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Whole wheat sourdough bread recipe

  • Author: Chris Dalziel
  • Prep Time: 3 hours
  • Cook Time: 40 minutes
  • Total Time: 3 hours 40 minutes
  • Yield: 1 sourdough loaf 1x
  • Category: Bread
  • Method: Baking

Description

Perfect sourdough bread requires lots of waiting time, for the ferment and flavors to develop. The hand’s on requirement is only a little more than the average bread recipe. The extra effort is well worth the complex flavor of fresh sourdough bread.


Ingredients

Scale

Sourdough Pre-Ferment

  • ¼ cup sourdough starter
  • ½ cup water, warm
  • 1 ½ cups of flour, organic whole wheat
  • 1 tsp. Himalayan salt
  • Plus flour and water to replenish the sourdough starter in the jar

Sourdough Bread

  • 1 ¼ cup water, warm
  • 3 cups flour, whole wheat
  • plus ½ cup of flour for kneading
  • ½ cup of pre-ferment dough
  • 1 tsp. Himalayan salt
  • 1/8th tsp. of bakers yeast
  • 1 tbsp. of olive oil

Instructions

For the pre-ferment:

  • Remove the sourdough starter from the jar and put it into a mixing bowl. Do not wash the jar.
  • Replace the starter in the jar with 2 tbsp. of whole wheat flour and 2 tbsp. of water. Stir well.
  • Place the lid on loosely and set aside, to preserve your sourdough starter.
  • Put warm water in a bowl.
  • Add flour, salt, and sourdough starter.
  • Mix on low speed for 2 minutes until well combined into shaggy, moist dough.
  • Cover the bowl with a tight fitting lid and let stand at room temperature overnight.

Sourdough Bread:

  • Combine water, whole wheat flour, pre-ferment dough, yeast, olive oil, and salt in a bowl.
  • Mix on low with a dough hook, until well combined.
  • Increase the speed to medium and continue mixing until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl and makes a slapping sound against the sides of the bowl. The sides of the bowl will be clean. This will take about 4 minutes.
  • The dough will be moist. Less flour is better than too much flour.
  • Remove the bowl from the mixer and cover with plastic wrap or a tight fitting lid.
  • Allow to rise for a 4 to 6 hours.
  • Punch down and knead in a scant amount of flour so that dough can be handled without messing up your fingers.
  • Form the dough into an oval loaf.
  • Place the dough on a greased baking sheet.
  • Slice the top to allow for rise.
  • Cover with a cloth and allow to rise about 45 minutes.
  • Preheat oven to 450°F. Place a shallow pan of water into the oven during the preheating time to create steam in the oven.
  • Place the risen loaf in the oven. Splash a ¼ cup of water into the floor of the oven. Quickly close the oven door.
  • Bake the loaf for 40 minutes until the loaf is well browned. It will rise in the centre where the loaf was sliced.

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