Thanks!
Hi Eric - discovered this recipe on your website and thought Iād give it a try using your SD starter. Made a batard that turned out well although hardly any oven spring. Is this normal for this loaf?
Have you tried using āwhiteā whole wheat flour in any bread recipes? It seems to be available in both hard and soft wheat versions. Iām wondering if you could substitute it for the regular white flour and get a true whole grain loaf.
Thanks for the recipe and keep up the good work!
Alan
Not really. You should still get some decent oven spring. But there are a lot of reasons why you might not. Yes, you can use whole white wheat in place of white flour. The loaf will be denser but more nutritious for sure.
H all,
I am new to the forum and I have a quick question
This post is about āWhole grainā but adding ā250 grams of white bread flourā seems to defeat the purpose? Am I missing something?
Thanks!
I have made this bread 4 times now. The first time it rose great but I think the temperature of the oven was to high and it baked to long. I donāt have a covered clay pot to bake it in. The next 3 times all went well until the 24 hour refrigeration time. The dough rose slightly but not enough and the 5 hour or so rise in a warm place did nothing at all. We live the flavour of this bread but it isnāt working for me.any suggestions?
Ok, hereās a twistā¦ I donāt have a cloche. Do you think I could make this in a traditional pyrex loaf pan (10.5 x 5.25 x 3)? What do you think the time and temp adjustments would be?
Should work. Start with the same temp and plan on the same time but check the internal temp of the dough with an instant read thermometer as you approach the end of the baking time. When it gets to about 200, take it out to cool. You might also want to tent the loaf with foil about a third to half way through baking to prevent possibly burning the top crust.
I ran across this recipe and gave it a try this weekend, turned out very good and has great flavor. After the refrigerator proof I shaped it and put it in a buttered metal loaf pan for the final proof, then baked it covered with foil for 30 minutes, then uncovered until internal temp reached 190, about 20 more minutes. All in all not too bad. Looking forward to making more of this bread. Thanks for this recipe!
Thanks Eric:
For the recipe for this bread, I make this about every other week, always with great success. The best bread I have ever made, The taste is incredibly delicious, everyone that tastes this bread wants a loaf. Problem is the three days making it! Would love to get a little more sour taste if that is possible. Did I miss read this when you said to leave it out longer at room temperature to get more sour taste? Thought about trying that but afraid I will mess up the best bread I have made so far. Thanks again for your great teaching skills, That even a fairly new at baking old man can follow them and have great success the first loaf out of the oven. Thomas in Ky
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Very good recipe instruction! fist time made bread was too flat as left to proof too long. This time proofed less and scored more, combining with molasses and seeds from other recipe and coated with barley on top.
So we have been playing with sourdough starter and sourdough bread for few months now, tried white, wholemeal, with sponge without sponge ect until 3 days ago i came across your page and recipes of traditional whole grain sourdough all though i didnt have spelt flour so i used wholemeal instead and used 100g rye and less wholemeal. I have also change second day prove left it out for 5h at room temperature and than put it in the fridge. The bread that came out is best one that we made to date out of rye and wholemeal! So I will be trying more recipes. There are some air pocket but not to many i do think that 1h prove after shaping wasnāt long enough, the air pocket is something we struggle to get it right and keep the bread not going dry while storing it
after baked
any advice help much appriciated
@Geoffrey. When you cook with salt it is not simply a matter of trying to make it salty, there are cemical reactions that take place that season and enhance the taste of food. I get haveing a need to go low salt, so I can respect your choice/need. I was just pointing out the difference between salty and seasoned.
I know a great many things taste far better with a little salt added as seasoning. But in the long run, for me, high blood pressure and edema make it just not worth itā¦most of the time 
Wow, this was such a great recipe/method/video! I just moved to Montreal, Canada and set out some rye flour mixed with water. I got a nice bubbly sourdough starter faster than I did while living in San Francisco! The boule turned out perfect, despite only having a perforated pizza pan and a makeshift tinfoil tent. Great look and awesome lingering flavor! Thanks so much, Eric. Great site! Canāt wait to try more recipes.
My 1st question:
How long do I knead the dough on day 2?
My 2nd question:
Can the dough remain in the fridge for longer than 24 hours letās say 36 hours instead to create a more sour taste?
My 3rd question:
I would like to create an onion sour dough loaf, at what stage would I add the roasted onion?
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! 
I donāt kneed it at all on the second day. I have gone as long as three days in the fridge. I put the onions in during the second stretch and fold when making the dough. Also try some roasted garlic at the same time.
Hello! Iād like to bake this in 2 8.5" bread pans, do you think that would work out? My husband is a sucker for an easy sandwich loaf. I imagine Iād just divide the dough after the 24 hours in the fridge and then shape and put it to rise in the pans. I would think the baking time might be a bit shorter as well. Is there some issue that Iām not aware of that will cause calamity and destruction if I go forward with this plan? I also have 10" bread pans but I think that they would be too large for this recipe.
Hello,
Iāve made this several times but the dough doesnāt rise in the refrigerator at all. Nothing like what is in video. The refrigerator temp is 38-40 degrees F.
The dough does rise in the day 3 step and then has oven spring, resulting in a finished boule about 10 inches wide and 4 inches tall and tastes good.
The starter is 1 part organic dark rye, 3 parts organic unbleached all purpose flour and 100% hydration. Any ideas why it doesnāt rise in the refrigerator or suggestions?
Iām relatively new to sourdough baking and have made this recipe twice. Itās a beautiful loaf, and while Iām happy with the taste, Iām not happy with the density. I would like to have a more open crumb, a slightly lighter loaf, more like the photos of Ericās bread in the recipe. The second time, I added 15g more water to see if that would help but it didnāt. I know there are a lot of variables when baking sourdough bread, so feel free to ask me questions that might get to the source of this. Thanks!
Afterthought: I will add one thing about my starter, which by the way I fed twice in the 24 hours preceding starting this loaf. I often see pictures of starters that are full of life and bubbles on the top. My starter never has bubbles on the top, only on the sides. It doubles in size (at least) and when I poke into it, itās airy and stringy inside. But no bubbles on top! I donāt know what that means.
Did you try it? I donāt see any reason it shouldnāt work. The great thing about bread baking is that, short of burning your house down somehow, there is little chance of ācalamity and destructionā and even if a bread comes out looking funky, it almost always still tastes good. So every loaf where you try something new is an adventure in science!
Agree that you might shorten the baking time a little and/or maybe lower the temp some and/or put a little foil tent on top of the pans to keep the top of your loaves from over-baking.