Bread Machine Sourdough White Bread

Why This is the Best Recipe

• Hands Off and Hassle Free: Unlike traditional sourdough baking, you only need to measure and pour the ingredients into your bread maker and let it do all the hard work!
• Perfect for Sourdough Discard: To increase the tangy sourdough flavor, use older discard that you've collected from a sourdough feeding.
• Perfect Everyday Bread: This soft but sturdy loaf slices neatly and makes amazing sandwiches or toast.

Ingredients

You'll love how short this ingredient list is!

• Sourdough Starter: You can use active starter or the discard you've kept in your fridge. Be sure to read my notes on the starter below.
• Bread Flour: You can use all-purpose flour for this recipe but the bread will not slice quite as well.
• Active Dry Yeast: I use Red Star yeast for my bread baking, you do not need one labeled specifically "bread machine yeast" but you can use it if that is what you already have.
• Milk
• Butter
• Honey
• Kosher Salt

Bread Machine Tips

As the author of The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook, I'm very passionate about baking homemade bread with a bread maker.

If you're curious and wondering if a bread maker is worth it, not only do I think the answer is yes but I've reviewed the most popular bread machine for beginners.

For this recipe, I used my new Amazon Basics bread maker to test it out.

You can find all my bread maker recipes and tips here.

The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook

Is a Bread Maker Worth It?

Essential Bread Baking Tools and Equipment

50 Best Bread Maker Recipes

Tips on Using Sourdough Starter

How much this loaf tastes like classic sourdough depends on the timing of your starter.

I have tried it both ways: with fresh active recently-fed starter and with days-old sourdough discard that has been stored in my fridge.

While the loaf bakes up gorgeously either way, if you really want a strong sourdough flavor you'll want to use the older discard.

You can keep sourdough discard in your fridge for up to 2 weeks. For the strongest flavor, feed your starter and collect enough discard for this recipe and let it rest in your fridge for at least 5 days or up to 2 weeks.

Prep the Dough

When you're ready to bake, measure the sourdough starter and add it to your bread machine pan fitted with the paddle attachment.

Then add the milk, water, melted butter, and honey.

Tare the scale and weigh the bread flour next. Sprinkle the kosher salt around the outer edge of the pan and then make a small well in the center of the flour. Add the yeast there.

Baking Instructions

Place the bread pan into your machine.

Choose the 1.5 pound loaf size, the BASIC/WHITE program, and then select your preferred crust setting. I chose the darkest one for this recipe.

Press START and watch the dough for the first 5 minutes. Depending on how you measured the starter and flour, you may need to help the mix.

What you want is a dough ball that comes together but doesn't stick to the sides or bottom of the pan:

If the dough is looking dry and shaggy, you can add more water, just 1 teaspoon at a time, until it just comes together for a ball that looks like the photo above.

The remaining cycle should take about 3 hours.

Remove the baked bread from the pan and let it rest on a wire rack for 30 minutes before slicing.

Sourdough White Bread vs. Regular White Bread

This sourdough recipe is very similar to breads sold at the grocery store labeled "Hearty White." It is more substantial than a fluffy white bread and does not have an overly tangy sourdough flavor if you use fresh starter.

Since I also have a bread machine white bread recipe on the site, I wanted to show you a side-by-side comparison of the two recipes:

This sourdough white bread is on the left.
The bread machine white bread is on the right:

While both loaves sliced easily and neatly, it was definitely easier for me to cut a much thinner slice from the sourdough loaf because it has a heartier, firmer texture than the fluffier white bread.

I baked the sourdough loaf in my Amazon Basics bread maker and the white bread in my beloved Cuisinart bread machine. I used the same settings on both machines.

So while the white bread has a visibly darker crust than the sourdough, it is still quite soft to bite.

If I'm planning to make very soft peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the kids or a quick and easy French toast, I would choose the regular white bread recipe.

For most sandwich purposes or for easy buttered toast, I would choose this sourdough white bread. Even when you can't taste the sourdough starter itself, it is worth using because it works like magic on that texture. I love it so much.

Make Ahead Tips

I prefer to bake this bread the day before I want to slice it because the crust softens up when it is stored in a bread bag on the counter overnight.

This makes it much easier to slice a clean, very thin piece if you want.

It will keep well up to 3 days on the counter or you can slice the whole loaf and store it in a freezer-safe bag in the freezer up to 3 months.

Pop frozen slices right into the toaster for a quick thaw and warm-through.

Serving Suggestions

This delicious homemade bread is one of my all-time top picks for sandwiches. It would be an excellent option at Thanksgiving time if you want to try my open face turkey sandwich with gravy but it would great in the summer for a fresh classic BLT sandwich, too.

Turkey Brie Sandwich

Open Face Turkey Sandwich with Gravy

Classic BLT Sandwich

Grilled Ham and Havarti Sandwich

More Sourdough Recipes

How to Make Sourdough in a Bread Machine

10 Easy Sourdough Discard Recipes

Sourdough Popovers in a Muffin Tin

Sourdough Focaccia