Soft butter sandwich loaf: fluffy, even slices, made for the toaster
A homemade sandwich loaf from a milk dough with butter and egg: a soft crumb, a thin crust, slices that don't crumble in the toaster. Long kneading to a windowpane and a tight roll give an even, fine crumb without holes. No improvers or preservatives, yet it stays fresh for three days; frozen in slices, it goes straight into the toaster.
Your own work in that: 30 min.
- Kneading 20 min
- Rising 60 min
- Shaping 10 min
- Rising in the tin 50 min
- Baking 35 min
- Cooling 60 min
Step by step
0 / 7 doneKnead the dough, butter last
Cream the yeast with the sugar and lukewarm milk and leave 10 minutes until frothy. Pour into the flour and salt with the egg, mix and knead 8 minutes with dough hooks or 12 by hand. Only now add the soft butter piece by piece and knead another 5 minutes, until the dough is smooth, glossy and stretches into a thin membrane.
Ingredients: 500 g plain or strong white flour · 250 ml milk · 20 g fresh yeast · 30 g sugar · 1 pcs egg · 60 g butter · 1½ tsp salt
TipButter added at the start coats the flour and hinders gluten development: the dough takes much longer to knead. Added after the first knead, it slips into the finished network and only softens it.
Smooth, glossy, a windowpane without tearsFirst rise
Shape the dough into a ball, put it in a greased bowl, cover and leave somewhere warm 60 minutes, until doubled.
Doubled under the clothRoll up tightly
Knock back and roll out into a rectangle of about 28 × 40 cm (the short side matching the length of the tin). Roll up tightly from the short side, pressing at every turn so no air is trapped. Pinch the seam closed.
TipA tight roll means an even crumb: every turn is a layer that rises upward. A loosely rolled dough leaves tunnels and holes in the loaf.
From the short side, tight, no airInto the tin
Butter the loaf tin. Set the roll in seam down; it should fill the tin roughly halfway.
Ingredients: 30 g butter · 2 tbsp milk
Seam down, half the tinSecond rise
Cover and leave 45–50 minutes, until the dough domes 2 cm above the rim. Meanwhile heat the oven to 180 °C. Brush the risen loaf gently with milk.
TipThe readiness test: a finger pressed lightly leaves a dent that springs back slowly and not completely. If it springs back at once, give it 10 minutes more.
A dome 2 cm above the tin, milk on topBake
180 °C, conventional, lower shelf, 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown and the loaf, turned out and tapped underneath, sounds hollow. If the top darkens too fast, cover loosely with foil after 20 minutes.
Golden brown, hollow underneathBrush with butter and cool
Turn the hot loaf out onto a rack and brush the crust at once with melted butter: it softens and takes on a sheen. Cool at least an hour before slicing; a warm crumb compresses under the knife. Slice with a serrated knife, 1.5 cm thick.
Butter on the hot crust, an hour to cool
Before you start
Storing and freezing
In a linen bag or bread bin, 3 days. Slice and freeze in a bag with paper between the slices: a slice straight from the freezer into the toaster comes out like fresh.
Even fluffier
Replace 50 ml of the milk with 50 g thick yogurt or sour cream: an even more delicate crumb, and the loaf stays fresh longer.
It sank in the middle
The second rise went too long: the dough over-proofed and had no strength left in the oven. Bake when the dome is 2 cm above the tin, no more; next time cut the rise by 10 minutes.
