Trader Joe's Sourdough Bread Recipe

Trader Joe's Sourdough Sandwich Bread is made from white flour, water, whole wheat flour, dark rye flour, salt, sourdough starter and yeast. This copy uses the same seven things: three cups of bread flour, a little whole wheat and rye, a cup of active starter and half a teaspoon of yeast, risen for about five hours and baked in a loaf pan for forty minutes.

What is in Trader Joe's sourdough bread

The product page for the Sourdough Sandwich Bread lists unbleached enriched flour, water, whole wheat flour, dark rye flour, salt, sourdough starter and yeast. A 24-ounce loaf has about 16 slices of 43 grams, 100 calories each, and cost $3.69 on 1 October 2026. Cut into sixteen, the homemade loaf gives larger slices, at about 140 calories each. Trader Joe's says the bread is baked for it by different bakeries, so the loaf differs a little from one region to the next.

The starter stands after the salt on that list, and ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. The loaf therefore holds less starter than salt: the starter is there for flavour, and the yeast does the lifting. A home loaf cannot get its sourness from so little, so this recipe uses a full cup of active starter and keeps a little yeast for a dependable rise. It is a reconstruction; MakeFoodLovely is not connected with Trader Joe's.

Recipe

Trader Joe's Sourdough Sandwich Bread

A reconstruction of Trader Joe's Sourdough Sandwich Bread — bread flour, whole wheat flour, dark rye flour, active sourdough starter, salt and a little yeast, baked in a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan. Sixteen slices.

5.0 (1)Print

Prep

25 min

Cook

45 min

Total

9 hr 10 min

Serves

16

Cuisine

American

Ingredients

• 3 cups bread flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup dark rye flour
• 1 cup active sourdough starter
• 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

Instructions

1. Stir the bread flour, whole wheat flour, rye flour, starter and water together in a large bowl until no dry flour remains. Cover and let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
2. Sprinkle the salt and the yeast over the dough. Knead for 8 to 10 minutes by hand, or 6 minutes in a stand mixer with a dough hook, until the dough is smooth and springs back when pressed.
3. Put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover it and let it rise at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours, until doubled.
4. Turn the dough out, press it into a rectangle about 9 inches wide and roll it up tightly. Place it seam side down in a greased 9 by 5-inch loaf pan, cover it and let it rise for 60 to 90 minutes, until the dough stands 1 inch above the rim.
5. Heat the oven to 425°F. Bake the loaf for 15 minutes, lower the oven to 375°F and bake for 25 to 30 minutes more, until the crust is deep golden and the centre reads 200 to 205°F.
6. Turn the loaf out onto a rack and let it cool completely, about 2 hours, before slicing.

Nutrition

Calories:

140

Calculated from the ingredient quantities above using the USDA FoodData Central database, then divided by the number of servings. It is an estimate and will vary with the exact products you use.

A sourdough starter that is ready

A starter is ready to bake with when it has doubled within 4 to 6 hours of being fed and is full of bubbles. Fed the night before and used in the morning, it is past its peak and raises the dough more slowly; the yeast in this recipe covers for that.

Without a starter, the loaf can still be made. Replace the cup of starter with 1 cup of bread flour and 1/2 cup of water, and raise the yeast to 1 1/2 teaspoons. The result is a plain wheat and rye sandwich loaf, without the sour note. For a white sandwich loaf made with yeast alone, see the King Arthur bread on this site.

Whole wheat and rye, in small amounts

Half a cup of whole wheat flour and a quarter cup of dark rye are a small share of the dough, as their place on the label suggests. They darken the crumb slightly and add flavour without making the loaf heavy. Dark rye flour is sometimes sold as pumpernickel flour; medium rye works as well.

Shaping a loaf that slices evenly

• Roll it tight. Loose shaping leaves holes under the crust, and a sandwich slice with a hole in it does not hold a filling.
• One inch above the rim. Baked before that, the loaf is dense; much later, it sinks in the oven.
• Hot start, then lower. The first 15 minutes at 425°F set the crust and give the dough its last rise.
• Cool before cutting. A warm loaf is still setting inside and tears under the knife.

Toast, and the freezer

Trader Joe's sells this bread as its best bread for toast, according to the product page. Slice the cooled loaf about half an inch thick and freeze what will not be eaten within three days; the slices go from the freezer straight into the toaster.

Other loaves on this site are the Trader Joe's brioche, enriched with butter and eggs, and the sweet Alabama pecan bread, which is a quick bread without yeast.