Bread Diaries: Getting back into it with Whole Wheat Sourdough

I haven’t been making sourdough in a long time. It’s a time consuming habit that is hard if you are juggling never being home + work + scheduling in general. What can I say, adult life got in the way. And like all good adults, I would like to blame my boyfriend and my parents (spoiler: It’s not their fault). However, it is something I dearly miss.

So with all the new year resolutions of becoming skinner and working out more, I would like to add mine into the mix – get fatter by making more sourdough bread (all though I only ended up posting this in April, I did bake and write most of it in January).

Another reason, I haven’t made more bread and posted on here more is I have become quite a perfectionist about it all. If the images or recipe are not 'Ina Garten fool proof', I don’t post. So here in the opposite spirit, and giving less f*’s, I am introducing a new column: Bread Diaries.

Notes on a recipe in real time, with all the mistakes and thoughts as I go.

It’ll hopefully also get me out of the rut of trying to perfect the same bread recipe over and over again, which is the current boredom circle I have been in. Here is to an evolution of recipes, and trying new things out.

The original recipe is the Classic Sourdough Bread Recipe using British Flour which can be found on the blog.

All my notes and comments of how I made this particular loaf today are in italics through out the recipe.

Day 1

11pm: Feed starter.

Day 2

9am: Make Levain. Mix 50g starter + 25g Rye Flour + 75g Bread Flour + 85g water at 29c. Wait for this to double in size, this will take about 3 hours.

1:30pm: Levain is ready, make the dough. First mix together 525g water at 29c + all the Levain made.

Then add in 600g Bread flour. Mix with chopstick until incorporated. Next, add in 200g white plain flour. Next, add in 200g whole meal flour.

Mix until fully incorporated. If it's not incorporating, wait 5 minutes, and come back to it. This gives the flour time to absorb the water.

Instead of the usual 800g bread flour, I decided to add more flavor in with whole wheat flour. It was this impulsive change and thought that started this all. What was the worst that could happen, I thought? Turns out a lot – but more on that later.

Flour combination being: 600g bread flour, 200 white plain, 200g whole wheat.

Also to note I did this step at 1:30pm, and not noon like I was suppose to because life got in the way. By this point I have lost track of following the designated recipe timings.

1:50pm: the above steps take about 20 mins.

This step and the upcoming water steps took much longer thanks to the whole meal flour.

2:00pm (10 minutes later): Mix in 50g water.

Because of the whole meal flour, I already anticipated this to need more water than usual. There is an increase of 10g water in both ‘regular water feedings’.

Did I do any research into this? No. Should I have? In hindsight, yes.

2:10pm (10 minutes later): Mix in 40g water.

At this point the dough is still dry. Like flaky dry. So I decided to add more water as per the below in additional water sections, resulting in 4 water add-ons instead of the usual 2. This also increased working time.

For the next loaf I make I would add more water in the initial mix, rather than these extra add-ons wasting time if using whole meal again.

3rd water add-on: 30g

4th water add-on: 30g

Also in a stroke of genius or insanity, instead of using fresh water, I poured water into the levain mix jar, and poured out of there. Reduced clean up later + more sourdough goodness.

3:30pm (1h later): Mix in 20g salt + 40g water.

4:00pm (30 minutes later): First stretch and fold.

At this point the dough is a hot mess. She is now too wet, and still very stiff. Nothing elastic, and definatly no window panes. I barely stretch and fold to reduce tearing, in any of these stretch and folds, and even increase time between to 45 minutes, rather than 30 minutes.

4:15pm (45 minutes later): Second stretch and fold.

5:00pm (45 minutes later): Third and final stretch and fold. Start bulk fermentation.

9:30pm (about 4.5 hours later): Bulk fermentation completed. You are looking for it to rise about 40%. Shaped into desired loaf shape and put into banneton.

The dough was much too wet, and did not rise enough.

No clue on time anymore: Shaping takes about 15 minutes. Let the dough rest at room temperature for 30 minutes in the bannetons. When making half the dough amount I don't find this step as essential as when making two loaves.

After I split the dough in half for shaping, the 2 halves behaved very differently. One was normal to shape, the other one much more difficult. I added more rice flour to the one more difficult to shape to try and manage the wetness. This did kind of help.

For the banneton's, since I ran out of rice flour fixing the above, I used semolina instead. I did prefer this taste and texture wise, so would do again. Also, can't be bothered to buy more rice flour.

Even later: Bench rest completed. Put bannetons into fridge.

Day 3

8am: Pre-heat oven and cast-iron pan with lid for 30 minutes at 250c. Non-fan setting.

8:30am: Take bread out of the fridge. Cut line. Without burning yourself, place into pan, close lid and place into oven. Turn the oven down to 240c.

8:50am (20 minutes later): Remove lid from pan. Turn oven down to 220c.

9:10am (20 minutes later): Take cooked bread from oven. Repeat the last 4 steps for the second loaf.

Making this was fun, and I am glad I got back into it. The taste of the whole wheat does make it taste healthier, but is just as tasty. I would make again.

With this all being said, I can't believe I made this in January.... and it's already mid April... and I still haven't made another bread nor posted this yet. New year's resolution does not seem to be going well...