My Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread Journey.

Whole Wheat Sourdough....Man O Mister this has this been a journey of discovery. I will say there is a reason you do not see beautiful, billow-y loaves of stretch and fold whole wheat sourdough bread...but tender whole wheat sourdough is within reach, why not come and hear more of the story!

Decades ago I started baking with sourdough.

Or maybe I should say I tried baking with a sourdough starter. At that time in my kitchen I had a cannister of white flour, making me a standard white flour baker. Whole wheat was not a language I spoke and I had absolutely no knowledge of the different wheat varieties available, or their protein percentages, not to mention the flavor profiles of the grains that could be milled into whole wheat flour. Except this one thing, this piece of trivia. I knew that the original Graham Cracker recipe was made from whole wheat and made with a special wheat flour referred to as Graham Flour. Named after the inventor, Dr. Sylvester Graham. Who also happened to be quite interested in nutrition.

Of course by the time I learned this information the graham crackers in those blue boxes at the market were now made with mostly white flour. And few knew the original idea behind the Graham Cracker when it was originally invented. But I felt that I did. It was about nutrition, and fiber. Which is where the Graham Flour came in. Graham Flour was simply a coarsely ground wheat flour. Including the wheat germ and the outside layer of bran.

I also made my own sourdough starter(s), and more than once.

Mostly I used simple plain water, and once I tried it with potato water, when we had mashed potatoes for dinner. But honestly I don't remember feeding the starter, back then. There was no discard. No, discard recipes per say. You took the starter from the fridge, stirred it, added equal parts flour and water, and let it sit until it had doubled or become active and bubbly. Then it was time to bake. After measuring out what you needed for your recipe, you simply returned the unused portion back to the refrigerator. Where it stayed, until the next time you wanted to bake. I think I finally gave up on sourdough about a year and two or three starters in, because preparing the starter for baking was at the time, inconvenient. I also had a toddler, a five year old, a house and home to keep, and a part-time job on my daily list.

When the sourdough craze revived again in the last few years, "sourdough" had changed drastically! And all for the better, I might add. But it was mostly based on using white bread flour or all purpose flour. When I would investigate a whole wheat sourdough recipes, it was at the most a 50/50 blend of whole wheat and white bread flour. Not much help for those of us, wanting to continue eating 100% whole wheat bread. Further investigation revealed that pretty much every crusty hearth style bread recipe, had the same note regarding a whole wheat version. It would not be as light or tender as the recipe offered for a white loaf of sourdough. And while I appreciated the honesty, there was one thing that I noticed from recipe to recipe. None of the bakers offered up a loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread in any of the photos. That spoke to me, and loudly at that!

My daughter picked right up on the current sourdough baking craze,

and immediately she was more successful than I ever had been! More than once we have enjoyed delicious bread, sandwich rolls or bagels from her kitchen. Her success made me want to try once again! Boy was I in for a surprise! Why? Well by now I am firmly entrenched in whole wheat baking, for a number of reasons. Besides the nutrition, there is the challenge to create delicious food, and if nothing else stubborn pride in how much I have learned while milling, and baking with whole wheat. It has become, how I want to bake. I won't go into great detail about how unsuccessful I have been with whole wheat sourdough at this time. Or how many loaves I have diced up and thrown to the hens! Oh, OK, it is eight! I have baked and tossed eight loaves to the hens...but I am determined to bake a delicious, tender, 100% whole wheat sourdough loaf of bread.

And then laying in bed one night unable to sleep I realized I was doing it all wrong! I was trying to follow the same path others have taken for their success. And all eight loaves were attempts to recreate the stretch and fold loaves so popular right now. And I do understand why they are popular. They are crazy delicious! And with no kneading...But as popular and as easy as they are, this was not the bread I was searching for. I was searching for old fashioned sourdough that fermented overnight in the refrigerator, thereby soaking the grain for better nutrition. Plus while I love the looks of a crusty hearth style loaf and a proud ear, all crusty and rigid. We usually eat sandwich style bread. We eat it for toast and for sandwiches. Plus I knew that if I wanted to make a hearth style loaf and slash it before baking to get a crusty rigid ear, I could, if the dough itself was of good quality.

Rather than recreate the wheel, I remodeled it!

I went to my go-to yeasted family favorite, Our Daily Bread recipe. And I modified it to be what I need it to be, to get the loaf I am after! I had learned in my research that the sharp edges of the bran in whole wheat flour can cut the delicate gluten structure, allowing the gas to escape, so I knew I needed to really develop the gluten in my Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread. Which meant no stretch and folds, this dough needed to be kneaded! But there was a second reason to develop the gluten as well. Whole wheat flour is heavier than white flour. That added weight needs developed gluten to support the dough during rise time or the loaves will collapse when baked. That just might have been noticeable in a couple of the loaves the hens got. Oh, OK it was present in seven out of the eight! That eighth loaf, well it just wasn't delicious enough to share...

And I also learned that because whole wheat flour is heavier, it takes more starter to do a proper job. So what exactly is a proper job in sourdough baking? For whole wheat sourdough bread, a proper job is where there is enough natural yeast and fermentation to support the gluten strands, in the whole wheat dough so that it will rise. And rise in a standard period of time so that the fermentation does not produce an off flavor. Also you want a loaf of bread with a tender yet tight crumb, so it cuts well and is not dry. Some of the prior eight loaves were stogy because they did not rise properly. The texture was coarse because they were not kneaded to develop the gluten. They were compact and I thanked the hens each time I took out the next cut up loaf...Oh, OK they were all stogy, coarse, dry and next week I send my final payment to the hens, they actually wanted to be paid for their services after the second loaf!

Additional thoughts on Whole Wheat Sourdough:

Whole Wheat Sourdough is quite sour in it's natural state. A small amount of baking soda will temper some of that sour, when added to the starter used for that batch of bread.

For Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread, you do need, to knead the dough.

Whole Wheat and sourdough are a perfect pairing, the overnight ferment also soaks the dough for better nutrition availability.

Would you like to comment?

Johanna GGGMay 31, 2025 at 7:54 PM
Interesting to read about your experience - I have a white sourdough starter but sometimes think a wholemeal one would be good as I am trying to eat more wholemeal carbs. I have done very little kneading since I got into overnight soudough loaves about10 years ago but now it is mainly pizza and wraps while life is busy. I wondered if your chickens were sad when you got it right :-)
MargJune 1, 2025 at 4:34 PM
Thanks for sharing your experience. It's an interesting read, and I think important to share that not everything works the first time. Sometimes it takes a lot of experimentation to get things right.
PaulaShort June 3, 2025 at 5:59 AM
I'm so happy you did it! Good for you. I'm happy you didn't give up as I would have. Sometimes I sell myself short on my cooking or baking abilities and if something goes wrong I never attempt it again.
Thanks so much for sharing with Sweet Tea & Friends this month dear friend.