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Huh, this is the first time I’ve seen this wonderful recipe and since there are no comments, I’m wondering if anyone else saw it either? I don’t have any chia seeds, but I do have poppy seeds so I may give it a try for my next bake.
I hope that everyone in our Breadtopia community is well and staying safe and baking lots of wonderful breads to occupy their time.
Hi Wendy,
This recipe will go out in a newsletter sometime soon but I’m glad you found it.
I look forward to hearing about your bread if you make it…do share how much less water you use with poppy seeds vs chia.
Stay safe and keep on baking 
OK, will do. So, does that mean that you think I will need to use less water for the poppy seeds? I have never used chia seeds before, are they absorbent?
You caught that hint 
I wasn’t sure if you knew about chia seeds’ crazy absorbency. They get a gel-like coating when soaked. Somehow the extra water bakes out…that part I don’t quite understand.
Wow, interesting and weird! At some point, I will get some chia seeds and give them a try. Thanks for the info.
I have run out of bread flour and can’t restock because of the coronavirus closures. What is a reasonable alternative? I also don’t have red fife. I do have some hard white wheat berries, some spelt berries, some AP flour, some type 110… 
I hear you. I’m trying to carefully allocate my use of gluten strong and gluten weak flours.
I’d probably use 50% AP, 25% hard white and 25% spelt. Unless you’re low on AP, then I would use more of the whole grain flours. You could also use all Type 110…that’s basically a bolted mix of hard red and hard white?
If you end up using much less whole grain flour than the recipe, add less water at mixing. Then if the chia seeds start to suck up too much of the water, add more water with each stretch and fold.
Ok, sounds good. Just checked to see that my Type 110 has a protein content of 13%, higher than my usual bread flour, which is 11.5%, so I could see where I would need all the water if I used that for 100% of the flour. I also have some stone ground whole wheat and some einkorn berries, so I can really mix it up! Thanks!
Novice baker here and was so excited to try this bread. It was SO GOOD. My husband and I were wondering though – If we toasted the pumpkin seeds prior, would we need to make any adjustments to accommodate? Thanks for the recipe!
I glad to hear you’re enjoying the recipe. Toasting the pumpkin seeds shouldn’t change anything. Just make sure they’re not super hot when you add them to the dough. Enjoy!
)
This is a bigger dough, no pumpkin seeds, einkorn and sprouted hard red spring wheat as the 50% whole grain component. Hydration is approximately the same, factoring in a slightly lower % of chia seeds and the presence of einkorn, which is less thirsty than the red wheats.
Process instructions can be found in the original recipe at the beginning of this comment thread.
250g bread flour or all purpose flour
150g whole grain sprouted hard red spring wheat flour
100g whole grain einkorn wheat flour
410g water (plus wet fingertips when stretching and folding)
50g chia seeds (~1/3 cup)
2 tsp salt
50-150g starter
I vary the starter amount based on what I have and my targeted schedule. The bread in the photo had 130g of starter that was fridge-cold but active and fed the prior day.
I milled the einkorn and sprouted red together so there aren’t two neat different colored stacks of flour unfortunately.
Melissa,
I’ve finally had the opportunity to try this recipe as you originally posted it. Oh, my, it’s wonderful! I followed your instructions pretty much as written except that I used Redeemer Red Wheat which is what I had at hand rather than Red Fife and toasted the pumpkin seeds first as I prefer them to raw. The oven spring was wonderful and the crumb looked like your photo. What great flavor - rich and complex. This will become a go-to recipe not only for me but for gift-giving. It’s very impressive.
I’m so glad you enjoyed the bread 
I ended up giving away most of the first loaf I baked, so I got busy and started another one the other day. This time I upped the whole grain flour to 60% and made a small 300g total flour loaf. It went pretty much as the first one did until I got to the bulk fermentation. After 6 hours, there was no visible sign of expansion or change of any kind. I was stumped. I knew that my starter was in good shape and conditions were similar. And then a thought crept into my Covid-fogged brain. I checked my jar of starter and found that it was all still there, I had omitted it! The world’s longest autolyse.
By then it was evening, so I stuck it in the fridge to deal with the next day. I decided to see give it a chance, so I used the same technique to add the starter as you did for adding the pumpkin seeds and then kneaded it until it felt integrated. I couldn’t decide what to do about additional stretch and folds, so I did 2 more at 30 minute intervals.
It rose well, almost doubled, probably over-proofed a bit. Put it into a banneton and immediately into the refrigerator until next morning. It didn’t do much overnight. More brain-fog, this time I preheated the oven without the clay baker in it.
This bread is indestructible! Despite all my carelessness, it came out great!
That’s awesome, and I can totally relate to that kinda day. I would probably add breaking a glass while emptying the dishwasher and spending 45 minutes cleaning too.
That is gorgeous! So glad you enjoy the recipe.
I was looking to try my first pumpkin seed sourdough - I tried both suggested recipes (using 20% spelt with the pumpkin and chia / 10% spelt & 10% rye for the other)… I split the loaves (just for fun). I used some left over black chia and white chia in the other…
My work mates definitely preferred the pumpkin - though the Chia only was slightly more easy for me to handle (as a beginner - 6 months into my sourdough journey).
Thanks so much - will definitely make these again , maybe I will try with sunflower seeds next.
Congrats! The crumb is so beautiful and open. Have fun experimenting with different seeds.
