Homemade Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

If you want to start your own sourdough journey, you can BUY MY SOURDOUGH STARTER HERE! – and I will ship it you in the mail, with instructions for feeding and maintaining it so you can bake all the amazing bread you dream of. Cost is $12.

I started baking sourdough in 2018. After just one loaf, I knew this process was going to become a hobby and passion of mine. Sourdough is the way bread was made centuries ago, and I’m so glad that many around the world are embracing sourdough again, and sharing their learnings with others. My starter has become a part of me…. It needs to be fed. It asks to be used. The long rise. The satisfying bake. The first slice of whole wheat sourdough bread.

I’ve never been so fascinated in my own kitchen, nurturing a live starter (you can read my Top 5 Sourdough Starter Tips) on my counter and transforming it into the most delicious bread I’ve ever eaten, with just flour and water.

This Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread has:

A golden, crunchy, caramelized crust.
Holes scattered through the soft crumb.
A touch of tang, but mostly yeasty sweet.

You’ll notice that besides whole wheat flour, bread flour and all purpose are also used in this recipe to achieve a tender crumb, and keep the bread from becoming too dense, which can happen if you use all whole wheat.

A beginner friendly recipe.

Bread flour and AP are also important for building structure and allowing for easier handling of the dough, including shaping, due to the higher protein count and strength. Once the dough has been shaped and gone through its final rise, use these tips for scoring your dough.

As I continued to learn about sourdough bread, I also started to research using fresh milled grain. I was really curious as to the complexity that whole grains would add to the bread.

I had some experience with home milling, as I acquired the WonderMill grain mill about 6 years ago. I milled only gluten-free grain, and had good end results, but the mill was extremely loud and I didn’t like how the flour flowed into a bucket that had a “hose” coming from the main mill. It got messy. Additionally, it wasn’t the prettiest machine to look at, made of hard plastic.

Pleasant Hill Grain has lots of kitchen equipment, and is the exclusive US importer of Austrian made Komo Grain Mills and Flakers (mill is left side of machine, flaker on the right) you see here in the photos. We are working together to start more conversations around home milling, the benefits of using fresh flour, and how easy it is.

They graciously provided me with the Komo Duett Mill, which is gorgeous – constructed of beechwood, and I’ve been using it for the last month, experimenting with different grains, and making bread with the flour using different techniques and ratios.

The process of milling is as simple as:

1. Select your grain.
2. For sourdough bread, you’ll want to grind it as fine as possible. With the Komo Mill, all you have to do is turn the top hopper as far to the left as it goes before the stone burrs touch each other.
3. Flip the switch to turn the mill on.
4. Pour grain into the hopper, and boom – FRESH FLOUR!

The grinder side mills hard or soft wheat, rice, kamut, spelt, buckwheat, barley, rye, millet, teff, quinoa, amaranth, sorghum and dent (field) corn. It will also grind lentils, dry beans (pinto, red, chickpeas, kidney & more), and dried, non-oily spices. It isn’t suitable for herbs, oilseeds like flax or sesame, popcorn, or fibrous materials. The grain flaker side (shown above), is incredible too! Wheat, rye, barley, and most commonly, oats are flaked.

When you press your own oat flakes, you’re getting fresh, raw oats with all the delicate essential oils and life energy of the seed. That’s compared to commercial oat flakes, which are steam cooked and heat dried to preserve. Other grains that are normally dry and hard should be softened by briefly rinsing them under water. Then spread the grains on a cloth or towel to let them dry over night or for at least 3-4 hours.

Milling your own flour, without sifting, means you retain 100% of the same wheat berry in your end product. Many mills will label using the term “whole wheat”, but that doesn’t always mean whole grain. Additionally, they will sometimes perform several milling passes, especially on the germ and bran which are sifted out and then later added back in. Once the wheat berry is milled, breaking open that protective bran layer, oxidization begins which causes nutrients to slowly degrade.

So when we mill at home and use the flour immediately, we’re retaining many more nutrients that store bought flour.

