A simple sourdough pan loaf, baked in a normal loaf tin. This is a great recipe for sourdough beginners and anyone who doesn’t have a dutch oven.

While we have a sourdough sandwich bread recipe already on Baked, it includes eggs, oil, and milk. There were a number of requests from readers for a more basic sourdough pan loaf, so here it is! Four ingredients, super easy, and delicious.
If sourdough is new to you, or you’re not having the best results yet with boules, a pan loaf might be a great option. Since there’s nowhere for the dough to go but up, you won’t have some common beginner’s problems with too much spread and lack of an upward rise.
It’s a good way to go if you aren’t sure you want to invest in a large dutch oven as well. Or maybe you’d just like a square sandwich! With a slightly tighter crumb, this makes for a very nice sandwich bread (less risk of toppings falling through).
Please note than any sourdough bread baked in a tin, like this one, won’t have the same crisp, harder crust as a sourdough boule. It’s more of a thin, slightly crackly crust – equally delicious, just different.
Use the JUMP TO RECIPE button at the top, or scroll to the bottom of the post to see the printable recipe card with full ingredient measurements and complete instructions.
Ingredients
- Active starter or levain
- Water
- Flour
- Salt
Method
TWO NIGHTS BEFORE
Make the levain: Take out 1-2 tablespoon of your starter from the refrigerator and mix with 50g of room temperature water and 50g of white flour. Cover the bowl with a plate and leave it on the counter to ferment overnight for approximately 8-12 hours.
ONE DAY BEFORE
Once your levain is ready, combine all of it with the 350g of water. Add the flour to the water mixture and, using your hands, mix to combine. Once the dough is mixed, cover with a tea towel and let it rest at room temperature for 40 minutes.
After the dough has rested, add the salt. Mix well until combined then cover with the tea towel and let the mixture rest again for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, it is time for the first fold.
Do the first fold: Here’s a tutorial on how to stretch and fold sourdough bread. Complete 6 folds (one fold every 30 minutes) for 3 hours total.
Shaping the dough: Begin by taking the dough out of the bowl and letting it rest on the counter for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, prepare your loaf pan by brushing it with a little neutral oil or butter.
On a lightly floured surface, take your dough and flatten it to a rough rectangle. Roll it up like a burrito, being sure to press out any air bubbles. Place the dough in the prepared pan, cover with a tea towel or bowl cover and refrigerate 8 hours, or overnight.
Bake: The next day, take your loaf out of the fridge and let it rise on the counter for around 2 hours, or until the dough springs back when lightly touched with a floured finger. You can score the loaf if you desire, but it is not needed.
While the dough is proofing, set one rack in the middle and one on the bottom of the oven. Preheat the oven to 500°F (260°C).
Once the dough is proofed, reduce the temperature to 450°F (230°C) and place a cookie tray on the bottom rack. Fill it with about 2 cm (¾ inch) of water. Place your bread on the upper rack and bake for 25 minutes.
After 25 minutes, remove the tray of water and bake the bread for another 20 minutes.
Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool fully on a rack before slicing.
Tips and Notes
Adding the pan of water to the oven during the first half of baking increases the humidity within the oven, and helps to improve the texture of the outer crust of the loaf. This is the same concept as baking in a dutch oven.
Scoring isn’t needed for this recipe, but if you want to control where the bread will go as it rises during baking, you may prefer to score. If not, the loaf will usually open more on the side near the top rather than across the top.
If using starter rather than levain, skip the two nights before step. This is the time needed for the levain to become active, the same as you would feed a starter one night before baking with it.
Substitutions
This pan loaf can easily take about half whole wheat flour with no trouble. You may be able to do 100% whole wheat sourdough, but we haven’t tried it.
Another lower gluten flour, like spelt or einkorn, would add a good flavour and can replace part of the all-purpose flour.
Active sourdough starter and levain can be used interchangeably for this recipe, so go for whatever your preference is.
More Sourdough Breads
100% Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread
Sourdough Naan
Sourdough Hot Cross Buns
Sprouted Grain Sourdough Bread
Sourdough Dark Rye Bread
If you make this recipe, let us know by tagging @baked_theblog + #bakedtheblog on Instagram! We love to feel like we’re in the kitchen with you.
Recipe
Basic Pan Loaf
Description
Equipment
- Digital kitchen scale
- Mixing bowl
- Tea towel
- Loaf pan
- Parchment paper
- pastry brush
- Baking tray with high sides
- Wire rack
Ingredients
- 3.5 oz. active starter, or levain
- 17.6 oz. all-purpose white flour
- 12.3 oz. water, room temperature or 68°F/20°C
- 0.4 oz. sea salt
Instructions
- TWO NIGHTS BEFORE
Make the levain:
- Take out 1-2 tablespoons of your starter from the refrigerator and mix with 1.8 oz. (50 grams) of room temperature water and 1.8 oz. (50 grams) of white flour.
