Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread Recipe

This post would be better titled: How to get your weekly workout while making whole wheat sourdough bread. It makes for a long title so I opted for the simpler one above.

I don't buy ground whole wheat because it loses it's nutritional value and goes rancid very quickly. Who knows how long those bags of whole wheat flour have been sitting on the shelf at the supermarket before they are purchased by unsuspecting customers. I want freshly ground wheat, as in the the day I need to use it fresh. Demanding aren't I. I have my eye on an electric grain mill but those things don't come cheap. In the meantime I've burrowed a Prokert hand crank mill, and that's where the workout comes in.

All the posts on making sourdough bread last week (Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3, if you're curious) motivated me to try out some new recipes using freshly ground whole wheat flour. I know that properly prepared whole grains are much more healthy, but I was afraid of leaving my white flour sourdough bread comfort zone.

Afraid no more and with the crank mill in hand I started grinding 650g of whole wheat kernels for the two recipes below. I figured I could grind the flour in a few minutes but it took me close to forty-five minutes! By the end I was sweating. I was getting my butt kicked by organic hard red spring wheat and a hand mill. But there was no backing down, those grains were going to be flour. I would not be beat!

It was well worth the sweat and sore muscles. The whole wheat bread turned out fantastic. It isn't 100% whole wheat but I'm slowly getting there. Below are recipes for 30% and 50% whole wheat sourdough bread. I highly recommend hard red spring wheat flour if you can get it. It is high in protein and gluten which makes it fantastic for bread making. I purchased my wheat from Fieldstone Organics.

30% Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

800g Sourdough Starter (instructions for starter: Part 1 and Part 2)
240g freshly ground organic hard red spring wheat (whole wheat flour)
560g all purpose flour
400g water*
1 Tbsp. salt

* If your water is chlorinated let it sit overnight to allow the chlorine to evaporate.

For making the bread follow the directions on my previous post Making Sourdough Bread.

50% Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

800g Sourdough Starter (instructions for starter: Part 1 and Part 2)
400g freshly ground organic hard red spring wheat (whole wheat flour)
400g all purpose flour
400g water*
1 Tbsp. salt

* If your water is chlorinated let it sit overnight to allow the chlorine to evaporate.

For making the bread follow the directions on my previous post Making Sourdough Bread.

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