourdough discard and is perfect with homemade butter!
If you'd like a more artisan style sourdough discard bread, you could try this recipe.
Which Loaf Pan Should You Choose?
Sandwich bread needs to be baked in a laof pan. You can use an open tin or a tin with a lid or “Pullman Bread Tin“. If you use an open tin, you’ll achieve a rounded top to your sandwich loaf. This is what I prefer to bake in.
You can however also use a Pullman Tin. This has a lid that slides on top and will yield you a square sandwich loaf, more like the bread you would buy in the supermarket.
No matter what type of tin you use, this loaf is best in a tin around 4 x 8 x 4 inches. This is the one I use (I just leave the lid off as I think it is nicer with the rounded top).
Sometimes my sourdough sandwich discard bread comes out looking like a mushroom ... it makes my kids love it even more because they think it's hilarious! Spot the squishy toddler fingers!
Shaping Sandwich Bread
Shaping sandwich bread is so so easy. Of course, like anything, there are a million ways to complicate it, however I like to stick to this simple method – it’s so easy my kids can do it!
Remember that this dough will feel different to traditional sourdough sandwich bread because it has been leavened with instant yeast. It may feel stickier than traditional sourdough, but if it is, you just need to flour your hands a little.
You need to pop your fermented dough out onto the kitchen counter so that the smooth side is underneath and the sticky side is on the top. Gently ease the dough out into a rough rectangle, with the short edge closest to you.
Then roll the dough up into a log and tuck the ends under. Try and create as much tension as you can on the top of the loaf. This will help it to develop a lovely shape and crust when it's baked.
Then simply plop the log into your buttered tin.
Freezing A Sourdough Discard Sandwich Loaf
You can easily double or even triple this recipe (when you look at the recipe below, you can easily click the button and it will automatically calculate the measurements for you). Doubling the recipe means you can use one loaf and freeze the other.
These plastic bread bags are perfect for freezing your sandwich bread in.
This yeasted version of sandwich bread is super handy to have in your recipe collection when you realise you have to pack school lunches ... and there's no bread!!
It also freezes really well - as a whole loaf or even sliced and made into sandwiches.
To store frozen sandwiches, you can place each sandwich in a plastic ziploc bag. This makes them easy to place in lunchboxes in the morning. You could also wrap them in parchment paper and store in an airtight plastic container in the freezer if you don’t want to use ziploc bags.
Slicing Sourdough Discard Sandwich Loaf
Slicing a sandwich loaf can be tricky, especially if you want perfect slices. However, you can purchase a bread slicing guide which makes things much easier. You could even use an electric knife or electric food slicer.
Making Sourdough Discard Sandwich Bread in the Thermomix
I use a Thermomix to make this discard bread, however you could use any stand mixer. I find that using a mixer creates a super soft crumb - and makes this a quick easy recipe to use.
I use the dough function on the Thermomix (any version will work TM31, TM5 or TM6).
As with the traditional sourdough method in your Thermomix, clean up is easy - just add some water to the jug afterwards and run at speed 10 to clean the blades.
For the all the best sourdough recipes to make in your Thermomix, check out this guide.
Sourdough Discard Sandwich Bread Variations & Substitutions
There are lots of ways to jazz up this easy sourdough discard sandwich bread. Here are a few suggestions:
- Honey & Oat Sandwich Loaf - Add 20g of honey and 50g of oats to the mixture when you add the butter, sugar and salt. If you'd like to add oats to the top you should do so when you put the dough into the tin - spray the loaf lightly with water so the oats stick to the top.
- Multigrain Sandwich Loaf - Add 50 to 100g of your favorite seeds to the mixture when you add the butter, sugar and salt. Seeds like sesame, sunflower, pumpkin and flax work really well.
- Wholemeal Sandwich Loaf - Replace half the Bread Flour with Whole Wheat or Wholemeal Flour for a more hearty country style sandwich loaf. You could top with sesame seeds when you place it into the tin.
- Make this loaf into sourdough discard rolls by following these instructions.
Equipment for Making Sourdough Discard Sandwich Bread
Sandwich Loaf Pans – you’ll need a selection of sandwich loaf tins to bake your bread. Having 2 or even 4 is a great idea if you want to bake several loaves at once (and this bread freezes really well).
Plastic Bread Bags – these are a great way to store and freeze your bread and fantastic if you’re making multiple loaves at once.
Bread Slicing Guide – these are super handy if you’re wanting perfectly sliced sandwich bread.
Further Reading
If you love this recipe, you might enjoy these:
- Check out this guide to making sourdough discard sandwich bread in a bread machine.
- Prefer baking with whole wheat flour? You might prefer this whole wheat sourdough discard sandwich loaf.
- These super fast sourdough discard hamburger buns are delicious - soft, buttery and everything a burger bun should be!
- Want to make a sourdough version of pane di casa? This sourdough pane di casa is perfect (it uses discard too!).
Sourdough Discard Sandwich Loaf Recipe
Video
Equipment
- Stand Mixer
- Digital Scales
- Bread Tin
Ingredients
- 100 g Sourdough Discard (unfed sourdough starter)
- 250 g Water
- 500 g Bread Flour (or All Purpose Flour)
- 10 g Salt
- 20 g Sugar
- 60 g Butter (salted, room temperature)
- 7 g Instant Yeast
Instructions
- Combine the sourdough discard, water and flour into the bowl of your stand mixer or Thermomix and mix until it forms a shaggy dough (around 30 seconds will do it). Leave the dough to rest for 30 minutes.
- Now add the salt, sugar, butter and yeast to the bowl and knead the dough for around 3 to 6 minutes. You want the dough to be elastic, silky and slapping the sides of the bowl. Just keep the mixer going until you achieve this. If you are using a stand mixer you'll need to use your dough hook attachment for this step.
- Now you need to let your dough rise. You are using instant yeast as the leavening agent in this recipe, rather than sourdough/wild yeast, so it will rise very quickly, particularly if your home is warm. Leave it for around an hour (it will take longer if your house is cooler). You want it to double.
- While you're waiting for the dough to double, lightly butter a sandwich loaf or pullman pan so it's ready to go when the dough is shaped.
- Once the dough has doubled, tip it out onto the counter top with the smooth side underneath and the sticky side on the top. Gently ease the dough out into a rectangle. It should be quite easy to do this as the dough is very elastic.
- Now you want to shape your dough into a sandwich loaf. This is fairly easy. Make sure that the short side of the rectangle is in front of you. Fold each side of the dough into the middle, then roll the dough into a tight log with the seam underneath. Tighten the top of the dough by putting your hands at the base and pulling the dough towards you, without lifting if off the countertop.
- Once the dough is shaped, gently place it into the buttered loaf tin. Leave the dough to rise until it's just above the rim of the tin. This will take around an hour, depending on the temperature of your home.
- Once the dough has risen, you'll need to bake your loaf. Turn your oven on and set the temperature to around 180C/350F. Let it warm for around 10 minutes. Spray the top of your dough with some water mist and place into the oven. Make sure that there's plenty of room for it to grow in the oven as it will generally keep rising.
- Bake your bread at 180C/350F for around 40 to 45 minutes or until the loaf is golden brown.
- Remove from the loaf tin and allow to cool on a wire rack.
Notes
Nutrition
Since I discovered your recipe this has become a weekly bake for us, ours is half wholemeal and seeded with pumpkin and sunflower seeds and is delicious every time, thank you
After adding the discard, flour, and water, my dough is so tough and dense.. is this normal? I measured with the grams
I have made this twice now. Both times the bread tasted delicious but the second time, the loaf is falling apart round the edges when I cut it, it's like the crust is falling off. What we would cause this?
Can one use olive oil instead of butter. If so. How much?
Help! I put the dough after the first rise in the fridge raider for a few hours. I was hoping I could just come back and do the second rise. Was this a bad idea?
I'm a little confused by the oven directions. Do you place this in the oven as it is heating up to 350° or place it in there at 350 like you normally would when cooking?
Absolutely amazing discard bread! New to the whole sourdough thing and this was the first thing I made with 10 day old discard and I have to say it was easy and tasted absolutely amazing! Will be making this time and time again. Also will be making the roll version of these for Thanksgiving!
Can i use a normal 9x5 tin?
I've tried baking sandwich bread before only to have it disappoint. This recipe made up the prettiest and best-tasting loaf I've ever made. I am so happy to have found and tried this!!
Excellent! We've been spending over $5.00 per loaf of Dave's Killer bread and decided to give this recipe a try. I replaced the butter with olive oil, cut back a bit on the sugar and replaced ~200g of the bread flour with seeds, oatbran and whole wheat flour. It was perfect! Thank you!
This recipe turned out fantastic! I lessened the flour by 125g., and the salt by ½, but stuck to the the recipe otherwise. This is definitely a keeper!
We LOVE this recipe! It makes the most delicious bread! Although I also love turning the dough into dinner rolls. It's perfect!
Wow. This is hands down the best sandwich bread I’ve made and perfect way to use up my discard! The flavor is outstanding and fluffy texture is second to none. Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for sharing your gift! I’m a newbie and on day 10 of making a homemade starter. I’m trying this recipe out right now…so far it’s been sitting to rise over an hour and not risen one bit 🙁 Iive followed the recipe perfectly and am using fleischmanns dry active yeast and 100g of my starter. My kitchen is not cold, is it typical for it to sometimes take double the amount of time to rise? How long do I wait until I decide this one is a dud? Thanks in advance for your help!
This had turned into my go-to recipe, the family favorite!
Here in Portugal the yeast comes in 11 gram packaging, being horrible in such calculations:
What would be the amounts recalculated so that I can use a sachet of yeast per bread?
I would just use half the packet of yeast and it will be fine. If you want to recalculate the bread ingredients you'd need to use baker's percentages 🙂
I made this and it was wonderful!
I used organic all purpose flour instead of bread flour and it turned out great
A new family favorite!
Thank you!
Came across this recipe looking to use up some discard, but I don’t have bread flour. Can all-purpose unbleached flour be used with this recipe?
Any idea on why mine would’ve turned out super dense and moist? It’s not airy at all. 🙁 I don’t have a stand mixer so mixed by hand.
Super bread recipe, I tried it as needed to use some discard up and didn’t have the time to wait for sourdough bread. Nearly overproofed as house warmer than I thought so ended up with a very tall loaf well before the hour was up.
I will be using it again as one person in my house does not like the sourdough bread and this was a great compromise, I had to stop them eating it so I could use for sandwiches for lunch next day.
Beautifully textured and tasted great, also made lovely toast with butter & raspberry jam. Very happy I tried this recipe
I made this today because it was a snow day so why not? It was **ridiculously** good. I've been making artisan sourdough boules for a few years now, but this was an absolutely lovely change of pace. My husband and I sliced into the semi-cooled loaf after the kids were in bed, and it looks embarrassingly smaller than when it came out of the oven!
I'm waiting on my loaf to do a second rise.. I have no hope for it. I don't own a scale so I did conversions and I don't think it's going to turn out..never had an issue converting in the past but this loaf of dough was extremely dense. I had to add more water to the discard, flour, water mixture because it was all flourly
crumbs. The loaf barely rose on the first rise. Fingers crossed the second rise is better and it bakes ok... I have a strong feeling this is going to go to the chickens.
I made this last night with inactive starter from the fridge and just a pinch of yeast (not instant, not mixed with water). 30 g olive oil instead of butter. I kneaded by hand and let it rise n the counter for about 7 hours. It didn’t double. Degassed, shaped, into pan, and in fridge for a few hours. Baked as directed and sliced when hot so I could make my kid a sandwich for school. Despite my doubts, it’s excellent! Keeping this recipe.
First I’d like to start by saying thank you for sharing this recipe! I made it last night and it was an huge success. Perfectly soft and tasty. I had no issues at my altitude of just under 6000 feet.
My question for you, is there a way to successfully add more starter to give it more tang without compromising its texture? What would you suggest?
LOVE this recipe! Makes wonderfully fluffy and soft sandwich bread but still has the sourdough goodness from the discard. It does come out very large and tall, which is fine but a little daunting at first lol. I sometimes will place it in the fridge for an hour or so after the first rise and the cooling creates a more dense but equally as good, soft loaf.
How do I keep my tops soft. I followed the recipe and my top came out like a crust not soft like the sides and bottom. The crust gets so hard as it cools. I don’t want my bread to be crunchy. I want it to be soft like sandwich bread from a store. How do I achieve this! I’ve never been able to and I don’t know how to. Thanks for all your guides they are so helpful.
But two this I definitely suck at is my crust is never soft when I want it.. and my rolls are always biscuits or unflavored with hard tops that are like crust instead of soft pull apart bread that I want 😭
I'm giving this recipe 5 stars because I've made this loaf and variations of it a hundred times and it's always been perfect, so thank you. BUT... my last 2 loaves didn't perform in the same way, after a long first prove my dough seemed over airated and loose and was difficult to roll and reform. Once it was shaped it took ages to rise to the top of the tin and when it baked, it baked flat. What have I done wrong???
When making the honey oat variation, do you just add whole oats? Or should you blend them first
This is a big it with my family! My kids went through about 4 loaves in a week and a half!
Have you ever tried subbing shortening for the butter? I have some friends/family who are dairy free.
This bread is amazing!! I love that I can use the discard and not feel wasteful;) I was looking for a Verizon of bread that is good for my kids and that they will eat with sandwiches for lunch. This is it! They even come home and slice it with butter 😉 happy mama, happy kids! Thank you for sharing this!
First off, love this recipe! It’s simply amazing!
My question is could I use fed starter rather than discard?