_molyso - Sorta Whole-Wheat Sour Dough

Shocking to almost no one, my relationship with sourdough began in early 2020, when New York City went into lockdown. Finally, enough time for me to obsess over the trial and error that is this very finicky baking process. As a person trying to work on their anxiety and by proxy, perfectionism, obsessing over things that may go wrong is something I’m pretty good at.

And believe me, I did. Over time, I committed every bread baking sin you could think of: flat loaves, overproofed loaves, undercooked loaves, you get it. I convinced myself my inability to produce Instagram-worthy loaves 100% of the time made me a bad person. But I made myself eat every loaf I made. And you know what? They all tasted great. Despite my mistakes, I still ended up with bread. And all bread is delicious. 

With that realization, I gave myself permission to have fun with my baking. To enjoy the process as a form of meditation, to experiment with add-ins and alternative flours and most importantly, not take it all too seriously. Even if the process didn’t go as planned, I would still end up with bread. And I can’t stress this enough, I love bread.

The recipe below gives you the impressive crunchy crust and tang of a traditional boule, but with the deep flavors of whole wheat. Adapted from a great no-knead recipe from King Arthur baking, it calls for more starter than usual, but the process is more streamlined and less stressful in my opinion. Baking with whole wheat can be tricky and creates a denser crumb, but I would encourage you to give it a try. At the end, you still end up with bread. 

Ingredients

• 450g (3 1/2 cups) bread flour (AP in a pinch)

• 150g (1 1/2 cups) whole wheat flour

• 227g (1 cup) sourdough starter, recently fed

• 397g (1 3/4 cups) lukewarm water

• 18g (1 tbsp) salt

Instructions

1. Mix everything together to make a sticky, rough dough. Because whole wheat soaks up more water, you may need to add more water as you go (slowly) until you get a good shaggy consistency.

2. Leave the dough in the bowl, lightly covered and let it rise for 1 hour.

3. After an hour, fold the dough "edges" into its middle. (motion reference) Repeat this a few times, cover it again, and rise for another hour.

4. Repeat the folding process two more times (a total of 3 hours), refrigerating the bowl after your final folds. Let the dough rest for at least 8 hours, up to 48.

5. When you're ready to bake, turn the dough out onto a floured work surface, and roughly shape it to the vessel you're baking it in (round, log, etc).

6. Lightly grease the inside of that vessel, line it with parchment or dust the inside with semolina. Place the dough inside, cover it with a lid and let it come to room temperature. (About 2 hours.)

7. An hour before you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 500°F

8. Just before baking, dust the loaf with a fine coat of flour and use a sharp knife to make a 1/2” deep slash through its top surface.

9. Put the lid back on your vessel and place it in the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 450°F and bake for 45 minutes.

10. Remove the lid after 45 minutes and bake for 10 to 15 minutes longer, until the bread is golden and crusty, (If you use a digital thermometer, the inside should be at least 210°F.)

11. Take the bread out of the oven (and the vessel when you can) and let it cool completely. 

Back to Recipes