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I am really excited to be able to put together a photo tutorial on baking 100% Whole Wheat Sourdough bread which I posted up on the blog site, but I wanted to put a more detailed recipe here to explain how I got so excited about the process, who inspired me and how I finally created the perfect loaf.

I want to thank the folks over at Sourdough Home for inspiring me to work with 100% Whole Wheat when other’s said it might be too hard.  I also received amazing information and support from the great people at the Fresh Loaf website and especially was inspired by this wild yeast sourdough starter posted by SourdoLady.  Katie over at Kitchen Stewardship also had a great instructional post on creating a starter and the lovely Jenny from The Nourished Kitchen had us create a sourdough starter in her Real Food Challenge.  I was ready! I was willing!  …but was I able?

When I started to experiment with my sourdough starter, I fell in love with the aliveness of it, and I have kept it out on my counter at all times, feeding it daily and making bread when it was full and ripe with wild and crazy yeast.  I went out in search of a great bread that had a nice rise and did not include packaged yeast.  My first major discovery was the amazing ramblings of S. John Ross who really seemed to get what I was looking for.

What i was looking for was a bread that would replace my kid’s favorite store bought bread, which is a 100% whole wheat potato bread.  Granted, it’s healthy, and soft and easy to buy, but I really wanted to create a healthy home made bread that would be BETTER than the store bought kind and that my kids would love.  I also wanted to use sourdough so that I wouldnt have to worry about phytic acid if I used a Long Slow rising and retarding process….OOOPPPSSS…I am using big words that many might not know…don’t worry, I will share them all with you and all the information is below so afterwards, YOU TOO can be a sourdough and baking expert! (Actually…after looking at the Fresh Loaf website, I certainly feel like a Newbie!)

Well, after searching the Fresh Loaf website for quite a while, I stumbled on this recipe by JMonkey-Sandwich Sourdough and I really kicked into gear! The recipe worked quite well, but I made some adjustments to it in order to REALLY make sure the greatest quantity of phytates, (which are anti-nutrients present in wheat and other cereal grains to stop spoilage and pests from eating them, but which also affect humans and so, really should be avoided ) were eliminated from the bread. I also wanted to make the bread as light and airy as possible, because that way my kids would eat it!

Here is the final recipe and Intstructions and then I will include the photo tutorial at the bottom of the page.

Practice makes perfect, so keep on trying and eventually you will be making sandwich bread like a pro!

A Moderate Life’s 100% Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread Which Kids Love!

This recipe makes two sandwich loaves in plain old pyrex loaf pans. I never use non-stick pans because I have parrots and experience has shown that teflon and other coatings can kill a parrot when over heated, so why would I want to expose my children to that?

Ingredients

King Arthur or Trader Joes White Whole wheat flour: 1000 grams or about 8 cups

Sea Salt: 20 grams or 2.50 tsp

Water:

–If you are using a wet starter, which means you have fed it 1:1 water and flour during the building up process: 450 grams or 2 cups

–If you are using a stiff starter, which means you have fed it more flour than water and it is already like a dough: 570 grams or 2.50 cups

Whole wheat Starter: Two options

– Wet starter (1:1 flour to water in the starter) 600 grams or 2.50 cups

– Stiff starter (3 parts flour to 2 parts water in the starter) 480 grams or 2 cups

Organic Honey: 42 grams or 2 Tbs

Organic Unsalted butter: 24 grams or 2 Tbs

Autolysis

This is a fancy French word for mixing JUST the flour and the water together and letting it rest a while together.  This process, which lets the gluten strands that make bread so chewy and airy develop, is especially important with wild sourdough and whole wheat if you want to have a nice texture and a more open “crumb” (thats what the inside of the bread is called–bet you didnt know that!). So…

Mix together the flour and the water until well mixed in a large ceramic bread bowl or glass bowl. Cover with a damp towel and let sit overnight or 8 hours. DO NOT mix in the starter at this point. Wait until the morning!

