Soft Honey Molasses Swirled Sourdough Bread

This Honey Molasses Swirled Sourdough Bread is the ultimate sandwich bread! It is incredibly soft, buttery, flavourful and has a hint of sweetness and rich flavour from the honey and molasses. A must make sourdough recipe!!!

I have been making honey molasses sourdough bread for years and it has always been my husband’s favourite. That being said, once I developed my perfectly soft sandwich sourdough bread, that recipe took first place. Being the people pleaser that I am, I wanted to turn that honey molasses bread into a soft sourdough sandwich bread to create the most perfect sandwich bread he would ever eat!

If you are looking at this picture above, thinking this bread must be difficult to make, I promise you it is not. It starts with making two separate doughs. They are very similar but with slightly different ingredients. You let both of those doughs rise overnight, then layer them on top of each other and roll them up. Allow the dough to rise one finally time before baking and enjoying.

This Honey Molasses Swirled Sourdough Bread can be enjoyed warm with butter or jam, used for the most incredible sandwich, for a heavenly grilled cheese or simply enjoyed on its own. You can make a couple loaves of it at a time, pre slice it and store it in the freezer so it is ready to go for the whole family to eat!

Tips for Making Honey Molasses Swirled Sourdough Bread

1. You want the milk to be warm but not hot. Using warm milk, helps keep the dough from being cool, allowing it to rise better. However, if the milk is too hot it can kill the yeast in the starter.
2. When adding the butter into the dough, it can seem like it isn’t incorporating and is really greasy. If this is the case, simply remove your dough from the stand mixer and just knead it by hand a couple times. This will help get all of that butter nicely incorporated.
3. During your shaping of this bread, I recommend wetting your hands, and gently patting the white dough layer so it is lightly moist, before placing the molasses dough on top. This will help the two doughs stick together nicely when you roll them up.
4. Be sure to roll the dough nice and tight to prevent any big air holes in your bread. It is not the end of the world if you end up with bigger holes in your bread, but just makes it tough if you are using it for sandwiches.

Honey Molasses Swirled Sourdough Bread Ingredients

Sourdough Starter– Use a fed and active sourdough starter. I recommend a 1:4:4 feeding ratio.

Milk– As mentioned above you want it warmed but not hot. You can use 2% or whole milk.

Flour– Unbleached all purpose flour or bread flour work. Whichever you usually use for sourdough.

Honey– This adds a nice very subtle sweetness to the molasses dough.

Butter– You can use salted or unsalted butter. I always use salted.

Molasses– Just a small amount of molasses gets added to this dough to give it beautiful color and a slight richness.

The Steps

Make the White Dough

1. Start with the white dough. Add the milk, sourdough starter and honey to a bowl of a stand mixer with a dough hook attachment. Mix slightly to combine.
2. Next, add in the flour and salt and mix until nice a smooth.
3. Once you have a smooth dough, cut the softened butter into little pieces and add it into the dough.
4. Continue to mix the dough until the butter is mostly incorporated. If the dough seems really greasy and like the butter isn’t incorporated, just remove it from the mixer and knead it by hand a couple times.
5. Place the dough in a bowl and cover with a damp tea towel.

Make the Honey Molasses Dough

1. Make the Honey Molasses dough. Add the milk, sourdough starter, honey and molasses to the mixing bowl with a stand mixer. Mix slightly to combine.
2. Then, add in the flour and salt and mix until nice and smooth.
3. Finally, cut the softened butter into pieces and add it into the dough. Mix until smooth.
4. Place the molasses dough in a separate bowl and cover with a damp tea towel.

Folds & Bulk Rise

1. Allow the dough to rest for 30 minutes before performing a set of stretch and folds to each dough.
2. Cover the doughs back up, and let rest another 30 minutes. Repeat this 2 more times for a total of 3 sets of stretch and folds.
3. After all the folds have been done, allow the doughs to rest in a warm place for anywhere from 14-18 hours. They should double in size and get nice a fluffy. If they aren’t fully risen after 18 hours, give them a bit more time.

Shape & Final Rise

1. Once you have your risen doughs, you are going to take the white one out first and stretch it into a recangle on the counter. You want the rectangle to dough to be quite thin and the rectangle to be a couple inched wider than the loaf pan you will be using.
2. Then, wet your hands slightly and pat the rectangle of white dough to make it lightly moist.
3. Take the molasses dough, and form the same size rectangle with it. Place the molasses dough rectangle on top of the white dough and gently press down all over to get them stuck to each other.
4. Starting at the bottom, tightly roll the dough up into a log, then lightly tuck both ends under so you have a nice log that will fit in your loaf pan.
5. Place the dough into a greased loaf pan, cover with a damp tea towel and let it rest 2-3 more hours.

Bake the Honey Molasses Swirled Sourdough Bread

1. Once your dough has gotten nice and puffy and doubled in size, preheat your oven to 375F.
2. Bake the bread for 35-40 minutes or until nice a golden on top.
3. As soon as the bread comes out of the oven, rub butter all over the top. This gives it a nice shine, keeps the crust soft and adds some extra flavor.
4. Allow the bread to cool for about 30 minutes before slicing and enjoying!

If you give this recipe a try, leave a comment or review below!

Try my original Soft Sourdough Sandwich Bread. One of my most popular recipes!

https://cmbarndominium.com/how-to-make-the-best-soft-sourdough-sandwich-bread/#mv-creation-79-jtr

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