Don’t lose faith Jane, we’ve all been there. 50% whole grain is a challenge for me too. We all learn with each bake. Can you post a photo of the crumb so we can see how the fermentation was?
The crumb isn’t gr8 so possibly that was the problem too. It’s a 100% rye starter that I’m using and I struggle to get a good deep crumb with it. I usually make a 50:50 Wholemeal:White loaf with this and I found I had to reduce the water to stop it just spreading out on the baking stone rather than rising. Perhaps this is the issue?
Hi Jane, that photo to me shows that the dough was underproofed. Did you give it long enough and was the temperature close to 80ºF during bulk fermentation? If not give it longer if you cannot bulk at 80ºF. Also was your starter really active, if it wasn’t then that could have caused it to be underproofed.
I’m still relatively new to this as well, so maybe others will chime in as well, but those are my thoughts based on the crumb.
Benny
I’m on attempt no. 2 of the bread today. I used my white starter instead of my rye one to see if that makes a difference. Currently on “bench rest” phase, however…look how my dough is behaving!!!
. Resembles a pancake rather than a loaf of bread!
Recipes. 
A brief quote from the post above:
Although they tend to be written as though they are, sourdough bread recipes are not like other recipes where you follow an exact procedure using exact measurements with exact temperatures and exact timings. You can treat them like that (and most people do), but if you do, you will not get consistently good results. Sometimes your bread will come out great and other times it will come out not so great. Sometimes a nice rise and “oven spring”, sometimes a dense flat brick or “frisbee”. And if you are conceiving of a ‘recipe’ as a fixed procedure you can use to get a specific result, when things go wrong you will be mystified .
Hi Jane
I wonder a few things, was your white flour high gluten? Perhaps your flour cannot absorb as much water as mine was able to, you will want to consider reducing the hydration further. Is your dough now actually over fermented/overproofed? Sorry it isn’t going so well.
I use Strong white bread flour for these loaves. In UK we don’t have anything other than this. I’ve formed it and it’s in the proving basket…we’ll C what tomorrow brings! Lol
Ah you’re in the UK, I hope your Prime Minister is going to get through this ICU admission alright, fingers crossed.
I’ve read that the flour in the UK isn’t as absorbent as those in Canada where I am. You will probably want to reduce the hydration even lower that the recipe recommends so even lower than what I did. You can always add a bit more while mixing if it feels like it needs more.
I baked my “pancake” loaf today. I think you are correct, our flour here in the UK isn’t high enough gluten for that hydration. It wasn’t a disaster and is really tasty, but I think I will wait until I can get my hands on some Canadian flour before I try it again. Thank you so much for all your help though, I have thoroughly enjoyed the exercise. The crumb on this loaf was way better than the previous one though. I also didn’t cook my first one for long enough.
Sorry I couldn’t do a better job helping you Jane. I hope you try it again, even if you use your usual flour just reduce the hydration. The crumb does look good on this bake.