Is Sourdough Good For Sandwiches?

Traditional sourdough bread is a chewy and crusty artisan-style bread. Most people use this bread for croutons or as a dipping bread with soups and stews. The makeup of sourdough bread means most people do not think about making sandwiches with this crusty bread. But is sourdough bread good for sandwiches?

Sourdough can be used to make sandwiches. However, this is a personal preference as some people may not like the crunch that sourdough brings to a sandwich. There are ways to modify sourdough bread in the baking process to make the loaf softer and have a similar texture to regular sandwich bread.

Sourdough bread is a very tasty and chewy bread mainly eaten with other foods or as a quick snack. It is delicious when lightly toasted and smothered with butter that melts ever so nicely on the warm toasted bread.

Can you make a sandwich with it, though? If so, which sandwiches make sourdough bread shine and your tastebuds tingle? 

Can Traditional Sourdough Bread Be Used For Sandwiches?

The answer is a most definite yes; you can use sourdough bread for all types of sandwiches. However, this depends on your own personal preference, as some people may not like the crustiness or chewiness of the bread with their sandwiches.

Note: Sandwiches are perfect when you’re on a tight schedule. For more tips on incorporating sourdough bread baking into your work-life balance, read my “Guide to Scheduling Sourdough into a Busy Life“

There are many different types of sourdough to choose from to make sandwiches with. While some people prefer a more sour sourdough bread, other people may like a slice of less sour sourdough bread. Whichever sourdough you prefer, you can be reassured that sourdough bread can be used to make all your favorite sandwiches.

Even if you do not like the crispy crust and chewy inside of the sourdough for your sandwiches. 

There are a few variations in the way that you bake your sourdough bread make it a richly flavored and soft sandwich loaf that is perfect for your sandwiches and breakfast toast. You can get the best of both sandwich worlds using sourdough bread. 

There are more ways to bake your sourdough in a way to get a soft crust. If you are interested in reading more, check out my “Super Soft Sourdough Bread Rolls Recipe“.

How To Make Sourdough Like Normal Sandwich Bread

The crustiness and chewiness of traditional sourdough bread may not be to some peoples liking when it comes to making a sandwich. Luckily, there are tweaks you can use in the recipe to make sourdough bread softer and fluffier to suit these tastes.

One way that you can use to make your sourdough loaf better is to use levain (recipe below) when baking your loaf of bread.

Levain is a mixture of unbleached all-purpose flour, cool water, and your sourdough starter. To make levain, you must mix together one cup plus one tablespoon of flour with half a cup of cool water and three tablespoons of your sourdough starter. 

Place the mixture in a covered container at room temperature; this will allow the levain to grow. The levain will take about twelve hours to ripen perfectly. Once the levain is perfect, it should have doubled in size, and there will be large bubbles in the dough, making it look rippled. 

If there is a froth of small bubbles on top of the levain, then it may be slightly too ripe, but you can still use this levain to make your sourdough bread.

You can then make the sourdough bread loaf as per the recipe you are following and add the levain into the mix.

Another way to make sourdough bread a similar texture to regular sandwich bread is to use milk and butter in your sourdough. You need to add one cup of whole milk and two tablespoons of unsalted butter into your dough for this method. 

For this, you need to warm the milk in a microwave until it is boiling hot and then add the butter to the hot milk. Then allow the milk and butter mixture to cool down to a warm temperature, to just above body temperature should be fine.

Then make the dough as per your recipe and add the butter and milk mixture before adding the flour into the dough mixture. Then make sure you knead the dough for five minutes. Then knead it into a ball.

Then put the ball of dough into an oiled bowl and roll the ball of dough around in the bowl which will coat the dough in a fine layer of oil. Vegetable oil is best for this step.

Cover the dough and fold the dough every half an hour or so for about four and a half hours. When the dough is ready, place the dough into a greased loaf pan. Do not knead the dough again as you want as much air to remain in the dough as possible.

