Super Soft Sourdough Honey Wheat Bread {Active or Discard}

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

I love baking with my sourdough starter, but I don’t always have hours (or days) to wait for a loaf to come together. Fortunately, this honey wheat sourdough uses a little commercial yeast to get it ready in a pinch. It’s also incredibly soft and tender. This is my favorite bread for making toast!

If you love sourdough too, make sure you check out this lit of 40+ sourdough discard recipes!

This tender honey wheat sourdough sandwich bread tastes amazing with a dollop of homemade creamed honey! It’s also flexible enough to make the best sandwiches. During the spring, I like to toast a slice an add a little chive flower butter for a bright flavor!

Why you’ll love this honey sourdough bread recipe

• Ready in a few hours – Although sourdough is made with natural yeast, I use commercial yeast in this recipe to help speed up the fermentation process.
• Absolutely delicious – This is a honey wheat bread with a lovely whole wheat flavor and a lovely light, flexible texture. It’s really the best of all worlds and you’ll want to make this same day sourdough bread again and again!
• Soft and tender – If you like soft sandwich bread or want a tender bread for making toast, you found it! Just be sure to let it cool all the way before slicing.

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!

Honey Wheat Sourdough Bread Recipe

Like any good bread recipe, there are a few phases to work through. However, they’re very simple and you’ll be able to enjoy this bread within just a few hours from start to finish.

1. Activating the yeast
2. Preparing the dough
3. Rising, shaping, and rising again
4. Baking
5. Cooling
6. Eating

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

Ingredients for Sourdough Honey Wheat Bread

I typically purchase my flour and coconut oil at Azure Standard to get the best quality for less. These are some of my favorite low waste or zero waste pantry staples to keep on hand at all times for easy recipes.

• Whole wheat flour – This adds a nutty flavor to the bread and extra fiber to fill you up.
• All purpose flour – Mixing whole wheat and all purpose makes the bread much softer than using all whole wheat.
• Warm water – Be sure not to use hot water. Aim for about 100-110 degrees F.
• Instant yeast – This is essential if you want the bread to be ready in just a few hours.
• Sourdough starter – Feel free to use either discard or active starter. Active starter will help the dough rise a little faster, but I’ve even used cold discard straight from the fridge and had success. I use a 100% hydration sourdough starter.
• Melted coconut oil – This gives the bread tenderness and pliability.
• Raw honey – Add a little honey for sweetness and flavor. Honey wheat is a classic combination for a reason!
• Kosher salt – The measurements are based on using coarse kosher salt. If you use a fine salt, use less (approximately 1 1/2 -2 tsp).

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.
• 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 with a damp towel and let it rise at room temperature 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.

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!

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.

Be sure to press down or poke on the flat rectangle of dough to smush out big air bubbles. They’ll turn into air pockets in the loaf.

• 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.

Second Rise

• 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.
• Partway 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.

Baking

• 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

• We bake this recipe once per week, and I keep the baked loaves in the fridge to slow down the growth of any bacteria. I reuse large plastic bags from IKEA 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 sourdough honey wheat 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. 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.

Honey Sourdough (FAQs)

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!

Related Recipes

• Sourdough Pumpkin Muffins
• Air Fryer Cornbread
• Cinnamon Infused Honey
• Lavender Honey
• Date Scones
• Apple Cider Scones
• Vanilla Muffins

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!