Made with sprouted wheat flour, these sandwich bread loaves are soft, airy, and incredibly flavorful! The dough is no-knead and takes no time to stir together. From there, time does the work, ultimately giving you two beautifully nutritious loaves, perfect for sandwiches, toast, and beyond 🍞🍞

A halved loaf of seedy sandwich bread.

I first read about baking with sprouted grains several years ago in Chad Robertson’s Tartine Book No. 3, which offers a how-to sprouting guide and explains why we would want to do this in the first place:

Sprouting grains before mixing them into dough or milling them into flour makes them not only more digestible but also more nutritious.

To paraphrase from TBNo3:

At their sprouting (or germination) point, grains begin to transform from a seed into a plant, at which point, the dormant nutrients, minerals, and vitamins stored to nourish the plant become more accessible, which makes them easier for us to absorb. When we eat sprouted grains, we are digesting something more similar to a vegetable than a grain.

This sounded like a win all around—easier on the tummy, amped up nutrition. I researched grain sprouting further and discovered even more benefits: boost in fiber, unlocked flavor, and increased sweetness.

But as I looked more earnestly into the sprouting process—soak grains in water for several days, transfer to a clean jar, cover with cheesecloth, drain and aerate and rinse twice a day—I couldn’t help but feel discouraged. I kept thinking: Couldn’t someone do this for me?

Yes! You can buy Sprouted Wheat Flour. For the past month or so, I’ve been baking the sandwich bread featured here using half all-purpose flour and half sprouted wheat flour, and the loaves have been turning out beautifully, the crumb soft and light, the taste without a trace of bitterness.

Traits of Sprouted Wheat Flour

  • Smell: Every time I mix up a batch of this bread with the sprouted wheat flour, I’m surprised by how fresh the dough smells and how much more fragrant it is overall than other flours I’ve used.
  • Taste: Sweet and nutty.
  • Versatility: You can substitute Sprouted Wheat Flour 1:1 for whole wheat flour or up to 50% for all-purpose in your favorite recipes.

Sprouted Wheat Sandwich Bread, Step by Step

First: gather your ingredients: flour, salt, instant yeast, water, and olive oil. Whisk together the dry ingredients.

Then add the water and olive oil and stir until you have a sticky dough ball.

Let the dough rise until it doubles in volume.

Then prepare your loaf pans.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface.

Then roll into a coil.

Coat with seeds if desired.

Then transfer to your prepare pan.

This is a basic sandwich bread, coated in seeds or not—I love the seeds; my children do not, so I make it both ways, and everyone is happy. There are three recipes - I’ve been keeping two loaves handy for toast and sandwiches, and slicing and freezing the third to have on hand for later in the week. // alexandracooks.com

Let rise again until the dough crowns the rim of the pan.

Then bake until evenly golden all around, about 45 minutes.

Turn the loaves out of their pans and let cool completely before slicing.

This is a basic sandwich bread, coated in seeds or not—I love the seeds; my children do not, so I make it both ways, and everyone is happy. There are three recipes - I’ve been keeping two loaves handy for toast and sandwiches, and slicing and freezing the third to have on hand for later in the week. // alexandracooks.com

Look at that beautiful crumb?

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Sprouted Wheat Sandwich Bread

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4.9 from 27 reviews

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Description

This recipe for sprouted wheat sandwich bread is easy and so tasty. The recipe is adapted from the soft sandwich bread recipe in Bread Toast Crumbs.

I love this One Degree Sprouted Wheat Flour. 

Ingredients

  • 3 cups (384 g) All-Purpose Flour
  • 3 cups (384 g) Sprouted Wheat Flour or other whole wheat flour
  • 1 tablespoon kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 tablespoon instant yeast
  • 3 cups lukewarm water
  • 1/3 cup neutral oil or olive oil
  • softened butter for greasing
  • mix of seeds: flax, millet, pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, poppy, chia—whatever you like, optional

Instructions

  1. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, salt, sugar, and instant yeast. Add the water and oil. Using a rubber spatula, mix until the liquid is absorbed and the ingredients form a sticky dough ball. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel, a bowl cover, or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm spot to rise for 1 to 1½ hours, until the dough has doubled in bulk.
  2. Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat it to 375ºF. Grease two standard loaf pans (8.5×4.5-inches) with the softened butter. Spread a generous handful of flour—about 1/4 cup—over a clean surface. If you are coating the loaves in seeds, spread the seeds out on a rimmed vessel such as a small sheet pan. Set a bowl with water and a pastry brush nearby. Using two forks, deflate the dough by releasing it from the sides of the bowl and pulling it toward the center. Rotate the bowl quarter turns as you deflate, turning the mass into a rough ball.
  3. Use the forks to lift the dough onto the prepared surface. Using as much flour as necessary from the surface, dust your hands and the exterior of the dough, then shape the mass as best you can into a ball. Use a bench scraper to cut the dough in half. Shape each portion into a ball, then flatten into a rectangle/oval—doesn’t have to be perfect.
  4. Brush each portion of dough with water (you can do this on all sides or just the top —whatever you wish). Roll each in the seeds, then transfer to the prepared pans. Let rise until the dough crowns the rims of the pans—be patient. In the winter, I find this takes longer, 30 minutes or more.
  5. Transfer the pans to the oven and bake 40 minutes, or until golden. Remove the pans from the oven and turn the loaves out onto a cooling rack. Let cool for at least 20 minutes (longer is best) before slicing.
  • Prep Time: 3 hours
  • Cook Time: 45 minutes
  • Category: Bread
  • Method: No-Knead
  • Cuisine: American