An amazing and healthy whole-grain bread that is flavorful, very filling, and not dense! It's quite soft and has a delicious and sturdy crust. It's great with peanut butter or in any sandwich applications! Unlike an open crumb sourdough no butter should leak through this bad boy :D. This is not an easy recipe, so don't try it if you're a beginner sourdough baker.
The original recipe is from this YouTube tutorial which I highly recommend watching before trying this recipe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGTYDQQSd54
The recipe is here, and pictures of the process are below:
Ingredients:
70 g whole wheat sourdough starter
325 g whole wheat flour (I use Roger's or Robin Hood brand)
270 g water
7.5 g uniodized salt
Directions:
Day 1 (at night):
Sift the bran out of the flour. Cover the sifted flour and set aside. Grind the bran in a coffee grinder or something similar until it's less sharp and more like a flour.
Add 100 g water to the bran and mix together. Cover. Let the bran soak overnight.
Day 2:
Notes: I fed my starter 2x a day (every 12 hours) at a 1:1:1 ratio for 2 days before starting this recipe, which gave me an idea of how long it takes to reach it's peak rise for the recipe. My room temperature from step 1 to step 15 was between 68-70°F. Be aware that your fermentation time might change depending on the room temperature. Here are the steps with a tentative time table (feel free to adjust):
7 a.m. Feed your sourdough starter at 100% hydration and a 1:1:1 ratio, e.g. 30g:30g:30g. Cover and rest, you'll add it to the dough when it's at its peak rise.
7 a.m. In a medium mixing bowl mix together sifted flour, bran with water, and 160 g water (mine was ~82°F) until no dry flour remains (the dough will be stiff). Cover and rest, this is an autolyse. Total autolyse and starter rise time: 4 hours.
11 a.m. Once the starter is at it's peak, add 70 g starter to the autolyzed flour + water. Then use stretch and folds and kneading to completely combine the starter with the dough for 6 minutes.
Cover and rest 30 minutes at room temperature (mine was 69°F).
11:30 a.m. Sprinkle the salt over the dough and add 10 g water. Use wet hands to dimple the salt into the dough and once folded in mix and/or knead for 6 minutes until the salt is completely combined.
Cover and rest 30 minutes at room temperature (mine was 70°F).
12 p.m. Take the dough out and do a strong fold (4 folds) on a clean countertop. Then shape back into a ball and put back in the bowl.
Cover and rest 30 minutes at room temperature (mine was 69°F).
12:30 p.m. Perform a lamination. Take the dough onto a clean surface and stretch in to the largest rectangle you can, stretching out from the inside of the dough, not pulling too hard on the outer edges. This takes time, about 3-5 minutes and be patient. Try not to create areas that tear or are too thin. Then fold like a letter and roll it up tightly without tearing the dough. Place, seam side down, in a clean Pyrex or glass (heavy bottom) dish.
Cover and rest 90 minutes at room temperature (mine was 70°F).
2:00 p.m. Do a coil fold (see video linked above).
Cover and rest 1 hour at room temperature (mine was 70°F).
3:00 p.m. Lightly dust the counter with flour. Flip the glass Pyrex dish upside down and let the dough fall out on it's own. Then shape the dough into a boule or batard (use YouTube as a reference). Place the loaf top side down in a banneton that's been well floured with rice flour. Dust the top (bottom of the dough which is facing up) with rice flour.
Cover and rest 1 to 1.5 hours at room temperature (mine was 68-70°F), or until it passes the finger poke test in multiple locations (poke a finger in about 1/2 a cm or 1/4 inch and if it slowly springs back and leaves a slight dent it's ready but if it doesn't spring back it's gone too far and if it springs back quickly and fully it's too early.)
4 to 4:30 p.m. Place the covered banneton in a refrigerator on a lower shelf for 12-18 hours (i did 18 hours, my fridge was 37-40°F).
Day 3:
Morning or early afternoon: Place the Dutch oven in an oven on the middle rack. Optional: Cover the oven's heat vent or steam vent (mine's the left back burner) of the oven with a heavy cast iron pan to trap in more heat.