But where fresh milled flour really shines is in flavor. The complexity and nuances of each grain comes through, deeply rich and nutty.

I’ve baked with both fresh milled hard red winter wheat, and spelt, and loved each.
The crust becomes crackly and shines! And the crumb is tender, softer than an everyday kind of loaf.

After baking several loaves now with fresh milled flour, the success has been mostly dependent on three things:

• A longer autolyse to let the grains absorb the water better
• Four sets of folds during bulk fermentation
• A cold (refrigerated) proof for the final rise, 8-10 hours

When doing these two things, I achieved the oven spring I was hoping for, and nice holes near the edges of the loaf, with a tighter middle. It’s wonderful for toast and sandwiches.

If you’d like to purchase some of my starter, you can! Right HERE.

My Whole Wheat Sourdough recipe is adapted from the Artisan Sourdough Made Simple cookbook, which has been my guiding star throughout this whole sourdough learning process. I highly recommend it.

More Sourdough Bread Recipes:

• Delicious Everyday Sourdough Bread
• How to Make Sourdough Focaccia
• Jalapeño Cheese Sourdough Bread

Homemade Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread (beginner friendly)

A basic recipe for naturally fermented, whole wheat sourdough bread. Using a blend of whole wheat with bread flour and all purpose flour give the loaf a nice structure with tender crumb, and nutty flavor.

4.81 from 61 votes

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Prep Time :10 minutes minutes

Cook Time :45 minutes minutes

Additional Time :10 hours hours

Total Time :10 hours hours 55 minutes minutes

Yield: 1 loaf

Author: Amanda Paa

SCALE:

1x2x3x

Ingredients

• 55 grams [bubbly active starter] (100% hydration)
• 385 grams warm water (about 85-90 degrees F)
• 15 grams honey
• 150 grams fresh whole wheat flour
• 155 grams all-purpose flour (I use King Arthur)
• 195 grams bread flour (I use King Arthur)
• 9 grams fine sea salt

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Instructions 

• In a large bowl, whisk starter, water, and honey. Add the flours, mixing first with a fork, then switching to your hands until the dough is shaggy. A rough, sticky dough will form, no dry bits should be showing. Cover with a damp towel and let rest for 1 hour (this is the autolyse). 
  
• After the autolyse, add the salt. Squeeze the salt into the dough, then work the dough generously with your hands for at 2 to 3 minutes, kneading to begin building the gluten. Then finish with your first stretch and folds. Let rest for 30 minutes.
• Perform another set of stretch and folds (video to show you how). Let rest for 30 minutes. Perform another set of stretch and folds, and rest 30 minutes. Perform your 4th and final set of stretch and folds.
• Cover the dough with a damp towel and let rise about around 4-5 more hours if your house is around 70-72 degrees F, until your dough has risen at least 50%, has a bubble or two on top, the top is smooth and a bit glossy, and it jiggles in a bit in the bowl. Go by how the dough looks, rather than time.  
• Now it's time to shape. Gently coax the dough onto a flour surface. Shape it into a rustic round and let rest, covered, for 15 minutes.

  Then shape the dough using this method. Put banneton with dough into a plastic grocery bag, or garbage bag, so that it doesn't dry out, and let cold proof in refrigerator for 8-10 hours. 
• Preheat your dutch oven in your oven at 450 degrees F. When oven is preheated, take dough out of refrigerator, cover with a piece of parchment (cut larger than the banneton) and a plate. Then use your hand to hold the plate and flip the plate + banneton over, so that now the banneton is upside down and you can now lift it off so that your dough is on the parchment, ready to score. Gently rub a bit of flour onto the top, and score the dough.
• Lift parchment with bread into dutch oven, put cover on.
  
• Slide dutch oven onto the middle rack, and bake with cover on for 25 minutes. Remove cover, turn heat down to 430 degrees F, and bake for another 20 minutes, until exterior is golden brown and crispy. Remove from oven, and carefully remove from bread from dutch oven.
  
• Let cool for one hour before cutting. Store bread in a plastic bag, cut side down for up to four days.