White Sandwich LoafRecipe

The white sandwich loaf is the bread most people picture when they think "homemade bread": a tall, square-shouldered pan loaf with a soft golden crust and a fine, even crumb that slices clean for sandwiches and holds up in a toaster without crumbling. There is nothing rustic about it, and that is the point. It is the loaf you bake on a Tuesday because the store bag ran out, and the one I hand beginners first.

The ratio is deliberately gentle. Hydration sits at 62% — wet enough for a tender crumb, dry enough that the dough stays easy to knead and shape by hand. The 6% sugar and 6% oil are what separate this from a lean French loaf: the sugar feeds the yeast and browns the crust, while the oil coats the gluten strands so the crumb stays soft and the loaf keeps a few days longer than a fat-free bread would. Salt holds at 2%, the standard for almost every yeasted dough. Push the sugar toward 10% for a sweeter loaf, or drop the oil to 3% for a leaner, more open texture.

It is forgiving on purpose: one rise, one shape, one pan, no pre-ferment or folding schedule. The two things that actually matter are kneading until the dough passes a windowpane test, and not over-proofing in the pan — you want it crowning about an inch above the rim before it bakes. Underbake and the center turns gummy; an internal temperature around 190°F is the surest sign it is done.

This is the baseline every other soft white bread builds on. Dinner rolls, honey-oat, and the leaner end of brioche all start from something close to this ratio, so getting comfortable here makes the rest of the library read as small adjustments to numbers you already know.