There's enough starch in the flour to feed the yeast, especially if you're using white flour (no bran). Use AP (all purpose) flour instead of bread flour for a softer crumb. Wrap it up within a few hours of baking to soften the crust, and don't use extra moisture in the oven. Bake at a lower temperature for less time for softer crust as well (350° F, rather than 450°).

Thank you pillog and Lindac. I'm trying to avoid sugar in making home made bread or preservatives, etc. I've made bread easily but all my sandwich bread recipes call for some sugar, honey, etc. Still use half white flour as my kneading leaves a lot to be desired, even using mixer it comes out pretty dense for DH.

Thanks, Linda, for posting the done temps. It was an oversight not to mention the point of fully cooked--I was focusing on tricks to keep a soft crust.

If you're using half white flour, I'm guessing that you're using half whole wheat flour. That's a whole different deal. I started baking my own whole wheat and whole grain bread when the good, easily acquired commercial ones stopped being both good and easy. Grainlady here convinced me to try milling my own flour. What I found was that wheat that is milled today is sweet! It doesn't require any kind of sugar. From what I've read, the issue is that the oils are released when the wheat is milled, and mostly is in the parts that aren't in the white flour. This can start to go rancid immediately, and it seems that that's the source of the bitterness one often associates with whole wheat flour. (You can check Grainlady's posts for the nutritional implications.

Using half white flour will support the wheat flour and make baking much more easy. You can also add vital wheat gluten, which is protein isolated from flour, and/or barley malt to condition and strengthen your dough. There are two kinds of barley malt--both are sweet, but it's the diastatic that is the dough conditioner. The other is used just for sweetening. There is some diastatic barely malt in most commercial all purpose flours. I don't use malt in bread, but I prefer something called dried malt extract (I don't know if it's diastatic, non-diastatic, or a third thing) for the malty flavor it gives, but I use it in pizza and other things that call for a malt flavor, rather than regular bread.

You can omit the sugar altogether. It's just there for flavor. You shouldn't need to proof your yeast if you're using dry, but if your recipe says to and you don't want to change, you can just use some white flour instead of the sugar. Then you'll have to see how you like the flavor.

Annie1992 recently made some whole wheat sandwich bread she said came out well. Maybe she'll post here or you can look up her thread.

Try using white whole wheat....and try using the stretch and fold method.
Not sure just why you want to eliminate ALL sugar from your bread, I don't feel any guilt at 1 tablespoon of honey per loaf of bread, and I like the taste and what it does to the keeping quality of the bread. I use local, organic, non pasteurized and unfiltered honey.
Also try the stretch and fold method....google it. I get great results with half the work and half the mess.

I also feel no guilt at adding some black strap molasses to a whole wheat or rye bread...not much sweet taste but it adds minerals.
For a malty flavor I add a tablespoon of malt-o-meal cereal per loaf of bread...but there are likely preservatives in the cereal..
Sugar in bread does more than add to the flavor....it softens the texture adds moisture and feeds the yeast. A little sweet stuff is not a bad thing....perhaps try pineapple juice.

I use 100% home milled whole wheat, and don't use any sugar - the wheat tastes fine to me. To make it softer, try adapting your recipe to Tanzhong http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/39723/my-tangzhong-roux-faq. Just take 5% of the total flour, add 5 times that much water, ( subtract both from the totals in the recipe ) and heat till it forms a thick custard, then let cool and use it in the recipe. It will make the loaf softer.

Very cool! I was thinking of trying Annie's sandwich bread. I'll keep this in mind. Totally new to me. (I get so lost at Fresh Loaf, I only ever dive in from a link.). Thanks for sharing your expertise.

Thanks for sharing. It seems that just a little sugar shouldn't hurt much. I'm trying to avoid store bought bread due to all the additives. Made a loaf of raisin bread with 2 Tbs of sugar, butter, following bread machine recipe. It turned out fine, not too sweet, but in a couple of days in bread box was pretty dry. I know it's not the lack of sugar but something else. It called for nonfat milk, I used all white bread flour with 2Tbs bread enhancement. I remove a few days bread to keep at room temp and store in the freezer until more is needed. I guess a major difference for store bought which I have been trying to solve is not the sugar but all those foreign sounding additives. The Tanghoz sounds interesting, I may try adjusting one of the recipes to that method and see how it turns out. Probably won't solve the dryness problem but worth a try.

I know the "experts say not to....but try wrapping your home made bread and keeping it in the refrigerator. Something happend to the "glutenization of the starch" or something, but reverses when you heat the bread again>
I Eat bread fresh from the oven the first day, then refrigerate what's left and that's my toast for a few days. Sometimes I have 3 diferent kinds of "toast bread" in the refrigerator. But it keeps for easily a week without molding.

Starches tighten up as they age--think of twisting a thread--and also when they're refrigerated. Heating loosens them up again while they're hot, but then they tighten back up when they're cool (though if it freezes fast in the freezer, that stops it, or at least slows it to a crawl). That's the sense of "staleness". Bread can dry out without being technically stale. That's through loss of moisture. Refrigerating can keep the moisture in, possibly just because of the way you wrap it for the fridge!

I highly recommend Bee's Wraps for bread on the counter/box. They also sell them on Amazon. These are beeswax infused cloths. They just fold around the bread and seal it, and keep it from drying out. As a consequence, crunchy crusts will turn chewy, but you also don't have to cut off the cut end. Bold chewy crusts stay chewy and don't go soft. It keeps my bread nice much longer than an ordinary cloth, and doesn't make it weird like plastic does.

There are a number of non-spooky things that will give bread a longer life on the counter. King Arthur sells dough conditioners and you can read more about it on their website. I don't use them. I do, however, often bake with sourdough starter. The acidity acts as a natural preservative. You don't have to make sour bread with it. It's just wild yeast, which is a different strain than commercial yeast. Rule of thumb, more starter > shorter rise > sweeter bread vs. less starter > longer rise > more sour bread. You can buy sourdough starter or catch your own. It is a different way of baking, but you can make lovely soft breads with it and it might please both your husband's tastes and your desires for better quality breads.