Recipe: Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

Peanut-butter-honey-chia toast with kale salad = delicious breakfast!

Since Zach and I loooove our carbs, we eat toast with peanut butter and honey basically every morning. And since we want delicious, hearty homemade bread for our toast, bread-making is a weekly ritual for me. 

I had tried for years to find a good recipe that was 100% whole wheat, but most of them had tons of sugar or honey, or weird ingredients like powdered milk, and half the time they still came out like crumbly bricks. That was before I discovered the magic of sourdough— it produces whole wheat loaves that, while denser than the fluffy country blond boules that Zach makes, have a nice crumb and a delicious nutty flavor. The process is a bit involved, but once you get the hang of it, it’s fairly simple. 

I can’t for the life of me remember where we got this recipe, but it’s my favorite so far.

This process has several steps:

Create a sourdough starter (see below)

Soak flour and water (20-30 minutes).

Add starter and salt, then fold several times at intervals (about an hour and a half).

Let rise (overnight or eight hours).

Shape into loaves and let proof (a couple hours).

Bake. 

Ingredients and equipment needed:

Sourdough starter (Here is a great tutorial: https://blog.kingarthurflour.com/2012/04/05/creating-your-own-sourdough-starter-the-path-to-great-bread/)

Whole-wheat flour (I prefer King Arthur brand because it’s very fine)

Rye flour (optional, can sub whole wheat instead)

Salt 

Kitchen scale 

Very big mixing bowl

Knife or pastry cutter

Cooking spray or oil

Two bread pans

Kitchen towel

Kitchen thermometer (optional)

This particular recipe is made with a sourdough starter that was fed about eight hours previously (longer if the house is cold). I usually start the sourdough bread in the evening around 7:00, which gives me plenty of time to mix and fold it.

Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

Makes two loaves; I wrap one tightly in a kitchen towel and two plastic bags, then freeze it for later use.

(Start in the evening)

Combine in a large bowl: 

1,100 grams whole wheat flour (or 1,006 g whole wheat and 94 g rye flour)

978 grams water, heated to 95ºF (very warm to the touch)

Let sit for 30 minutes or so.

Then, spoon in:

25 grams salt

200-250 grams sourdough starter

Making a 30% whole wheat loaf, doubled (see recipe at end of post)

Wet your hands to help avoid sticking. Aggressively squish together the dough with your hands until thoroughly combined, then “fold” a couple times inward by pulling up one side and tucking it into the middle, rotating the bowl as you go, until the dough is a tight ball. Flip it over so the seam is on the bottom, and re-cover.

After the first fold

Cover the bowl and let rest 30 minutes.

The dough should be relaxed and spread out like a puddle rather than in a ball; grab one edge at a time and firmly fold it into the center until you have a tight ball again. Cover the bowl and let rest another 30 minutes. Do this at least twice more, resting for 20 or 30 minutes in between each time.

After the final fold

Let the dough sit overnight, or until it doubles in size. (If your house is excessively cold or hot [like ours], it helps to put the dough in a cooler with either a heating pad or an ice pack, to keep the temperature consistent. If you keep your house at a normal temperature, this is unnecessary.)

This one bubbled really well! This was after about 11 hours.

In the morning, spray two bread pans with cooking oil. Spritz some water on a counter or large cutting board and dump the dough onto it. Use a knife or pastry cutter to cut the dough in half. Shape each half into a loaf and place in the loaf pans. 

(Again, this was a double batch. Clearly I cannot divide dough evenly.)

Sprinkle flour over a dish towel and use the floured towel to cover the bread so it can proof. Let it proof for a couple hours, until the loaves are nicely fluffed. If you need to wait, you can proof them in the fridge, wrapped in plastic.

Once the loaves are proofed, slash the tops and preheat the oven to 425ºF.

Bake for 20 minutes, then check. If the top looks scorched, turn down the heat. It usually needs at least 15-20 minutes more, but I usually tell when it’s done by inserting a thermometer (it should be 200º on the inside). If nothing else, stick it with a skewer to make sure the inside isn’t still doughy. Getting it baked right is a bit of trial and error.

Let the loaves cool for a few minutes, then turn them out onto cooling racks.

Voila! Delicious sourdough loaves, begging to be made into breakfast, lunch, or dinner!

EDIT 1/31/2021: 

If you want to make a version that's lighter and only 30% whole wheat, try the exact same technique with these ingredients:

604 g white flour

276 g whole wheat flour

684 g warm water

22 g fine sea salt

216 g sourdough starter

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