50% Heirloom Grain Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Inspired by Peter Reinhart’s Light Wheat Bread recipe. The differences include:
natural leaven rather than commercial yeast
larger proportion of whole grain wheat
heirloom or ancient wheat instead of conventional wheat
kefir/yogurt instead of milk powder (my inventory issues, not a performance decision)

Ingredients
265g all purpose flour or bread flour (2 cups)
265g whole grain einkorn flour (2 cups)
80g leaven (1/3 cup)
280g water (~1 1/4 cups)
3 Tbsp plain kefir milk, yogurt, sour cream or creme fraiche
2 Tbsp melted butter
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar or honey
1 1/2 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients and knead for 10 minutes. Slowly add more flour if too sticky.

Grease a bowl and place the ball of dough in the bowl. Cover with plastic and let rise 6-8 hours. (My dough rose 7 hours at 73’F.)

Scrape dough out onto a floured surface. Press it into a long and narrow rectangle. Roll the dough by picking up a short side of the rectangle. Press as you roll, until you have a thick tube that is a bit shorter than a loaf pan.

Grease a loaf pan and place the tube of dough seam-side down into the pan.

Cover and proof for 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 hours. (My dough went 2 hours at 75 F)

Preheat oven to 350 F

Bake the bread for 30 minutes in the loaf pan on a cookie sheet. Rotate the pan and bake an additional 15-30 minutes. You may want to cover with foil for last 15 minutes.

Aim for 190 F interior.

Remove from pan and let cool on a rack at least 30 minutes before slicing.

Start of bulk:

End of bulk:

Start of proof:

End of proof:

Cooked loaf:

Thanks for sharing this recipe! I used Kamut flour but otherwise followed exactly and it turned out perfectly!

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I have some buttermilk to use up from some cornbread and was curious on your expert perspective… could I sub some of the water and use buttermilk in this recipe do you think?

I think that would work well!

Coincidentally, I made a chocolate cake a few days ago and it, too, uses buttermilk (1 cup). I use white sonora or pima club wheat instead of all purpose flour. Also cream cheese frosting instead of choc buttercream

It’s the best chocolate cake imo :slight_smile:

Thank you! Do you have any advice (generally) for how to sub buttermilk for water? E.g., is it 1:1 ratio, is there a limit to how much you would recommend adding before it starts to have a negative effect?

Milk has some solids (protein and fat) compared to water, so if you use it as a 1:1 substitute for water, your dough will be a little bit dryer. Also, the protein and fat in regular milk can slow fermentation, but this is somewhat balanced by the sugar that’s in regular milk. Buttermilk is fermented, though, and probably would have less sugar. I don’t know if buttermilk adds useful microbes for dough fermentation (if it gets pasteurized post souring), but buttermilk will lower the pH of the dough.

If you like sour and you want to use up a max amount of buttermilk, I’d do a full substitution, possibly with a splash extra if the dough seems stiff. If you want less sour, maybe do 50:50.

You might find this recipe write-up helpful. It uses a lot of milk / milk-substitutes.There’s a vegan and non-vegan version, and more photos and baking info.

Tremendously useful, thank you so much!