How To Make Delicious Stone Ground Whole Wheat Sourdough

For years, I used straight whole grains for all 1,000 grams of flour my bread dough calls for. One day, I had guests over who weren’t as adventurous with their palates, and I wanted the dinner to bless them instead of trying to get them on my train. So, I cut the wheat with 50% all purpose flour. Oh man, what a mistake. It was too good!! I kept that as a special occasion recipe, until I was finding every single day as a special occasion.

That is, until I opened a brand new bag of white flour and found tiny bugs crawling all over! All of my convictions came rolling back! One of my many reasons for using whole wheat berries is that bugs can’t penetrate the shell and lay their eggs. Yes, we could store our flour in the freezer, but the eggs have already been laid in most flours. They may not hatch, but you’re still eating those unborn bug babies! And as someone who uses flour most days, that would be a ton of flour to store in my freezer (that happens to be bulging with the 1/2 cow we just got in from SonRise Ranch!).

Solution: Vital Wheat Gluten

I have played around with adding gluten to different recipes for years. I figured I would add a little of it to my whole wheat recipe and see how it compared to the 1/2 white flour boules I had been making. GLORY! This stone-ground, whole wheat sourdough inhabits all the complex flavors of the grain, while having that light, stretchy CHEW we all love about white flour. And for the first time, my whole wheat bread had that coveted crumb! It is still not anything like the straight white flour crumb, but the flavor is so far superior to white flour, and the crumb is there. It’s a win all the way around for me.

There are so many reasons as to why gluten affects people so violently these days. This short podcast explains several of them, if you’re interested. But praise God, nobody in my family suffers from any sort of intolerance to it. I try to make sure that most of the gluten we eat has been fermented. I also try to use a variety of grains so that we’re not accosted by all the woes of modern hard red wheat. (Side note: Adding gluten means that you can use structurally weak flours like khorason, spelt or einkorn without having to change your method, though I know that changes the purpose of using ancient grains.)

Is this “healthy?”

You can make up your own mind about whether or not this is “healthy.” For my recipe, I use 5% gluten, 2% salt and 72% hydration. Knowing it is organic, 95% freshly ground, 100% fermented, it is a resounding yes in my book.

I’ll share my recipe below. But I use this same ratio of flour:gluten for this sandwich bread (I cut the flour by about 1 1/2-2 cups). Even for peanut butter and jellies, we love sourdough bread!!

Keys To Great Whole Wheat Sourdough

Aside from using gluten, I have a few other tricks that make baking with whole wheat fool proof.

• Use rye flour to feed your starter. It is INCREDIBLE how happy and active starter is when fed with rye. My doughs double in 3-4 hours if it is in a warm place.
• Err on the side of under-proofing. Ideally, don’t err at all! But the problem I had time and again was over proofing, causing sub-par structure during the bake.
• Do the second proof in the refrigerator overnight. It has more structure when it’s cold and will allow you to do beautiful scores!
• Using a shallow pan like this allows you to place your dough in the insanely hot pan a lot more safely and gently. We want to give your dough every chance for success, and a big drop into a deep pan right before baking is not helping anything!
• Bake, bake BAKE!! I dabbled in whole wheat sourdough for about a decade without anything I’d ever consider a success. In 2017, I went to a bakery that had DELICIOUS 100% whole wheat. Once I knew it was possible to have light, spongy whole wheat sourdough, I was on mission! I started baking sourdough four to five times a week. That’s when everything changed for me.
• Turn your ‘failures’ into treats! Heavy rock-like loaf? Chop it up into small cubes and either make croutons or use it for a breakfast bake. I love to make French Onion Soup and use a real dud of a loaf for the croutons in the soup that will soak up a lot of moisture! Over proofed? Spread it out in a baking sheet and turn it into focaccia or pizza! (You’ll know it’s over proofed if you poke it and it stays inverted.)
• If you are grinding your own flour, please learn from my mistakes: buy the Mockmill 200 Professional model. I know it’s expensive, but it’s cheaper than buying 3 grinders and pocking up your high powered blender jar!! The only grain mill that has gotten the fresh milled flour fine enough to my liking is the Mockmill Pro. Mockmill has no clue who I am, I am not sponsored in any way by them. I have used my Blendtec Blender, a hand-cranked Wonder Mill (that my husband eventually hooked up to a motor for me), the NutriMill. My mom uses the Kitchen Aid grinder attachment, and her motor always feels and smells quite hot by the time the grind is done and there’s still kneading to be done! GO BIG if you’re going to go.

The Night Before You Bake:

Refresh your levain by reserving 50g starter and discarding the rest. If you have a wheat grinder, grind 150g rye. Mix the starter with 150 water and stir well to mix the starter in thoroughly. Add 150g rye. Mix well and let sit on the counter over night.

Baking Fresh, Stone Ground, Whole Wheat Sourdough:

The Next Morning, Prepare the soaker:

• 95% freshly ground grain
• 5% gluten
• 72% hydration
• 2% salt

I like to use 1000g of flour for easy math!

