Now that I’ve put a hold on my sourdough baking adventures, as we are ridding the house of all things flour and bread for Passover, I have more time to write about it. So sorry about the timing, but such is life! After many months of experimentation, I can now happily write How To Bake Whole Wheat Sourdough With Success: Six Key Factors, as I’ve tasted that success, and it is truly so very very wonderful! I’ve also written How To Feed A Crowd With Home Baked Whole Wheat Sourdough, after my bulk baking adventures for Purim, but first get your sourdough performing really well, then think about baking for others.
There are six key factors that are very important when you venture into baking sourdough, and especially important if you want consistent results, which I surely do! So while I can’t say I’m a very experienced sourdough baker, I do believe I’ve put in the work, and have been getting rave reviews from all those who have sampled the recent results! So friends, do take my advice and reach that heavenly feeling of success with hopefully less trial and error than I experienced, and no total into the garbage flops, which also happened to me. Okay, lets get to it.
Sourdough Success Key Factor #1: Make Sure Your Starter Is Active
Since I am baking once a week, my starter lives in the fridge until the night before I plan to start the sourdough baking process. I feed my sourdough starter with whole grain rye flour only, which means that my “whole wheat sourdough” is actually 20% rye, which is a fun fact. If you get your starter from someone, or even a bakery, and it has been fed something other than rye, you can certainly change over to rye, I’d recommend feeding it at least twice with the new flour choice though.
How To Make Sure Your Sourdough Starter Is Active:
• when fed the given proportion of water and flour, like 1/1/1 or 1/2/2 or 1/5/5, it should double in size. This can take a few hours or many hours depending on temperature of the room and the water you use.
• I prefer sourdough starter that is on the thick side and generally use the feeding formula of 1/5/5
• I like to use starter that has been fed the night before and then fed with a refreshment feeding the next morning. This refreshment feeding results in a “young leavan” which is sweeter and not so sour. (Is that why my bread tastes so great lately?) Once the young leavan doubles in size, which at this point should only take two to three hours (max), it is ready to use. The refreshment feeding is made using a ration of 2/1/1, meaning 200g starter, 100g flour and 100g water. This refreshment feeding is likely a step most bakers are not doing, but it is mentioned in the famous Tartine sourdough baking cookbook, so I think they know what they are talking about. Others say that as long as the starter that rose overnight has maintained its height and not fallen you can bake with it. Hmmm?
Sourdough Success Key Factor #2: Hydration
Not every flour is created equal by any means, and especially when it comes to whole wheat or whole grain flour. Whole wheat flour absorbs more water than white flour, and how much exactly varies from flour to flour. How much water is used in a recipe is called “hydration” and this is generally referred to as hydration percentage. Meaning a given recipe is 70% hydration, 80% hydration, or even more. The more hydration the more difficult and sticky the dough is to handle, yet the more hydration the more open the crumb. An “open crumb” is when there are many air bubbles, but don’t expect to have even the results shown in this photo with whole wheat, just go for nicely dispersed tiny air pockets and loaves that rise, regardless of the look once cutting the loaf open.
The photo here (above) was made with a recipe that called for 80% hydration, meaning a recipe that calls for 400g of water per 500g of flour, not including the leavan/starter. Experienced bakers do a test with any new flour to see how much water the flour can handle, and then do a window pane test after an hour. You can look this up, I won’t go into it, just wanted you to be aware of this factor. I’ll admit I never actually tested the flour, rather did tests with the recipe and baking a smaller quantity, like 1 kilo of flour total. If the dough you prepare is not sticky at all, that is a sign that you should use more water. So either add more water next time, but in small weighed incriments, or add more water to that dough during the initial mix, but again, a weighed portion so you know exactly how you altered the recipe!
