Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

This recipe assumes that you already have a sourdough starter and it is made with whole wheat flour. If using a white flour starter you will probably be fine if you reduce the hydration a little, and of course the final loaves will not be 100% whole wheat but near enough.   

This is a link to one description of making a starter, but you will find many more on the internet.

https://www.eatingwell.com/recipe/265890/whole-wheat-sourdough-starter/

Once you have an active starter you don't need to discard anymore, I keep about 500g of starter in the fridge and use what I need to bake, when I am down to around 50-100g remaining I feed my starter to bring it back to 500g let it start to ferment again and once you see it is getting active return to the fridge until you need it for your next bake. I keep an 80% hydration whole wheat starter (80g water/100gFlour) but this works for 100% hydration as well. Others just keep 20-50g of dormant starter in the fridge and take it out and feed it the day before they are going to bake, this is commonly known as the scrapings method.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uj6YpNCUYYQ

To make 2 900g Sandwich loaves

 

200g of 80% hydration whole wheat starter ( if you use 100% just adjust the water to account for the extra in your starter. 

 

800-840g of water (depending on how high hydration you want, I use 840g) 1000g of Whole Wheat bread flour (mine is 16% protein, but anything over 13% is good, although you may want to dial back the hydration a little if on the lower side.

 

20g salt

EDIT: - I've started to reduce the hydration by reducing the water to 800g and adding 40g of extra virgin olive oil to the mix. This gives a softer final crumb and adds a day or so before it starts to stale, if it lasts that long.

 

Method

First Morning I make a sponge with all the salt, water and starter and 400g of the flour mix well and leave covered for 1-2 hours to start fermenting (if you need to leave for longer store in the fridge until you are ready to go to the next stage)

 

 

Add the remaining 600g of flour and mix until all the flour is incorporated and no dry flour remains. Cover and leave to hydrate for at least 1 hour before starting your folds. At each stage from now I return it to the fridge to slow the fermentation as it will be at least 24 hours before baking.

 

 

Folds These are just you pulling the dough over itself in the bowl between 4-20 times while rotating the bowl the dough is in. Again there are many examples of different ways of doing this on the internet. You can't really get it wrong, and this stretching is helping to develop the gluten in the dough that gives it the strength to maintain its shape as it rises during the baking process. You will start to feel the strength of the dough change as you do this process, and as you get more familiar with the stages you will know from the feel of the dough, when it is ready to leave for bulk fermentation.

 

Over the next 4-8 hours perform a series of folds, 3-4 sets is generally sufficient, then leave covered in the fridge over night until at least doubled in size. I usually do my last fold just before bed, and then it is ready for the next stage somewhere between 9am and mid day the next morning. You can if you want to develop more flavor do another fold and leave to ferment for even longer, but for me the next day is long enough.

 

If making large sandwich loaves split the dough into 2 equal size pieces and shape and put into 2 large loaf tins and leave to prove for a final 1-2 hours, until the dough is 1-2.5cm / 1/2-1” above the top of the tin. I place mine in the (cold) oven with the door shut but you can leave covered on a kitchen counter if you wish.

 

When the loaves are ready to bake I boil some water and put a roasting pan in the bottom of the oven, score the loaves, I use scissors to do 3 cuts across the loaf, place in the oven and pore boiling water into the pan in the bottom and turn on the oven to around 230C/450f and bake for about 20 minutes turn the loaves around and turn the temp down to 210C/410f for a further 25 minutes, turn off the oven and remove the tray of water and leave in the cooling oven for 10-15 minutes, remove the loaves from the oven, remove them from the tins and set on a wire rack to cool, you can test if cooked fully by tapping the base of the loaf, if a hollow sound they are cooked or if you prefer use a instant temperature probe, if 91-99C/195-210f in the center they are cooked.

 

Allow to cool fully before cutting and slathering in good Butter.

 

Bare in mind that the type of flour you use, and your oven, kitchen conditions and even altitude will alter the results, this recipe was created and produced by the coast at sea level, so you need to take this as a guide rather than an exact recipe and method.

 

I wish you well in giving it a go.