- Cover the bowl with a plate and leave it on the counter to ferment overnight for approximately 8-12 hours.
ONE DAY BEFORE
- Once your levain is ready, combine all of it with the 12.3 oz. (350 grams) of water.
- Add the flour to the water mixture and, using your hands, mix to combine.
- Once the dough is mixed, cover with a tea towel and let it rest at room temperature for 40 minutes.
- After the dough has rested, add the salt.
- Mix well until combined then cover with the tea towel and let the mixture rest again for 30 minutes.
- After 30 minutes, it is time for the first fold.
Do the first fold
- Here’s a tutorial on stretching and folding. Complete 6 folds (one fold every 30 minutes) for 3 hours total.
Shaping the dough
- Begin by taking the dough out of the bowl and letting it rest on the counter for 20 minutes.
- Meanwhile, prepare your loaf pan by brushing it with a little neutral oil or butter.
- On a lightly floured surface, take your dough and flatten it to a rough rectangle. Roll it up like a burrito, being sure to press out any air bubbles.
- Place the dough in the prepared pan, cover with a tea towel or bowl cover and refrigerate 8 hours, or overnight.
DAY OF BAKING
Bake
- The next day, take your loaf out of the fridge and let it rise on the counter for around 2 hours, or until the dough springs back when lightly touched with a floured finger. You can score the loaf if you desire, but it is not needed.
- While the dough is proofing, set one rack in the middle and one on the bottom of the oven.
- Preheat the oven to 500°F (260°C).
- Once the dough is proofed, reduce the temperature to 450°F (230°C) and place a baking tray with high sides on the bottom rack. Fill it with about 2 cm (¾ inch) of water.
- Place your bread on the upper rack and bake for 25 minutes.
- After 25 minutes, remove the tray of water and bake the bread for another 20 minutes.
- Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool fully on a wire rack before slicing.
Amanda says
What is the best way to store this loaf?
Alexandra Daum says
However you would usually store sourdough bread. I wrap mine in a tea towel and keep it in the oven, but you could keep it in a large airtight container, wrapped in paper, in a breadbox – whatever works best for you and your space. It depends on ambient humidity and how long you’ll be storing, for example, so it’s hard to give a perfect answer.
Sherryt says
Have always made the Boyle’s in a cast iron pot, but they don’t fit well in the toaster. This was my first successful sourdough in a loaf pan. I really like your method of containing the mess in the bowl, much neater.
The bread baking setting on my oven only goes to 230c & the bread was still a bit dark on the crust for my liking. Any suggestions please?
Sophie Mackenzie says
Hey Sherry, if you are finding the loaf too brown, try moving your oven rack lower down (farther from the top element). You could also tent (or cover the top of the loaf) with some tin foil after the first 25 minutes. Enjoy :)
Yvonne says
Can I bake this in a a loaf pan with slide on lid?
Alexandra Daum says
We haven’t tried with that style of pan but it should work well!
Darlene Smith says
My dough was too wet to handle, is this normal and 10 grams of salt made it too salty
Alexandra Daum says
Hi Darlene, did you change anything about the recipe? This dough shouldn’t be too wet but it can be a bit sloppy, like any sourdough, if the stretches and folds needed a little more work. You might want to try using half bread flour if it’s tricky with all-purpose. 10g of salt is unfortunately necessary for the yeast production in the bread, but you could try reducing slightly to your personal taste. Hope this helps!
Rachel says
I’ve made this loaf countless times over the last 6 months and every time it turns out great! I love making sourdough but haven’t invested in a Dutch oven yet, so this is the perfect recipe for me! I love that it just uses all purpose flour too. Overall a simple and pretty failproof recipe!
Leah says
I’ve made this two times & both times the outside is so hard! Would a shorter cook time solve this?
Sophie Mackenzie says
It would, but you could run the risk of having a doughy middle. I would try lowering the rack in your oven and tenting the loaf with some tinfoil while it bakes. It should also soften a bit if your store the cooled loaf in a plastic bag over a cloth one.
Casi says
This has become my new go-to everyday bread. Perfect chewy crust, fluffy soft slices, excellent loaf shape. I work at home and the easy shaping and schedule make it easy to bake fresh bread any day. Turns out great every time!
Matt says
What size loaf pan does this recipe use? I have a few Pullman pans which are 13”x4”x4”, will they be to big?
Sophie Mackenzie says
we used a standard 9×5 inch loaf pan for this recipe. A pullman would make a thinner longer loaf and would need slightly different cooking times.