Mixing, kneading and rising

Melt the butter at a low temperature on the stove and stir in the sea salt and honey until well mixed. If you are using large crystal sea salt, you might need to add a small amount of water to dissolve it better, but if it’s a little chunky still thats not a problem. Make SURE this mixture is not too hot, or you will damage your starter.

In a medium bowl, stir together your starter and the butter mixture and then immediately pour it into the flour and water that you left overnight.  The autolyzed flour will be a big lump in the bowl and you will have to stir and work the starter into that lump until its as well mixed as you can get it. Work your fingers through it (YES, you are going to have to get your hands dirty!) and break up any hard spots. Believe me, this step is well worth the effort, so take your time–you really need patience with baking wild yeast sourdough, so get used to it now!

Once the starter and flour/water are well mixed (and yes, you can add a tiny bit more water if you absolutely have to!), turn it out on a floured surface. Begin to knead the dough using the pull-fold-knead method. This is where you grab one side and pull it out as far as you can, then fold it over and press it down into the bottom layer–take the other side and pull it out and fold it over again–turn the dough and pull out both the top and bottom sides and fold over again and again until you have a tight little package and then flip it over–you will be doing this with flour covered hands and you will be adding only enough flour so the dough does not stick to the surface. I have a dough scraper to get up all the little bits. Your dough will finally feel “elastic” to you and will not have a dry or crumbly feel to it. Doing this pull and fold method helps to develop the gluten even more.

Fold the dough over on itself to create a protective “gluten cloak” which keeps the dough moist on the inside and perfect for rising.   Put a little bit of extra virgin organic olive oil into the bowl and spread it all around with your fingers. Put the dough ball, smooth side down, into the ball and swish the olive oil all over it then turn it back over. Cover the bowl with a damp dish towel and put it somewhere warmish to rise.  You can put it in an oven that has the light on, or if its very cold out, turn the oven on pre-heat for a few seconds and then turn it off and place the dough bowl in to rise.  Allow 3-4 hours for the first rise.

…and rising again…

Uncover the dough and see that it has risen a bit. Punch it down with your fist and then take it out and “refold” it a number of times, but do not add any more flour other than what is on the surface and what is on your hands to prevent sticking.  Add a bit more olive oil to the bowl, fold the dough over on itself again, coat with olive oil and put in for another 3-4 hour rise.

…and retarding…

Uncover the dough again, punch down again, fold over and over again…BUT…this time cut the dough in half and knead it a little bit by rolling it over on itself into the shape of a large egg. You can use your kitchen scale to make sure the two eggs are the same weight, which saves you from guessing and having one loaf bigger than the other.  Shape into a sandwich loaf and place it in a greased 8.5”x 4.5” pan.  Slash the loaves down the center shallowly with a sharp knife.  Cover the pans loosely with plastic wrap and place them in the refrigerator over night.

This Long Slow Cold rise in the fridge is called retarding. The yeast are still working and creating some rise, but they arent doing it quickly. This also works on converting the phytates in the wheat and making it a lot healthier for your family to eat.

...and finally…time to BAKE!

In the morning, take the pans out of the fridge and remove the plastic wrap.  If the loaves look a bit dry, spray them with a filtered water mist, but do not soak them.   Place the bread pans in the oven to warm up for 3-4 hours and complete their rise. Turn on the oven to 350F (make sure your oven temp is accurate, as mine is cooler so I have to set mine to 375!) with the loaves already in the center rack.  Bake for about 55 minutes or until the loaves are golden brown. I also pull them out at 55 minutes and stick a quick read thermometer into the center to get a reading above 180 F.

Take them out of the oven and remove them immediately from the pans to a wire rack and lay them on their sides.  You can wack the bottom with a wooden spoon to double check for doneness as they will sound hollow when wacked.

Allow to cool completely before slicing. I use a serrated knife or an electric carving knife, if you have one, to slice the bread and then store it in the refrigerator in recycled bread bags.  This bread freezes well and has a nice sour taste that is not too overpowering.

And yes…MY KIDS LOVE IT!!! I have included my original photo slide show below if you didn’t catch it on my blog. Enjoy! This article was a part of the 12 Days of Bloggie-mas!