Your best sandwich bread recipes please!

[RedLemonade]

I’m on the hunt for a recipe for a decent sandwich loaf.

I’ve tried the half sponge method and standard white and whole meal yeast breads but they all seem either too dense or two liable to tear with any kind of spread/filling on them.

Does anyone ANYONE have a recipe for a white or whole meal or mixed flour bread that I can cut into nice tall, not too thick slices that’ll hold a decent ploughmans filling?!

Many thanks!

I do a half sponge with some olive oil and golden syrup to soften the bread and help feed the yeast, and don't have a problem buttering the bread provided that the butter has not been in the fridge (we never put butter in the fridge for that reason). Might that be the problem, rather than the bread itself?.

We keep our butter out too but some mornings it’s a bit harder if it was a cold night. Definitely makes a difference.

Thinking about it maybe I’m not giving the bread enough time to fully cool- the vultures tend to descend very quickly on anything freshly baked.

Ah, yes, that could easily be the problem. My wife used to dive in almost as soon as it was out of the oven and I have had to ban her from the kitchen for a while for that as cutting it when hot ruins the structure of the loaf. Usually, however, it comes out of the oven just after she has gone to bed (as it will tonight) so is cool by the time she gets downstairs in the morning.

When you say 'half sponge' do you mean like cake without the sugar?

All the water, all the yeast and half the flour. After it has bubbled away for several hours you add the rest of the flour, the salt and any seeds you wish to throw in (Flax/Linseed, Sunflower or Pumpkin Seed) and oil/golden syrup if you wish, and continue the normal method of kneading, proving, knocking back etc.. This 'half-sponge' method generally gives a better flavour as the fermentation is over a longer period. Nothing to do with cake.

Exactly as 4merly says. It’s a lovely slow way of bread baking because you leave it doing it’s thing for hours. I only found out about it recently and it makes yummy bread!

Oh, that sounds lovely. Any recipes you can recommend?

Ingredients:
700gms Strong White Bread Flour (350gm with the water and 350gm later), 1 level dessertspoon of dried active yeast, 450ml water, 1.5tsp salt,a dollop of olive oil, a dollop of golden syrup and, a couple of large handfuls of seeds (linseed, sunflower and pumpkin seeds).

Method:
Mix half the flour, all the water and all the yeast and leave all day if making in the evening....(I mixed it at breakfast and will complete when I get home from work) or leave it overnight if making in the morning.
Mix in the rest of the ingredients and knead until windowpane smooth. Leave in a warm place to double in size, then knock back and roll up to put in greased and floured loaf pan to double in size before slashing the top and putting in a hot oven (around 240 deg.C) for 20 minutes, then turning down to 200 deg.C for a further 20 minutes. Turn out on to a wire rack to fully cool before letting anyone near it!!!

This is for a large 2lb loaf pan (the Silverwood 2lb loaf pan produces a loaf weighing 2lbs (which this will) rather than anyone else's loaf pan which will be designed for using 2lbs dough (which will produce a loaf weighing a fair bit less).

Thanks for that recipe 4merly. I’m making it now!

Oh wow, thanks! I had never heard of it before sounds fantastic!

Thanks, that's next one the list to try

You need Dan Lepard’s milk loaf. The nicest white loaf I’ve ever made.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/oct/26/milk-bread-recipes-dan-lepard

Here’s the link.

I made a plain loaf using the whey from some cream cheese I made yesterday and it's gorgeous. Dh wouldn't wait till it cooled properly but it's cutting well.

Could you shape it and put it on a baking tray without a loaf tin? I don't have one but would like to give this recipe a go.

Thanks everyone- these are great tips. I am verrry taken by the chocolate chip version of that milk loaf purple, ! And I had never heard about the half sponge method before I read about it in a Dan Lepard article

either just shop bought strong white bread flour for white.or that mixed half and half with sainsburys taste the difference seeded flour.comes ivory coloured bag and dark label.gorgeous when you do this full on too but for ploughman half and half is good as it is the better stuff lol.