Preheat the oven to 500°F. Once it reaches 500°F let it continue heating for 30-45 minutes before you add the loaf in.
Once the oven is very hot, take the dough out of the fridge and flip top side up onto prepared parchment paper (see picture below). Quickly score the loaf, remove the Dutch oven from the oven, and lower the bread in side. Optional but recommended: use a spray bottle to spray the inside of the Dutch oven several times to create steam. Quickly cover the Dutch oven with a lid and return to the oven.
Bake 15 minutes.
Quickly remove the Dutch oven lid and if your loaves tend to burn on the bottom place a thick baking tray on the lower shelf to avoid this issue (and also remove steam vent cover if using). Lower the oven temperature to 450°F.
Bake another 20-30 minutes uncovered, and if it browns too much lightly cover it with tin foil.
Immediately remove the loaf, once baked, onto a wire rack and let cool 3-4 hours before cutting into.
Store the loaf in an airtight container for up to 5 days at room temperature or in the freezer for up to 1 month. I like to place it in a large Ziploc bag and suck the air out for both storage methods.
Makes 1 loaf, feel free to double the recipe but split the dough in half before the lamination stage!
Sift the bran and separate it from the flour (Day 1, step 1)
Then grind the bran into a finer texture (day 1, step 1)
Mix some water into the bran (day 1, step 2).
Cover both the sifted flour and soaking bran and let rest overnight.
Day 2:
What the bran looks like the next morning.
Feed the starter (day 2, step 1). This is what mine looked like right after feeding.
Then you'll mix the autolyse mixture of the soaked bran, sifted flour, and water (day 2, step 2)
After mixing the autolyse mixture (day 2, step 2).
Then let the autolyse mixture and starter rest until the starter is at its peak (day 2, step 2-3).
The starter has risen to its peak (day 2, step 3), so we can add it to the dough.
What the autolysed flour mixture looked like when the starter was ready.
Add the risen starter to the autolysed mixture (day 2, step 3). Then knead/combine it well.
After mixing in the starter very well (day 2, step 3).
After covering and resting 30 minutes (day 2, step 4).
Then we add the salt and some water (day 2, step 5).
After mixing in the salt very well (day 2, step 5).
After covering and resting 30 minutes (day 2, step 6).
Take the dough out, next we will do a strong fold (day 2, step 7).
After doing the strong fold (day 2, step 7).
Shape into a ball and return to the bowl (day 2, step 7).
After covering and resting 30 minutes (day 2, step 8).
Take the dough out, it's time to do a lamination! (day 2, step 9).
Stretch into a thin square (day 2, step 9).
Fold one side over (like a letter) (day 2, step 9).
Fold the other side up, like a letter (day 2, step 9).
Roll it up (day 2, step 9).
And place, seam side down, in a clean pyrex dish (day 2, step 9). Now it has to rest 90 minutes (day 2, step 10).
After resting 90 minutes (day 2, step 10). As you can see it's grown! But not a lot, since it also flattened. Next we do a coil fold in the container.
After the coil fold (day 2, step 11). Then rest for 1 hour (day 2, step 12).
After resting 1 hour (day 2, step 12). Next we will do the final shape.
Dump the dough out (day 2, step 13)
Shape into a boule like you see here, or a batard (day 2, step 13).
Side view.
Flour the dough and place it top side down in a floured banneton, and flour the bottom (facing up) (day 2, step 13). Next we'll cover and let it rest one more time.
After about 1.5 hours (90 min) my dough passed the finger test and was ready! (day 2, step 14).
Cover the dough and refrigerate overnight (day 2, step 15).
Day 3:
Right before baking, the dough looked like this, it did rise a little in the refrigerator.
Right before baking.
After baking covered and then uncovering. Not great oven spring but that's normal with a 100% whole wheat!
After baking! Immediately remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
After cooling.
Decent ovenspring! The crumb structure (see the top of the post) was not bad either! I am very impressed with this recipe since this 100% wholewheat is not dense like with other recipes :D