Grind 950g whole wheat. Often, I will use a mix of khorasan, einkorn, spelt, hard white, rye, hard red… all kinds of different flours! I try to diversify the grains that we eat for better micro biome health. (I don’t subscribe to his views on veganism, but feeding our gut a wide variety and not just our favorites makes so much sense to me.)

In the bottom of the bowl you’re going to be using, add 720g of water. I use a stand mixer these days. I know, I know, legit bakers do it by hand. I’ve made many a loaf of bread in my day with my bare hands. But these busy days, using the mixer means that I can make sourdough as a homeschooling mom of 4 most any day of the week! I always put the water in the bottom so that there’s no dry flour stuck to the bottom. Mix your freshly ground whole wheat with 50g gluten and 20g salt.

Mix until it is all incorporated. It will be quite stiff and dry at this point, because you have not added your starter yet. Cover with a wet tea towel, shower cap or something. Let rest for 30 minutes to an hour. I always like to grab a little pinch and see how far I can pull it before it tears. At this point, you won’t get far.

Once it has rested 30 minutes to an hour, grab a little pinch and stretch it again. You’ll be amazed at how much the gluten has broken down just by a little rest!

Add the Starter (Called Levain):

Set aside 50g of your starter for your next bake, and dump the rest into your soaker. Using the dough hook, mix until it is smooth and shiny. It will be craggy for a while, but keep going!

Perform a Series of Stretch and Folds:

Now it’s time for the stretch and fold method. For the next two hours, every 30 minutes, you will stretch and fold your dough. This goes over best with wet hands. Grab a handful of dough from the side of the bowl furthest in front of you. Stretch it up as high as it can go without breaking, and fold it over onto the side closest to you. Rotate the bowl 45 degrees, and repeat. Continue until all four sides have been stretched and folded. Cover and let the dough rest 30 minutes, then repeat the process three more times, 30 minutes between each round of stretching. You’ll notice as time goes on how much stretchier the dough becomes. That’s what we want! Cover that baby up and let it take a nap until it has doubled. This is called “bulk fermentation.” I’m sorry I can’t give you a definite time. This could be anywhere from 3-6+ hours. Your active sourdough starter will work quickly in the summer, and will take much longer in a cold winter house. Just keep checking on it.

Shape:

Once your dough is good and fluffy, gently help it out onto your counter. (I spray my counter with water instead of using flour.) Spot what looks to be halfway, and using a bench scraper, divide your dough into two. Quickly shape them into balls and let rest while you clean up a bit. Then, I gently stretch it out to a loose, roundish rectangle/square, then start folding the corners into the center. Grab it from one side and roll it down on itself. This part is hard to explain: gently scoot it towards you, letting it drag on the bottom just a bit, while scooping whatever might be left behind with the scraper whilst turning it and dragging it again. Hopefully the pictures show it well! You’ll see the top getting taut, and maybe eventually have a shallow tear. That’s when it’s as tight as can be.

You’re ready to upturn it into your prepared proofing basket. I spray mine with water, then heavily dust it with rice flour. I will lightly coat my bread with rice flour as well. Some people put a floured towel into theirs, but I like the grooves the bare basket gives the finished loaf! Make sure to have the smooth top in the bottom of the bowl and the unfinished bottom on top. Pinch it closed as needed.

Final Proof:

If you’re in a hurry and wanting your whole grain bread tonight, it is absolutely possible to get a good rise in an hour or so. I rarely do this, though, because beautiful scoring on top is just as important to me as a good crumb and oven spring! If you need it soon, let the dough rise on the counter. If you can wait a day, put it in the fridge. I’ve left mine in the fridge for up to 4 days, and it does start losing some of its wow factor, but still a perfectly enjoyable loaf! If I’m wanting to share with people or use for a special occasion, I do try to bake it the next day.

Preheat:

Preheat until your oven temperature is 450 degrees, with your Dutch oven inside heating up with it. Try to let it heat up for about an hour, if your kitchen can handle the extra heat. Once your Dutch oven is good and hot, you’re ready to move on to the next step:

Scoring:

THIS IS MY FAVORITE PART! You could do a slash from top to bottom and call it good. Maybe you’d step it up a bit and do an x. You might even make pretty little laurel leaves. Or… you could get FANCY. Not everything I try turns out beautifully, but it is fun to try new things! This works best if you did the final proof in the fridge. You can even freeze it for 15 minutes before scoring to make it extra easy to work with.

BAKE!

Gently ease your dough into the bottom of the pan. I use the parchment paper to help me lower it in with as little impact as possible. Between the parchment and pan, put a few ice cubes to create steam, then immediately cover with the lid.

Place in the oven with the cover on for 25 minutes. Take the lid off and bake for another 15 minutes.

Enjoy looking at that beautiful loaf! Using the parchment paper, ease it out onto a cooling rack. It is hard to wait to cut into it, but it really does smash down and gum up the knife if you don’t wait long enough. Try to make it at least 30 minutes!

Please let me know if you try making sourdough my way! Tag me @ournomadichomestead on instagram or leave a comment here if you have any questions!

Recipe: