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Heritage Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread
Note: If you're new to whole wheat baking, you might want to start by using Heritage White Flour and substituting between 20%-40% Heritage Whole Wheat Flour. As you have success with those percentages, you can start increasing the amount of whole wheat.
Ingredients
- 1000 G Ultra-Fine Heritage Whole Wheat Flour
- 720 G Chlorine-Free Water 90 F
- 1 tbsp Real Salt or other unrefined salt
- 250 G Active Sourdough Starter
Instructions
Mixing
- Autolyze the flour (pre-soak flour and water for one hour. Add the water to the dough and mix into a shaggy dough).
- After the pre-soak, add the salt to the dough and mix just enough to combine it. Add the starter and mix thoroughly to combine into a smooth bread dough. Mixing the sourdough into the pre-soaked flour is the challenging part of the process. It can be done by hand or mixer. By hand, pinch and turn the dough. Using a mixer may necessitate stopping the mixer and stirring the pre-soaked dough and starter together. This may need to be done a few times while continuing to mix.
- When mixed into a smooth bread dough, place the dough in a large mixing bowl and cover for a several-hour bulk ferment. This will depend on the temperature of the room. If it is 70 degrees or more, it will grow to double in size in a few hours. If it is less than 70 F, it will take longer. Keep an eye on it.
- Once it about doubles in size, stretch and fold by grabbing the dough and pulling it up and toward the center for four stretches at 90 degrees each – top, left,bottom, right.
- Cover and repeat the stretch and folds in twenty minutes (the dough needs this much time to relax between stretch and folds). The number is up to you. Anywhere from 2-5 is common. The dough will get stronger with each.
- Divide into two equal portions and place in bannetons (seam side up) or bread pans(seam side down). Cover with a plastic bag and place in refrigerator for 12 hours. Leave air in the bag to allow room for rising.
Baking
- Heat oven and Dutch oven (if using) to 425-450 F for at least 30 minutes.
- Place dough in heated dutch oven, slash with a razor blade or lame, cover and bake 30-35 minutes. For a darker crust, remove the cover after 20 minutes.
- If baking in a bread pan, place the dough-filled bread pan in the oven, reduce the heat to 350 F and bake about 40 minutes. (If the top is getting too brown, cover with a foil tent).
- At the end of bake time for either method check the inside temperature of the bread with a stick thermometer. It should read 195-205 F when done.
- For pan bread, remove the bread from the pan immediately and let cool on a rack to allow air to circulate under the bread.
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I think this is going to be good! But I am wondering if it is possible to get the recipe measurement in Cups or at least Oz. I had a hard time translating the Gram measurement. Thank you so much! Nancy
Whole wheat sourdough bread just out of the oven.
I haven’t tasted it yet, it looks and smells delicious! I couldn’t figure out how to attach a photo
Nancy,
Here’s a link to convert grams to ounces: https://www.rapidtables.com/convert/weight/gram-to-ounce.html.
Since grams and ounces are measures of weight, and Cups is a volume measurement, I think the ounces measurement would be more reliable.
Better yet, get a scale that measure in either grams or ounces. They’re not too expensive and really simplify life.
Best of luck. A new member
A scale will convert to grams, less than $10 at grocery store. Good scale will be your best friend for awesome bread!
I see that the dough is divided into two equal portions in Mixing item 6. So is this for two loaves?
I’m a beginning baker, so please forgive what you might perceive as silly questions. After all, what beginning baker starts with a home-grown sourdough starter and a whole wheat loaf of sourdough? I had to look up what a banneton was. What can I say? I’m inspired by your products and like good food.
Hey, at a younger age, I had no success with baking bread. I have to learn fast now that I’m not quite so young and have a lot of ground to re-gain. But my starter is doing well, I think.
Thanks for any help you can provide.
Hi Cheryl,
Yes, the recipes with around 1000 grams of flower make 2 nice loaves.
Thank you, Tim Baker. I can see now that I didn’t read the recipe well.
My starter is gluten free so will that work
I’m gluten intolerant and made a starter with these flours, and fed the resulting loaves to folks who are both gluten intolerant AND Celiac. I think the very nature of Celiac is that it affects all in different ways, so your mileage may vary.
So I have Celiac and able to eat San Luis brand sourdough bread because of the hours and hours of fermenting. Would it be safe to eat your bread?
I have been diagnosed with celiac and for year unable to eat products with gluten. I thought I would try sunrise wheat berry and use the long rise process. I have been able to have bread with these flours and the long rise process without a problem. Good luck. Nancy.
I’ve made bread before and have the flour and sourdough starter to use this recipe, but find the directions a little confusing. What does ” pinch and turn the dough” mean?” And am I using bare hands to do this or a wooden spoon?
Thank you!
I do not understand why I refrigerate for 12 hours to let the bread rise. It did not rise at all in the refrigerator and it was rising when it was in a warmer setting. Where did I go wrong? Or next time can I just let it rise outside the refrigerator? What does the refrigerator do for bread rising?
I don’t see “pinch and turn” I see “stretch & fold” which means – facing your dough, imagine a clock face over it. Wet your hands with water and burrow your hands under dough to middle of bowl, pull the dough up vertically (stretch) without tearing it and fold it down towards 6:00. Turn you bowl 90 degrees and repeat for four total stretch & fold turns. Cover and repeat at 30 minute intervals for up to 5 times.
I find that the Danish whisk is really handy for all aspects of blending flour and water as well as blending in the sourdough starter and pulling and stretching at the end. This is a great tool that Sunrise Flour Mill sells.
I do not understand why I refrigerate for 12 hours to let the bread rise. It did rise at all in the refrigerator and it was rising when it was in a warmer setting. Where did I go wrong? Or next time can I just let it rise outside the refrigerator? What does the refrigerator do for bread rising?
*not
Is there a reason for making two loaves? Can the recipe be cut in half? There are only two of us in my house, and I can’t see us eating 2 whole loaves of bread before they go stale. Also, if the recipe is difficult to master, I hate the idea of using up all my flour to fail in bulk.
Yes, you can cut recipe in half.
I’ve been making bread for years. This recipe is underwhelming at best. A lot of money for a flour that produces mediocre bread. Ended up giving 2/3 of second loaf to neighborhood fox.
That was mean. The recipe does not produce mediocre bread. Perhaps you were not successful but it’s not the fault of the flour or the recipe.
Is there a technique to getting the dough out of the basket without it sticking? This seems to be the place where I have difficulty. I flour the liner prior to the rise and have tried various amounts, still it sticks in places. I’ve tried without the liner, but that doesn’t work any better. Any ideas would be appreciated.
Use rice flour or a gluten free flour blend to dust the loaves before putting them into the baskets or liners. That is what almost every other sourdough recipe I have made says to do, and it has worked perfectly for me every time. some videos I have watched on making sourdough have shown the baker rolling an entire ball of dough in rice flour and shaking off the excess before putting it into the baskets.