Then follow your usual recipe to bake the sourdough loaf.

Quick Tip: Make sure you always sieve your flour, resulting in a lighter, airier loaf of bread

These methods of making sourdough bread should help make your loaf fluffy and soft, with a soft crust. So, you get the lovely taste of the sourdough but without the crunch that some people may not like.

What Sandwiches To Make With Sourdough Bread

Now that you know what to add to sourdough bread recipes to make it with a similar texture to regular sandwich bread, you may be wondering what sandwiches go well with sourdough bread? 

There are many wonderful sandwich combinations that begin with a slice of sourdough bread as the foundation. The sourdough bread has a unique flavor to it that just pulls these sandwiches together as no other bread could. All your favorite sandwich combinations are just as tasty in sourdough bread.

The following sandwiches go well with traditional sourdough bread as well as with the modified sourdough bread recipes. So, whether you enjoy your sandwiches with a crunch or not, these sandwich combinations will suit every taste.

• Tomato and Avo Sandwich. Thinly slice your tomato and mash your avo. Add this to your toasted sourdough bread with salt and pepper.
• Smoked salmon and salad sandwich. Thinly sliced smoked salmon with some creamy cottage cheese and tomatoes, rocket, salt, and pepper on freshly sliced sourdough bread.
• Toasted ham and cheese sandwich. Mature cheddar cheese with smoked ham toasted on sourdough bread.
• Bacon, tomato, and garlic mayo sandwich. Cook your bacon until crispy, thinly slice your tomato. Mix some fresh garlic into some mayo and slightly spread onto sourdough bread. Add the bacon and tomato. 
• Avo and Sweet chili sandwich. Mash the avo and spread a thin layer of sweet chili sauce onto the sourdough bread, and add the avo.
• Roast pork and pickle sandwich. This is a great cost-saver way to use up extra meat from roast pork. Thinly slice the pork and pickles, spread a sauce of your choosing onto sourdough bread, and add the pork and pickles.
• Beans with peppers and eggplant sandwich. Heat beans of your choosing in a pan with some peppers and very thinly slice eggplant until the eggplant is soft. Add to the sourdough bread.
• Kale Reuben sandwich. Lightly wilt the kale in a pan with some onions and salt and pepper. Slice some mozzarella cheese, add both to some sourdough bread and toast.
• Veggie sandwiches. If you have leftover veggies, you can put these on sourdough bread with sauces of your liking to make a delicious sandwich.
• Feta with Spiced sweet potato sandwich. Cut sweet potatoes into bitesize pieces, and roast with salt, pepper, and paprika. Spread some garlic mayo onto sourdough bread. When the potatoes are roasted, add them with the feta to the bread.
• Chicken Mayo and salad sandwich. Cook the chicken and shred it and add mayo. Put some rocket, tomato, and cucumber onto sourdough bread, and then add the chicken mayo.
• Toasted Garlic mushroom and cheese sandwich. Cook the mushrooms in a pan with garlic butter, slice some white cheddar cheese. Once the mushrooms are cooked, add them and the cheese to sourdough bread and toast.
• Egg and Bacon Sandwich. Cook some bacon and fry an egg. Toast the sourdough bread and add the bacon and egg onto the bread.

All of these sandwiches are delicious with balanced flavors that make your tastebuds dance with joyful glee. If you use traditional sourdough bread for these sandwiches, then the bread’s crunch adds just that little bit extra delight to these sandwiches.

Note: If you are looking for tips on how to make perfect sourdough bread slices, be sure to check out my article “When to Cut Sourdough Bread to get Beautiful Even Slices“

Conclusion

Sourdough is surprisingly quite a versatile bread. You can eat it with soups and stews, and you can use it to make sandwiches. There are many food combinations for sandwiches that go really well with sourdough bread.

If you do not like sandwiches with traditional sourdough bread, then the sourdough is easy enough to modify to make the sourdough taste more like a regular sandwich loaf. Sourdough bread can be made to suit all tastebuds.