75% Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

This 75% whole wheat bread is so flavorful, and it actually gets more tasty over a couple of days. It's wonderful when spread with lots of good salted butter, as toast, and spread with soft herbed cheese.

The crumb of this bread is a little more dense than most high hydration loaves. That is because of the high percentage of whole wheat.

Whole wheat contains bran, which is nutritious, but also cuts through the gluten strands in the dough, preventing the very large holes you would normally get in a loaf with a higher percentage of white flour.

That doesn't mean it isn't delicious. It has a wonderful nutty, wheat-y flavor and it was perfect for grilled cheese.





This week the From Our Dinner Table group is cooking from our favorite cookbooks. I have a crazy amount of cookbooks, but I immediately turned to Ken Forkish's book, Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza.

I've been baking my way through the book since 2013, yet there was only one bread formula I hadn't tried. This one! It was time to finish my quest.

This is the book that taught me how to make wonderful artisan bread by hand. As the liner notes say, "it offers a complete baking education."

Where Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson, the artisan bread baker's holy grail and cult favorite, can be intimidating (20 pages for one recipe, which I finally conquered), Ken Forkish's book is totally accessible.

Plus, the author has a wonderful story about how he gave up his Silicon Valley career, went to baking school, moved to Portland, and opened a bakery, and five years later, a pizza shop.

As a fan girl, I actually made a pilgrimage to his bakery when visiting Portland. At the time he even had a wonderful new upscale restaurant called Trifecta, so we went there one night for dinner. My husband told the waiter that I had a bread blog and was a big fan, and the next thing you know, they brought me a gift of gorgeous crusty rolls and homemade butter to take home. Sigh....

I need to mention too that Ken Forkish also wrote another book, The Elements of Pizza: Unlocking the Secrets to World-Class Pies at Home, which, of course, I immediately bought and love.

I've also baked my way through two other cookbooks, The Bread Baker's Apprentice, and Artisan Bread Every Day, both by Peter Reinhart. These books taught me how to laminated dough, make amazing Panettone, and work with rye. Plus, I learned all about Struan bread, which is Peter Reinhart's multigrain loaf that varies from cookbook to cookbook. I highly recommend all of Peter Reinhart's books. I have them all.

I will admit to having 57 bread books in my collection, and I'm not ashamed. I'm getting pickier these days, and rarely buy new ones. However, I just fell for and bought New World Sourdough: Artisan Techniques for Creative Homemade Fermented Breads; With Recipes for Birote, Bagels, Pan de Coco, Beignets, and More by Bryan Ford. The book, and Bryan's story, is captivating. I can't wait to bake from it.

Note: My only issue with Ken Forkish's formula is the amount of starter you have to discard. He's pretty aggressive on that front. Plus, his starter is 80 percent hydration. For a while I was maintaining two starters, one at 80 percent, and one at 100 percent (100 percent is kind of standard).

I've since figured out how to pull out some of my 100 percent hydration starter, build up just enough for his formulas, and not have to throw too much away.

I would recommend starting with his formula so you can learn his method, and then play around with it to make it your own. P.S. He has a chapter on that too!

The photo above is from my first bake from the book. It was the recipe for Overnight Country Blonde, which is on the cover of the book. It was a very proud moment.

Favorite Cookbook Recipes

• 75% Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread by Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Beef Noodle Salad Bowls by Making Miracles
• Charleston Receipts Hot Slaw by Palatable Pastime
• Cucumber Cashew Salad by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Everything But The Bagel Avocado Chicken by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Oat Nut Bread by That Recipe
• Peach Cream Dessert Sauce by The Freshman Cook

We share Recipes From Our Dinner Table! Join our group and share your recipes, too! While you're at it, join our Pinterest board, too!

This formula makes one loaf, but it can easily be doubled to make two loaves. It's a mixed method recipe, meaning it included both a sourdough starter and yeast in the final dough.

75% Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

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Yield: 16 servings

Author: Karen Kerr

This 75% whole wheat bread is so flavorful, and it actually gets more tasty over a couple of days. It's wonderful when spread with lots of good salted butter, as toast, and spread with soft herbed cheese.

Ingredients:

For the Sourdough Starter (Levain)

• 50 grams active starter (fed about 24 hours ago)
• 200 grams bread flour
• 50 grams whole wheat flour
• 200 grams water at 85 degrees F. 

For the Final Dough

• 45 grams bread flour
• 355 grams whole wheat flour
• 330 grams water
• 10.5 grams fine sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 180 grams of the sourdough starter/levain

Instructions:

To Make the Levain

1. Mix the starter with the bread flour, whole wheat flour, and water by hand until incorporated. 
2. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 6 to 8 hours. 

To Make the Final Dough

1. Mix the bread flour and whole wheat flour in a large bowl or dough rising bucket. 
2. Add the water and mix by hand until incorporated. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
3. Add the salt and yeast to the dough and then add the 180 grams of the levain/starter. Mix with a wet hand by pinching the dough and folding it alternatively. When pinching the dough you  are trying to dissolve all of the salt and yeast grains.
4. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, and then stretch and fold it. Wait 30 minutes more, stretch and fold the dough again. Wait another 30 minutes, and stretch and fold the dough. Cover and let rise until 3 1/2 to 4 hours more, until it reaches 2 1/2 times its original volume.
5. Gently turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Dust a tea towel with flour and place it in a banneton.
6. Shape the dough into a ball and place it seam side down on the work surface. Let it rest for 10 minutes.
7. Reshape the ball to tighten it up with a bench scraper and place it in the banneton, seam side down (or up, if you want to slash the dough).
8. Proof the dough overnight, covered with plastic wrap, in the refrigerator. You will able to bake the loaf straight from the refrigerator.
9. About 45 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 475 degrees F with an empty covered Dutch oven placed on the middle rack.
10. Remove the Dutch oven from the oven and remove the top. Place a piece of parchment paper over the dough and place a plate over it. Flip the dough over, remove the basket, and lift and place the loaf in the Dutch oven by using the parchment as a sling (leave the paper under the dough). Slash the dough if necessary with a lame or sharp knife. Cover the Dutch oven and place it in the hot oven. 
11. Bake the loaf covered for 30 minutes, and then uncover it and bake it for 15 to 20 minutes more, until the interior of the bread reaches 205 to 210 degrees F and the bread is a deep brown. 
12. Lift the loaf out of the Dutch oven with the parchment and cool fully on a wire rack (remove the parchment from the bottom ).

Calories
101.46

Fat (grams)
0.49

Sat. Fat (grams)
0.07

Carbs (grams)
20.49

Fiber (grams)
0.91

Net carbs
19.58

Sugar (grams)
0.09

Protein (grams)
3.42

Sodium (milligrams)
26.16

Cholesterol (grams)
0.00

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2020/08/75-percent-whole-wheat-sourdough-bread.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

Forkish, sourdough, whole wheat

Bread

American

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