Wholewheat Sourdough Seed Bread Recipe Without Random Junk

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I have wasted forever scrolling through junk to read recipes. So this is an example of how you can hide the unnecessary detail.

Someone suggested that the reason for this is that pages with a narrative pick up a higher Google page rank than pages only containing a recipe.

So this page contains this extra junk hidden behind Show Unnecessary Detail. I cheated a bit: I asked Google how to do this all in one file and picked its Javascript solution

Some slightly nonrandom junk: seeds are designed to stay dormant until conditions are right for growing – like moisture and heat are about right. Nutrients are locked into a form that is stable and therefore hard to digest at least with a simple gut like a human’s. Once a seed is ready to germinate, the nutrients are broken down into a bioavailable form. This is what fermentation does. A slow ferment makes wheat flour more digestible.

As bakers will tell you, weighing is more accurate than measuring volume, so I even weigh out water.

Making your own sourdough starter is fun and interesting but almost at the level of keeping a pet. I do this but I am known to be bonkers: most people don’t unless they are baking on a commercial scale.

The exact amount of sourdough starter may be trial and error: I only used my own and found I needed about twice as much as the original recipe called for (but I also changed a lot of details to simplify).

Some trivia: I add the seeds before the hot water as I make it hotter than needed and the seeds are not damaged by the extra heat and help ro bring the temperature down to 40°C. It can be lower; the exact temperature needed depends how warm the air is.

You could achieve a similar result with factory yeast and a slow ferment but don’t ask me how. I just know it can be done.

Loosely based on a recipe in The Cultured Loaf A Master Class by Markus Färbinger.

The Recipe

Ingredients

500g stoneground wholewheat flour
500g water (100% hydration as the bakers say)
10g sourdough starter
100g mixed seeds, for example:

pumpkin seeds
linseed (flax)
sunflower seeds

butter to grease pan

Equipment

large mixing bowl
scale
thermometer reading up to 100°C
big mixing spoon
cloth to cover dough
bread pan
oven-proof pan to contain water
sharp knife to score the top (real bakers insist this must be razor-sharp)

Method

Boil the water and measure out 400g into a large mixing bowl.
Add the seeds and wait for the temperature to drop to 40°C. Adding the seeds first helps to speed cooling the water to 40°C.
Add the sourdough starter and whisk vigorously until thoroughly mixed in.
Stir in the flour vigorously, until it is evenly mixed.
Cover with a cloth and rest for 30 min (you and the dough).
Mix vigorously with an action that grabs the bottom of the dough and folds it over itself, rotating the bowl as you go
Cover with a cloth and leave 12 hours to ferment.
By this stage the dough should be less sticky so you can knead by hand. Fold over vigorously, though not as much as the earlier exercise. The aim is to obtain a uniform smooth texture.
Shape evenly into a greased baking pan
Cover the pan with a plastic bag and leave 4–6 hours to rise, then use a sharp knife to make a slit along its length.
Heat your oven to 250°C, with a pan of water in the bottom (about 250ml – a cup).
Put the bread in and set the temperature to 220°C.
Bake 40 minutes then turn the oven off and leave the bread in another 10 minutes.
Turn out the loaf and wrap in a slightly damp kitchen towel if you want a softer crust.
Eat.

Ovens vary so you may need to adjust the temperature. The loaf should be well cooked through with a nicely-coloured crust. In my experience there is not a lot of oven spring possibly because this method ferments for so long.