Sourdough Success Key Factor #3: Autolyse
While the notion of “autolyse” might be controversial in the world of sourdough bread baking, I’ve decided to embrace it, as it works with the baking schedule I prefer, and the results are great, so at this point I hesitate to try batches without the autolyse step. Autolyse means mixing the flour and water together without the starter and salt, and letting that sit, so that the gluten can start to develop without interference from the leavan. I do autolyse for 2 to 3 hours, depending on how quickly my starter is rising with its refreshment feeding. While some recipes call for only 40 minutes of autolyse, other recipes suggest an overnight autolyse in the fridge. I tried the overnight autolyse and the results were a flop as the dough was very very sticky, and then did not rise properly. That said, now that I have more experience I might try it again.
Of all the factors, this one is possibly the least critical, so if it doesn’t work for your schedule, don’t worry about it, or try only 40 minutes, but try it sometime!
Sourdough Success Key Factor #4: Temperature
One very very important point that seems to be often overlooked, is that the whole process of sourdough baking is dependent on temperature at almost every step!
Starter and Temperature: The temperature of the water you use, as well as the temperature of the room or location will affect how quickly the starter doubles in size. If you are doing an overnight feed, you want things to go slowly, so use cold water and let sit out on the counter. If you need the starter to rise more quickly, use warm water and place in a warm location, or at the least in your oven with the light on.
Dough and Temperature: The temperature of the dough affects how quickly the dough rises, so while one can monitor volume of rise (see key factor #5) knowing the temperature of the dough can also help you calculate how long this should take, and what rise percentage you should aim for.
While I have yet to buy a thermometer to measure the temperature of my dough, I will be doing this in the future, and it is so so important!
While we do want our sourdough to rise, we don’t want this to happen too quickly, so we want to keep our dough temperature at around 76F. This temperature of course assumes that your home isn’t much hotter than that, and if so, place the dough in a cool spot, near a fan or whatever is necessary.
Use water that is no warmer 86F to result in dough that is 76F.
Sourdough Success Key Factor #5: Monitoring Dough Rise
Friends, monitoring how much your dough rises exactly is truly important in order to prevent the dough from rising too much, which is a big no-no, as then the loaves will be flat when baked. (Believe me, this has happened to me enough times to finally understand what I was doing wrong!) The overall amount of rise that we want to see is about a doubling in size, but this doubling in size also includes the the rising that happens after loaves are shaped and placed into proofing baskets. Cold proofing (see key factor #6) is my go-to final step, so I have to account for the additional rise that will happen in the fridge as the loaves cool down. So, how to monitor dough rise? Quite simple really. Take a small amount and put it in a small cup or jar with straight sides. Mark the level of the dough, and place this cup into the bowl or container with the dough. When this sample has increased by 30-50%, it is time to shape the loaves. Some people use a square container and simply mark the dough level on the container, which works for a small batch, and if you work in a square container. I use a large bowl with a lid, so taking the little sample works for me.
Sourdough Success Key Factor #6: Cold Proofing
Cold proofing means placing loaves that have been shaped and are in proofing baskets in the fridge for a period of cooling. I learned that 12-18 hours is the minimal/most successful amount of time for cold proofing, but it can be up to 24 hours. The longer the loaves are cold proofed, the more sour they will likely be.
The cold proofing period allows the yeast to break down the gluten even more, making the the resulting sourdough bread much more easily digestible. Many find that while most bread causes them pain and digestion issues, sourdough bread does not.
The cold proofing also means that loaves are cold before baking meaning scoring and especially decorative scoring is much much easier.
During the cold proofing period the loaves will continue to rise, as the dough cools, so to avoid “over proofing” meaning loaves that have risen too much and will therefore fall flat when baked, don’t let your dough rise more than 50% before shaping and placing in baskets. If it is warm in your kitchen and your dough temperature is warm, meaning it will take longer to cool down once in the fridge, stop the rising at 30% roughly. See key factor #5 for more info.
Okay friends, I hope all this information has not confused you too much, but rather been helpful in your own sourdough baking journey! Everyone’s success is relative and everyone’s results will be different, but do plan on spending a good few months experimenting and failing before it all falls into place.
Happy sourdough baking!
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