Easy Wheat & Honey Sourdough Bread

Ready for some sourdough, but need it today? No worries! This quick honey sourdough bread comes together in a few hours and has a light, soft texture. Especially if you’re trying to stop buying storebought sandwich bread, this loaf is great for sandwiches, toast, and more!

Easy wheat & honey sourdough bread is the answer

Those beautiful, crusty loaves of sourdough bread are enough to make you drool through the screen!

I love to bake sourdough bread, but my favorite recipe takes me 3 days.

3 days.

That’s almost half a week.

That’s a really long time.

Sometimes, I need bread faster than that. I love, love, love, this simple honey wheat sourdough sandwich bread because it’s absolutely delicious (lightly sweet and full of flavor), relies on ingredients I always have in my well-stocked pantry, and it comes together in a few hours!

I can make it once per week and have 2 loaves for sandwiches or toast.

As much as I love artisan sourdough bread, this is the recipe I make the most often. It’s just so good and is so much fun to make!

Why this honey sourdough bread recipe just works

Although sourdough is made with natural yeasts, I use commerical yeast in this recipe to help speed up the fermentation process.

You can absolutely make this loaf without commercial yeast, but it will likely take you a lot longer.

Plus, it’s absolutely delicious! This is a honey wheat bread that is delicious and light & fluffy. It’s really the best of all worlds and you’ll want to make this same day sourdough bread again and again!

Substitutions

If you want to ditch the commercial yeast, give your dough a lot more time to rise. Consider making the dough the night before and letting it rise overnight.

The next morning, you’ll be ready to bake right away!

I initially started this recipe with 100% whole wheat, but found it was not as soft and as light as I wanted. I added some all-purpose flour to balance out the texture and flavor.

You can make this 100% whole wheat, but you will want to add a few more tablespoons of water. Whole wheat is thirsty and needs more water than all-purpose!

Wheat & Honey Sourdough Bread Recipe

There are 3 phases to this recipe: activating the yeast, making the dough, and then resting and shaping.

First, you wake up the yeast for a while.

Once the yeast is awake, you add the final ingredients, mix, shape, and rest before baking.

Then, you’ll shape the loaf, let it rise, and then bake.

The whole process is really that simple and you’ll be surprised at how delicious it is for such little effort!

Yield:

2 sandwich loaves

Ingredients

• 3 cups of whole wheat flour (divided)
• 2 cups of all-purpose flour
• 2 cups of warm water
• 2 tsp yeast
• 1 cup of active sourdough starter
• 1/3 c melted coconut oil
• 1/3 c raw honey
• 2 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions

Activating the yeast

In the bowl of a stand mixer or your favorite large mixing bowl, add 2 cups of whole wheat flour, 2 cups of warm water, 2 tsp of yeast, and 1 cup of active starter.

Stir lightly just to combine.

Allow the mixture to rest for 20 minutes to an hour or until bubbly and frothy.

Making the dough

Then, add in 1 cup of whole wheat flour, 2 cups of all-purpose flour, melted coconut oil, honey, and salt.

Tip: Melt your jar of coconut oil in the microwave and pour it into your measuring cup. Use the same cup for the honey and it won’t stick!

Knead with a dough hook on a low speed for 5 minutes or until the mixture pulls itself away from the edges of the bowl. If kneading by hand, knead for about 10-12 minutes.

Scrape the sides of the bowl to keep all the dough together.

Cover the bowl and let it rise for 1 hour or until doubled.

Prepare your loaf pans by folding parchment paper so the dough won’t touch the sides of the bread as it bakes. Butter any parts of the pan that will touch the dough.

Shaping

On a clean, dry counter, sprinkle enough flour to prepare the surface for shaping.

Pour out the dough onto the floured work surface.

Using a bench scraper or knife, cut the dough into two equal pieces. Add a little bit more flour if necessary to make the dough easier to handle.

Stretch out one piece of dough into a large rectangle.

Then, roll the dough into a log.

Pull the ends of the log to the center and press them together.

Grab the dough closest to the bottom of the blob and pull them tightly up above the dough. Pinch them together to form a log.

In a loaf pan prepared with a piece of parchment paper, put the log seam side down. You should have a general loaf shape at this point.

