100% whole wheat sourdough
I’ve been working on consistency with my bake of 100% fresh milled whole wheat sourdough for the last several weeks ( about 4 loaves a weekend since thanksgiving).
I think I’ve got what I want for my family’s basic bread. Soft texture, airy enough crumb, blistered and thin crust. And, importantly, 3 bakes in a row that are about the same. ?
formula: ( with dough mix time equals t-zero)
-12 hrs: refresh refridgerater starter 1:2:2. I use 100% starter
-2 hrs: mix 400 gr flour and 300 gr water until all dry stuff is wet (shaggy mass)
0 hrs: knead well the shaggy mass plus 100 gr refreshed starter. ~300 folds.
+ 0.5 hrs: incorporate 8 gr salt plus a small amount of water to help it dissolve
-fold about every hour. Was not totally consistent with this, but always managed the one at t=1.5 hrs. Room temperature is 70 F
+6 hrs: preshape
+6.5 hrs: final shape, put in fridge
+18 hrs ( approx). : put in covered baker, slash; preheat oven to 475 F, lower heat to 425 once bread is loaded and temp is back to 475. 20 min covered, 15 min uncovered
The picture is after about 30 min cooling, would cut better with a longer wait.
Comments
really nice !! I am impressed with that crumb at 100%. I have some flour to use up and then I will be milling my own from here on out. I have a local mill that will sell me winter and spring berries and rye berries all from good sources so I am excited. Will definitely try your formula and method when I get to milling. Thanks for posting. c
And best wishes. The taste of true ww, fresh ground is amazing and it’s satisfying to use only fresh ground grain. I didn’t mention above that my starter is kept up with fresh ground rye, which adds a nice grassy flavor element ( and at 10% of the total flour, doesn’t impact the crumb). I’ve been trying for a good 100% ww sourdough loaf for some time now. Having read a bunch of blogs and a few books, I think the two main things that matter are:
1) 2 or more hours of autolyse with just the flour and water before adding salt or starter or doing aggressive dough development and
2) develop the dough well early in the bulk fermentation. I do that by kneading a lot, I would think doing enough stretch and folds would also work, if it’s cool enough in the kitchen that bulk takes a while.
I’m in Southern California, so I’m sure I’ll have to make some adjustments come summer when the kitchen will be 80-85 F.
i ground rye berries today to feed my starter. Will look forward to the results. I use multiple starters in my bread. I have a whole wheat ,a durum ,a rye and one with my apple yeast water and unbleached flour plus my qt jar of apple yeast water. I take some of each starter to get the weight I need ... say 300-400g depending on the size batch of bread I am making. Really gives a great complex flavor to the bread. Always experimenting and learning. Happy baking to you and look forward to more posts.
Nice result indeed. Could you explain the baking part? It was a bit confusing to me.
Peter- sorry that part was so terse. I think whatever procedure works for your oven for lean bread would be fine. Here’s what I did in more detail:
Preheat oven with a pizza stone in it to 475 F. The pizza stone is just to keep the oven heat more even and reduce temperature transients. I am using lightweight covered roasting pans, lightly greased, to hold the bread. Transfer the proofed dough from their baskets into the roasting pans. Slash dough. Put pans in oven. Upon doing that, the oven temp falls. In 5-10 mins, the oven is hot again. At that time, i turn it down to 425 for the rest of the bake. 20 min after loading, I remove the lid and cook until done ( about 15 min more). I find the oven spring is better with the oven very hot to begin with, but the bottom burns if the cooking element keeps cycling on.
Got it!
I still have a lot to learn on whole wheat. I can go up to 50%, but beyond I find it difficult to get it right.
peter
whole wheat is definitely a journey and I have plenty to learn too. I’ve definitely produced many dense loaves ( and I’m still not completely consistent). From what I’ve seen in your posts, you are a skilled baker, so you can do it, when you want to ?
What you achieved with whole wheat is a real beauty.
thanks, Pal. I did use an oven, so I’m way behind you on ingenuity ;-). I’m so impressed at how successful you are with improvised heat sources. So the compliment is very appreciated.
Sorry, coming to this late... Terrific looking loaf! I've been working with 100% WW as well, but with much different methodology. (For instance, much higher hydration.)
Curious about your lack of a real bench rest, like for an hour or so. Do you think that accounts for more oven spring? I usually get a good rise during my bench rest, but maybe it's not necessary?
Also, are you stretch-folding every hour during bulk ferment -- i.e., 6 times?
Thanks!
Just to clarify, I mean a bench rest after final shaping -- either before the refrigerator or before the oven.
CFitz,
Sorry, I missed your message, due to being too busy to read thefreshloaf. You've probably figured out your own method by now.
But for completeness, indeed, I just pre-shape, rest ~30 min, shape, and then into fridge for several hours. If I was baking it without refrigerating, I would rest it (supported in a basket) for about an hr, depending on how hot the day was. But in reality, my schedule usually has me shaping at bed time, so I put the shaped loaf in fridge and bake the next day, either morning or dinnertime.
Stretch and fold only for the first half of bulk ferment.
-SN
I don't think you realize what a huge accomplishment this bread is. The lovely open crumb and thin crust...Truly spectacular, and I bet it tastes as good as it looks. Bookmarked for inspiration.
Jess,
I took a break from TheFreshloaf for the last few months and just saw this. You would not believe how many experiments it took to get
to that loaf of bread with any consistency. I hope you are having fun with your own ww journey. For me, because I like the taste of ww, it
was worth getting the texture to where the fam wouldn't complain ;-).
-SN
When you refresh your refrigerated starter you used a 1:2:2 ratio. Could you explain?
1:2:2 refresh means, by weight take 1 part starter and mix with 2 parts flour and 2 parts water. In this post, i say it is 100% starter- meaning the starter itself is 1:1 flour and water.
Hi, I just got a mockmill and want to try making 100% whole wheat bread. I just began my starter by combining 200g water with 200g fresh milled flour. It seems pretty thick!
I was wondering if you have made any changes to your process for your standard bread, or should I follow this recipe once the starter is alive?
Love400 - The ideas in this blog post still work for me. But, with all due respect, you are best off starting from a recipe in a book before going following something like my posting here. It really helps to read some background material before setting out.
When you get started, post to the general area and nice people will help you get the details right. This is truly the last nice place on the internet.
Final thing, make a much smaller starter- like 50 grams of flour plus 50 water. You don’t want to go through a tremendous amount of flour just developing an active starter.