My kids prefer soft white sandwich bread for their school-lunch. And they usually get super excited if the loaf looks like the toast bread sold at the store.
For this particular recipe, I needed to practice a little, before figuring out how much dough to put in my small Pullman loaf pan. The one I use has the following dimensions: 10.5cm x 19.5cm x 10 cm / 8.5X4.75X4.375 in.
Here is the formula which fits this loaf pan exactly.
Ingredients
Sourdough Starter
- 7g sourdough starter
- 35g water
- 35g bread flour
Dough
- 360g bread flour (100%)
- 216g milk (60%)
- 36g sugar (10%)
- 54g soft butter (15%)
- 60g starter (16%)
- 6g salt (2%)
- 0.5 g dry yeast (optional, to reduce sourness)
Directions
Day 1
Starter
- 10 pm add starter to the water and whisk together, add flour, mix well, cover loosely, let it sit at a room temp 74-78F for about 8-10 hours until starter reaches its peak (at least triples in volume).
Day 2
Dough
- 8 am mix milk, sugar, sourdough starter (60g on its peak, the rest use for future feedings), all the flour, let it autolyse for 1 hour.
- During the autolyse process the flour becomes fully hydrated. This activates gluten development.
- 9 am mix dough on low speed of your mixing machine for 2-3 minutes, or KitchenAid on speed 3 for 3-4 minutes until well incorporated.
- Add salt, mix for a couple more minutes. The dough should come up together.
- Add soft butter, mix for 10-15 more minutes until the dough is well incorporated and comes up together.
- Perform a windowpane test. Wet your hands and stretch the dough. You should be able to stretch it very thin, that’s a sign of a well developed gluten, and that your final product will have a soft and light structure.
- Cover and let it proof for 3-4 hours at 76-80F / 24-28C.
- During that time perform 2 stretches and folds.
- The dough should become slightly puffy.
- 1 pm transfer the dough to the fridge for cold fermentation for 6-8 hours
- 9 or 10 pm Remove the dough from the fridge.
- Shape as desired. I rolled it into a long roll same length as a baking loaf pan.
- Transfer the shaped loaf into a loaf pan.
- Cover the dough and let it proof overnight on the counter at 70-72F / 19-20C until next morning. It should at least double.
- If you prefer to have square edges, close the lid of your Pullman loaf, or you can bake it without lid to get more open top.
- Preheat the oven to 375F.
- Bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown.
Enjoy your white sandwich loaf 🙏
Hi, in this recipe the dough was giving cold bulk ferment and 2nd rise on the counter, which is opposite to most recipes I’ve read, I wonder what’s the difference between these two methods? Are they interchangeable?
Anyways, the loaf looks so soft and amazing, I can’t wait to give it a try!my sourdough crust tend to get soggy and chewy after cooled down.. they came out crispy! but couldn’t last for more than half day, not sure if it’s due to my oven which can only goes up to 450f and drop to 430f and lower once open for sliding the Dutch oven in, sandwich loaf required less high heat seems to be a great alternative 🙂
Susan, hi!
I’m trying different methods, want to find the best and fastest solution. Pretty happy with this recipe, you’ll love it.
About crusty bread, yes, if you’d bake it at 500F first 15 min of baking, crust would stay crispy longer.
I changed a little bit the recipe and managed to make it faster.
Great 👍🏼
Hi we live in the UK and our weather is not very warm. The house if generally about 18-20 during the day and anything as low as 13 at night. Can you recommend timings for proving at lower temperatures.
Thanks
Hi!
Usually I keep starter or the dough in oven with light on.
It creates perfect temperature 🙏
Ok will give it a go.
Thanks
Just wondering what stage you’d add the yeast? I usually prefer to avoid yeast, but my daughter doesn’t like the sourdough I make, hoping this recipe is a good compromise. Thanks
Unfortunately it did to work for me 😕
Sorry to hear that.I wonder what went wrong
This is an excellent milk bread recipe! So happy with the soft, pillowy, yet chewy crumb. My crust seems a bit on the thicker side though…how can I achieve a thinner crust? FYI, I baked at 400F for 25 min and lowered to 375 for 5 more.
Thank you for your feedback.
Try to bake it at 375 all the way.
Brilliant recipe. The bread stays soft for days. I doubled the quantity and made a bigger one. Just realised I fed the starter differently 1:1:1. Just wondering if it makes any difference.?
Thanks
Thank you so much for your feedback!
And very smart to follow your starter’s feeding routine.🙏
How about trying this with an equal amount of *Oat Milk in place of the regular milk?
Yes, absolutely!
Hey Natasha!! I lovvvve this recipe!! Just wondering directions on feeding the starter?? I checked the comments here and on your Instagram comments, I must be missing it! Thanks so much!
Courtney, hi! Just follow regular feeding routine your starter used too, just make sure you’ll have enough got the dough.
In the instructions you mention it’s the prefect amount for your Pullman pan that is 4.5inches x 7.5x inches x 4 inches.
But the link you posted takes us to a pan that is (8.5X4.75X4.375INCH)
Just not sure which is right for the recipe as I want to try it! It looks amazing!! Thx
Dan, hi!
I was converting cm into inches and probably made a mistake, thank you, will fix it.
The amount of the dough will be perfect for the pan I posted.
Fantastic recipe which yielded a fluffy, soft & tasty sandwich bread. I modified the proofing time to my climate.
Thank you so much for your feedback 💖
Hello Natalya! I have been making this recipe on repeat last 2 months or so, I always double the recipe with no problem , this time I wanted to quadruple it and in the process of mixing seems the dough took about 170 g less of flour, I added all the liquid. Do you have any tips when multiplying the recipe more then twice?
Thank you for great detailed recipes!
Hi!
Usually you have to follow the proportions according to increasing the amount.
1:4:4
Hi, i was making this loaf, and it is very tasty and soft. But i dont know why, it does not fill my pullmann pan (20x10x10cm). The dough only doubles in size and to fill the pan it should triple. I used starter and yeast. What i am doing wrong?
Hi!
I think you should’ve let it proof longer.
Hi
After remove from the fridge, should I wait for the dough to a certain temperature before shaping it ? Are there any concerns when working with cold dough ? Thank you
I prefer to work with cold dough
Hi,
Instead of yeast. Can we use a sweet starter?? If yes. Can u help with the sugar quantity, we need to add in the starter.
Ciao, per pasta madre intendi quella liquida? Grazie
I love this recipe and the bread is delicious. I like to make it without yeast. Just FYI, without the yeast it does not rise to the top of the Pullman Pan.
Thank you!
I think it just need more time to proof without yeast.
Hello. I’d like to start off by thanking you for this delicious recipe. Thank you.
I need some advise. I overproof the loaf this morning and now it has shrunk. What should I do? I don’t want a short sandwich slice.
Hi!
Thank you for kind words .
Next time let it proof less. Then it will hold its shape.