Sourdough Bread

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: MODERATE

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5 from 1 vote

Sourdough Bread

A hearty, super-delicious Pain au Levain for all occasions (except Passover). 

Keyword Levain, Sourdough, White

Prep Time 5 hours hours

Cook Time 38 minutes minutes

Autolyse 30 minutes minutes

Total Time 6 hours hours 8 minutes minutes

Servings 4 Loaves

Ingredients

Liquid Levain – made 12 hours before adding to final dough

• 148 g Bread Flour ABC+ 11.5% Malted white flour
• 185 g Water
• 30 g Mature liquid starter Sourdough starter

Rye Levain – made 12-16 hours before adding to final dough

• 148 g Whole-rye flour I use fresh milled rye
• 122 g Water
• 7 g Mature liquid starter

Final dough

• 1382 g Bread Flour ABC+
• 145 g Whole Wheat Flour I use fresh milled red whole wheat
• 935 g Water
• 33 g Salt
• 327 g Liquid Levain (aged 12 hours) *Notice this is a little less than what you made
• 265 g Rye Levain (aged 12-16 hours) *Notice this is a little less than what you made

Instructions

• Make the liquid levain 12 hours beforehand and the rye levain 12-16 hours beforehand. 
• Add all ingredients the following day *EXCEPT* for the salt. Mix on speed 2 (KitchenAid) for a few minutes or until you have a shaggy mass with no dry bits left. Do not try to develop the gluten. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.
• Add the 33g of salt and resume mixing on speed 2 until you get weak gluten development. This will take about 4-5 minutes and would be considered a “Short Mix”. Check that the dough is around 75F.
• Cover and allow to ferment for 2 hours, 45 minutes.  During the fermentation, fold the dough every 45 minutes (three times total).
• Divide the dough into pieces. I do 3 pieces at 750g each for loaf pans and one larger 850g piece for a boule. You have about 3.1kg to work with so divide any way you choose.
• Place divided dough into pans or proofing baskets as desired. Allow to ferment another 2-2.5 hours at 75F. Proofing is done when a floured finger gently pressed into the dough springs back slowly.
• Place in 450F oven. Incorporate steam for the first 20 minutes. Total bake time is 34-40 minutes or until the loaves sound hollow when tapped.

Notes

*FOR SPIRAL MIXERS: 5 minutes at speed 1. Autolyse 30 minutes. Add Salt. 2 minutes at speed 2. Fold 3 times at 45 minute intervals.

Sometimes the simple things in life are the best, and this bread is no exception to that rule. It has a lot of flavor without being overly acidic and the crumb is super-moist and tender with just the right amount of chewiness. Yes, it uses two kinds of levain, but that’s what gives it the distinctive flavor and aroma that keeps you coming back for more. You’ll never use a different sourdough recipe after you try this one (and your family may forbid you from trying).

As with all my recipes that use whole grains, I mill my own – I strongly recommend you do the same. The flavor is unbeatable, as is the nutritional value and convenience of having whole grain flour on demand. For this bread, I mill rye for the liquid starter the night before and mill whole wheat berries the day of to put in the final dough.

Although I love fresh milled flour, you can just as easily use store bought whole wheat and rye flours without issue.

Assuming you have sourdough starter ready to use, make the white flour and rye levain. After about 12 hours, the white flour levain should look like poolish, super-bubbly and with no sign of collapse. The rye levain, by contrast, should look domed and more dry.

Now add all the ingredients in your mixing bowl EXCEPT for the salt. Mix on speed 2 long enough so there are no more dry bits left. This should only take a minute or two. This step is called autolyse and it promotes enzymatic activity that will make the dough easier to work with, will give it better flavor and will make it easier to develop the gluten without a lot of mixing (especially important for KitchenAid users). Leave the dough covered for 30 minutes during this step.

Now ADD THE SALT and continue mixing. In my picture below, you see I use a spiral mixer to mix dough. Spiral mixers are better suited for this than a KitchenAid planetary mixer, but that doesn’t mean you won’t get great bread. Just set it on Speed 2 and then check the dough after 2-3 minutes of mixing. That’s a good time to scoop it out of the bowl, flip it over and mix another 2-3 minutes. Flipping it over mid-way helps make sure everything has been incorporated properly.

When you think it’s done, you should check by opening a gluten window that indicates an improved mix.

Now plan to do a fold on the dough at least three times (around every 45 minutes) during the 2 hour, 45 minute bulk fermentation. If your gluten window was weak or you think you under-developed the gluten in general, a good remedy is to simply add one or two more folds during the bulk fermentation. I usually open a gluten window after an hour just to see how things are going and make a decision based on what I see. For those using KitchenAid mixers, I would start with 4 folds (one every 30 minutes) and consider a fifth next time if you felt things were still weak.

Once your bulk fermentation is done, weigh out your dough pieces and form them into balls. For my uses, I make 3 loaves in 1.5lb pans and one boule (round loaf). Since this recipe is 3.1kg, you can make 3 x 750g balls for the loaf pans and 1 x 850g ball for the boule.

The balls are allowed to rest for at least 15 minutes so they can relax. This makes it easier to make the final shapes. To prevent them from drying out, it’s best to cover the dough with damp towels.

Now you do your final shaping. For loaf pans I make short cylinder shapes and one boule shape for the round loaf. Below is a picture tutorial on how to shape a boule. For a short cylinder, you do everything the same except that you roll the final ball out so it cylindrical inside of circular.

Start by taking your rested dough ball, press it down and stretch it out into a larger square-shape. Then take the top half of the square and fold it to the center. You should now have a rectangle shape. Then rotate the dough 180 degrees and pull the top again to the center. You should now have an even narrower rectangle.

Now you take your narrow rectangle shape and pull one side into the center. Then you take the other side and pull it to the center. You now have a square shape again with a seam up.

Seal the seam and then turn the seam so it is facing down on the work surface. Cup your hands around the dough and gently pull it towards you to tighten the ball shape. Rotate the ball and pull towards you, each time making the ball a little tighter. You want very little or no flour on your work surface when you do this so the dough smears a little on the table. Too much flour and it will just slide around. Finally place the dough ball seam side UP in your flowered proofing basket.

At 75F, allow it to proof for 2-2.5 hours or until it feels well-proofed. A properly proofed bread will sink in when a floured finger pokes it but then bounces back slowly. This is a good time to plan for preheating your oven. I set my oven to 500F and then turn it down to 450F when I insert the bread.

Now that your breads are proofed and your oven is hot, you are ready for the fun part. For loaf pans, I cover them in foil to get a steam effect. For the boule, I use a dutch oven for the same purpose. Please refer to my post on steam for more information on why this is so important and how to do this step if you are unfamiliar. The loaves are now scored and loaded in the oven.

I bake with the lid on the dutch oven and foil on the pans for at least 20 minutes. I then remove the lids and rotate the breads in the oven so I get a more even bake. I then rotate at least once more at around 28 minutes. The breads take around 34-40 minutes to bake depending on your oven. You can always tell if a loaf is properly baked if it feels hollow when you tap on it (this is true when it first comes out of the oven not after it starts to cool).

This recipe makes 4 decent sized loaves. Not everyone has the oven space or the hungry mouths to consume all that. Since I list everything in grams, it’s a simple matter to cut the recipe in half to get two loaves.

Now go make some bread!

Have you tried this recipe? Have questions, comments or concerns? Please rate this recipe and comment below.