Recipe: Ancient Grain Sourdough
We recommend 100% wholegrain ancient grain flour for this recipe
Note: Levain = Strong Starter :)
Organic flour and filtered water are recommended.
All Starters in these recipes are made from wholegrain flour.
Temperature is room temperature (approximately 20C - 22C)
Ancient Sourdough - spelt, khorasan, emmer, purple wheat, rye
| Units = grams | Units = grams |
| 100% wholegrain flour - 1 loaf | 100% wholegrain flour - 2 loaves |
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| Seeds - 1 loaf | Seeds - 2 loaves |
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| Other seed combinations - 1 loaf | Other seed combinations - 2 loaves |
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Note: Keep aside some starter (20g) and..
Feed with 60g flour + 40g water to continue your starter/levain!
1. Prepare seed mixture
- add 40g linseeds to a small bowl
- add 40g boiling water and rest for at least 30 minutes (refrigerate if possible)
- add 40g sunflower seeds
2. Autolyse with salt
- add filtered water to a large mixing bowl
- dissolve salt in water
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add flour
- mix until all ingredients are evenly wet
- add water if required until a soft ball of dough is roughly formed
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rest mixture for 30 minutes
3. Knead or fold seeds into dough
- gently incorporate cooled seeds into dough
4. Bulk proof
- rest mixture for 3 - 5 hours, until a moderate (e.g 50%) rise is noticed
- for stronger flours (spelt) fold one to two times during bulk proof period
5. Shape
- gently fold and/or roll dough to desired shape
6. Final rise in banneton or tin
- 8- 16 hours refrigerated
- 2-5 hours at room temperature
7. Bake
- use a Dutch oven if possible
- 20 minutes at 230C covered
- 20 minutes at 200C uncovered
- bake an extra 10 minutes if required (evenly hollow sound when tapped underneath)
8. Cool
- at least 2 hours until cutting into loaf
Notes:
Calculations for this recipe are made using baker's percent.
Baker's Percent measures an ingredient as a percentage of ALL flour (starter flour + dough flour) in the recipe.
Dough hydration
The first time you bake with an unknown flour go stiffer. Gradually increase water content over a few bakes to determine the best performing hydration.
Wholegrain flour absorbs more water than white flour, but can create a more enzyme-active, less consistent dough; particularly the bespoke type of flour that we love.
These recipes hover around 65% hydration due to potential flour inconsistencies when working with bespoke flours. With more commercial flours you may discover 70% or higher hydration is possible.
Keep in mind that bread is generally more flavoursome with less water.
Final dough hydration
The single loaf ancient grain dough contains:
40g levain water + 225g fresh water = 265g total water
60g levain flour + 350g fresh flour = 410g total flour
The total final dough hydration is (225/350) x 100 = 64.3% hydration
Starter/Levain: why wholegrain flour?
Wholegrain flour starter adds texture, body, improves mouthfeel, nourishment, fibre, and reduces glycemic load. When lighter flour is used for the loaf, wholegrain levains add a beautiful 'fleck' to the final loaf.
Wholegrain starters ferment faster and are ready sooner than white flour starters. When made stiff they stay active and useable for many hours after they mature.
Almost any wholegrain flour type is suitable (wheat, spelt, khorasan, etc).
Bread flour: white flour vs sifted wholegrain flour
Roller-milled white bakers flour is a strange beast for sourdough baking. It generally ferments more slowly than stoneground sifted 'light' flour. The latter is preferred as it ferments well and is a more complete flour (germ and some bran are often present).
Wholegrain flour (especially freshly milled flour) can radically change the behaviour of your dough. Not just because of lower protein levels (by ratio), but also because of other characteristics, particularly the flour falling number.
A low falling number occurs when wet or sprouted grain develops high alpha-amylase activity, which rapidly breaks starch into sugars such as maltose. This type of flour will make your dough sticky and structurally unstable (falls apart) even at low quantities (10%).