100% whole grain loaf help

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Cristina on 7 Mar 2019 at 07:40

Hi - I am a relatively new sourdough baker. I have successfully made AP flour loaves, and half AP flour/half white whole wheat loaves.  My crumb is not spectacular (I don't get those big holes), but they taste great and everyone in the family loves to eat them! I've been using variations of the KA flour recipe:

https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/naturally-leavened-sourdough-bread-recipe

I would like to try a 100% (or nearly so) whole grain loaf.  I've made a couple attempts at using all white whole wheat flour loaves using the above recipe (I upped hydration to about 80%) and the loaves turned out pretty dense with a very close crumb structure. So anyway, here are my questions...

1) A recipe suggestion for using white whole wheat flour (I think this is the whole grain that is most family friendly)?

2) Or does anyone suggest that I try a different whole grain, like rye?

3) Do I need to convert my AP flour starter to the whole grain that I'm using for the bread?

4) Any other tips that will help make this successful?

And another question somewhat unrelated to the above:

5) I've been looking at other recipes (like the 1-2-3 sourdough recipe) and many of them call for a much smaller amount of starter than I've been using in the KAF recipe linked above.  What are the reasons (advantages/disadvantages) of using smaller vs larger amounts of starter?

Thank you!

Cristina

For a 100% whole wheat bread, I suggest leaving behind this recipe and finding a completely different recipe that's built for the job. It's not simple or easy to tweak the wrong recipe. It is easy to find a new one.

This can be a big (and worthwhile) challenge, so be patient and keep at it.

In addition to checking out great threads like this one from txfarmer:

http://weightloss-slim.fit/node/21575/sourdough-100-whole-wheat-oatmeal-sandwich-bread-whole-grain-breads-can-be-soft-too%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E%3Cp%3EI wouldn't worry too much about THE best formula, I'd work on technique and your ability to judge what is going on and what is required.  But FWIW, here is one I have been using:

I'd stick with whole wheat...using a reliable quality flour with reasonably high protein and a fine texture (I use Central Milling Organic Hi-Pro Fine).

I use the same starter for all my breads, including 100% whole wheat and 100% whole rye.

I shot myself in the foot for a long time, following the advice of long autolyse, long fermentation, thinking the whole grain flour needed it...but actually what mine needed was well developed gluten, from further mixing...but the long autolyse and long ferment (with an overnight shaped retard) was weakening the gluten and letting the fragile and leaky dough sit too long.  It is now the last thing I mix on my mix day, the longest mixed, and the shortest proof (it keeps going at low temps more than white doughs).  It has been doing much better lately!

Thank you all for the advice.  I think I'm going to try the whole wheat oatmeal sandwich bread from the txfarmer thread.  Do you foresee any problems with substituting white whole wheat for the whole wheat flour?  I have an ABUNDANCE of the KAF WWW flour that I would like to use up.  

 

No problems with that substitution...if you have a lot of that flour, use it, keep using it, and get to know how it works