Grab the rest of the dough and repeat the process to form the second loaf.

Let the bread rise in a warm place, like the oven with just the oven light on. This is the final rise before baking. Cover lightly with a kitchen towel.

Part way through the rise, remove the dough to rise on the counter and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Allow the bread to rise until the center is 1/2 to 1 inch above the rim of the pan.

Then, bake uncovered for 30 minutes or until fully baked.

When done, remove immediately from the pans and allow to cool completely on a cooling rack before slicing.

Store in a bag in the fridge for fresh bread that lasts about one week.

Nutrition

Here are the nutrition facts for one slice of bread (1/12th of a loaf):

• 154 calories
• 27g carbohydrates
• 3g fat
• 4g protein

Storage Instructions

I make this recipe once per week. I keep it in the fridge to slow down the growth of any bacteria. I reuse large plastic bags and the loaves fit perfectly. They typically last one week in the fridge.

Be sure to allow the bread to cool completely before placing it in the bag.

In the morning, I like to slice off a piece or two, toast them on my cast iron griddle, and serve them with over-easy eggs and cheese.

Make this honey wheat sourdough bread today!

This easy sourdough bread recipe is really this simple. Imagine having delicious, fresh sourdough in just a few hours!

Making artisan sourdough bread and this simple honey sourdough bread are entirely different processes.

I think this recipe is the sweet spot between whole wheat bread and a classic sandwich bread anyone will love.

You don’t need to fuss with a banneton basket, stretching or folding, or heating up a heavy dutch oven.

It’s really very simple and is a great almost whole wheat sourdough bread for beginners.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Does my sourdough starter need to be active?

Although I wish I could say no….yes, your starter does need to be active. We need a full jar of hungry wild yeasts to help this dough come together in time.

You could possibly use sourdough discard, but you’ll likely need more yeast to compensate.

How should I feed my starter before baking this sourdough bread recipe?

I typically store my sourdough starter in the fridge between bakes. I bake my bread on Fridays so on Thursdays, I take the jar out and feed the sourdough.

I follow the measurements from The Perfect Loaf. I take 50 g of my starter, 50g of whole wheat flour, 50g of all-purpose flour, and 100g water. This is a 100% hydration sourdough starter.

The starter will typically double throughout the course of the day. If I want it to be ready right before baking on Friday morning, I feed it Thursday night.

Does the type of flour matter for sourdough?

Originally, I wanted a 100% whole wheat sourdough recipe. I love working with whole wheat and playing with different types of flour.

For this recipe, I found that it turned out best when I used a mix of whole wheat and white flour. You can use white bread flour, but I just use organic white flour from Costco!

You can make sourdough with almost any type of flour though, including gluten-free grains and whole grains. In this recipe, I recommend keeping the balance of flours as is to get a loaf that the whole family with love.

How do you get the perfect slice of sourdough?

Beginner bakers typically make 3 mistakes:

1. They underproof the dough by baking too soon.
2. They cut the bread while it’s still warm.
3. They use a regular chef’s knife for slicing.

Allow the bread to rise all the way. Then, let the bread cool for a couple of hours. If it’s just barely, barely warm, that’s usually okay.

The secret to the perfect slice is to use a serrated knife. Gently saw through the loaf and avoid compressing the bread.

Do I need to score this wheat & honey sourdough bread?

Nope! You don’t need to score it or give it any kind of wash on top of the loaf.

You’re welcome to try scoring, but I find this loaf has a gentle rise and doesn’t need a vent for steam to escape.

This honey sourdough bread recipe is so versatile!

Over the past two months, I’ve been playing with adapting this recipe.

I’ve tried different proportions of the flours, amounts of water, water temperature, sourdough starter activity, and more.

I even took it really slow and prepared this dough like an artisan loaf with stretches and folds. The resulting loaves have all been great!

However, I’ve found that this specific recipe is the most consistently successful.

It’s one of the easiest sourdough recipes I’ve followed and it’s the best way to start baking with sourdough for beginners!

Pin this recipe for later!

What do you think of this simple sourdough loaf?

After you try this recipe for the first time, leave a comment to let me know how it goes! I’d love to help troubleshoot any issues so you get the best honey wheat sourdough sandwich bread you can!