Give me all your sandwich breads

October 13, 2020 11:42 AM

Please share your favorite recipes for breads that are suitable for sandwich-ing.

I make this milk bread every Sunday and then make sandwiches for all my work lunches. It is a delicious bread, makes excellent sandwiches, and stays reasonably tasty and un-stale through till Saturday. But sometimes, the heart yearns for variety. I would love recommendations for bread recipes of any variety that are suitable to be baked in a loaf pan and then used for a week's worth of sandwiches.

While my standard bread is not a sourdough, there is a starter in the house that I have access to - sourdough recipes are more than welcome. I would prefer recipes that you have actually made and can vouch for.

posted by darchildre to Food & Drink (14 answers total)

We mostly eat whole wheat, often Featherpuff from the Laurels Kitchen Bread Book - Featherpuff has lots of milk, eggs, cottage cheese in it; I often make it when I think we’ll be too busy to make actual sandwiches. Also incredibly fluffy. Her Basic Whole Wheat has just enough sugar to be a reliable rise (and I find that with good yeast, I can leave out the sweetener and just expect a longer first rise, which I like anyway). Same cookbook has patterns for making any loaf more slowly or more quickly to fit available time, and a Scottish batch system for making huge batches without burning out the kneader. My sweetie likes her Molasses Bread, which is a very 1970s whole wheat loaf - sweet and dense, but if you knead it enough it isn’t stodgy. We can’t eat rye any more but I remember the rye recipes working; I didn’t much like the ones with bean flour.

Jane Grigson’s Walnut-Onion Bread from Beard on Bread is spectacular.

All the recipes off the Bobs Red Mill flour bags have worked for me - oatmeal-buttermilk especially, and there’s a golden semolina bread that’s a delight with good tomatoes. ...But might be from King Arthur.

If I’m in a real hurry or have good soft wheat, Irish soda bread with buttermilk works in a loaf pan okay, or in a pie/cake tin and sandwiches are wedge shaped.
posted by clew at 12:08 PM on October 13, 2020

I need more sandwich deets. Are you committed to soft bread or are you interested in some chew? I find that the standard no-knead recipe has a magical quality that toasting it makes it better. It is excellent for sandwiches that don't need a lot of sauce soaked into the bread and where some crispness is appreciated as an element. Like a ham & egg sandwich where the egg yolk is going to sluice through no matter what, as opposed to a hot roast beef where the jus needs to soak in. The bread slices are chewy and crunchy and need to be sliced thinner than usual.

As to your loaf pan request, I don't see why no-knead wouldn't work in a loaf pan...
posted by Dmenet at 12:08 PM on October 13, 2020

Response by poster: Dmenet (and others who may have similar questions): I don't enjoy a hard or thick crust but beyond that, I'm pretty open texture-wise. Alas, I have to make the sandwiches in the morning, several hours before eating, and don't have access to a toaster at work, so no toasting is possible.
posted by darchildre at 12:14 PM on October 13, 2020

This is absolutely gorgeous and I guess healthy, too: 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread Recipe. It's a bit fussy, so I am not making it every week, but somewhere in the comments to that article I note how it has inspired me to try out new methods for my regular baking.
Another thing is that I have successfully used cream instead of milk + butter for a brioche-type bread. It's been a long time since I did it last, so I don't remember the exact recipe, but IMO, bread dough isn't as demanding as cakes, you can experiment when you know which consistencies to look for at each stage.
posted by mumimor at 12:31 PM on October 13, 2020

I'll suggest an anadama loaf, either with a medium textured cornmeal or slightly-rehydrated corn grits.

But I'll wave the flag a little for rolls / buns as a sandwich option, along the lines of the classic British cob / bap / barm / fadgie. Traditionally made with milk and lard/shortening/butter, which helps them keep and softens the crust; they freeze well for making in bulk, for overnight defrost.
posted by holgate at 12:32 PM on October 13, 2020 [2 favorites]

I make this pretty standard wholemeal loaf fairly often. Works nicely, keeps long enough for me.
posted by knapah at 12:35 PM on October 13, 2020

I've been making this white bread recipe a lot this year. It's very good for toast and sandwiches.
posted by zoetrope at 12:55 PM on October 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

Seconding holgate on buns. I find that one pan loaf worth of dough is good for 9 small-sandwich buns in a 9"x9" square pan; two pan loaves of dough makes 12 not-too-tall but generous buns in 3 9"x9" square pans.
posted by clew at 1:08 PM on October 13, 2020

I just started making this peasant bread. It's the easiest, softest bread; I'm in love. I bake it in one large pyrex bowl, but two small ones (per the recipe) would work great for sandwich size. I swapped in 1.5 c whole wheat flour for extra deliciousness. I don't care for crunchy crusts, and this one produces a soft crust that I prefer. The crumb is spongy but sturdy.
posted by hydra77 at 1:09 PM on October 13, 2020 [3 favorites]

I've been making this whole wheat sandwich bread from King Arthur recipe for a month now. A video of the process if you are more of a visual person. Fresh-out-of-the-oven warm bread is so good. I'm able to keep it on the counter for 5 days, then throw into a fridge to keep longer.
posted by gloturtle at 2:57 PM on October 13, 2020

This sourdough bread from baking-sense.com is delicious. And when they say it makes a large loaf, they mean large.

The sourdough Pain de Mie au Levain from James Morton's Super Sourdough was delicious. It was one of my first sourdough loaves, I was completely unable to deal with a very wet dough (not that I'm great at it now), and I ended up adding over half a cup of flour to it and it still turned out great.

And the sourdough Pain de Mie from theperfectloaf.com was also delicious.
posted by telophase at 3:05 PM on October 13, 2020 [1 favorite]

I recently recommended this sourdough sandwich bread which ive been alternating with artisan-style boules since i started sourdoughing when march happened.

Looking back at my notes, my favorite loaves flavor-wise were when i made up the 486g of flour (I think i modified the recipe for a specific tin which is why its scaled down to 486 from 540 in my linked comment) 100/200/93/93g each of Bread Flour, Sifted Wheat (i bought a bag of Maine Grains that was very tasty) and whole grain hard wheat (red fife from either MG or Flourist) and whole grain spelt flour.

Its a nice compromise because you end up with incredible flavor but its not rough or crude like an all whole wheat loaf can get - I rarely mess with enriched doughs so this serves us well, but i did just get milk in the house so may switch it up and try a yeasted milk loaf for a break.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 3:18 PM on October 13, 2020

I've been riffing on this oat-whole wheat sandwich bread from Smitten Kitchen (which is a riff off Peter Reinhart's recipe) for years now and I almost always get great results.
posted by General Malaise at 4:31 PM on October 13, 2020

I make the bread machine bun recipe here, omitting the herbs and the egg wash.

In general, I've found the recipes on yeast maker's web sites to be excellent.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:41 PM on October 13, 2020