
/

Sourdough baking from 100% whole grains and fresh milled flour.

·
The answer to this question, as it is a lot of the time, is “it depends”. Ancient grains are not always more nutritious than wheat. It all depends on how they are grown, and what the individual growing season has been like. In this post I’ll be going into detail about all aspects of growing, storing, and milling grain that determine whether a particular grain is more nutritious or not. What are ancient grains? Ancient grains are varieties of grain…

·
I started baking whole grain bread in 2009. There wasn’t a whole lot of information out there back then. At first I diligently followed a recipe that was mostly white flour, with around 40% whole wheat flour, and made some OK bread, but after a while I wanted to get rid of the white flour completely. I quickly learned that replacing white flour with whole grain flour 1:1 does not yield great bread! Whole grain flours need more hydration, and…

·
What makes this sourdough sandwich bread recipe different? This soft sourdough sandwich bread recipe from Sourdough Without Fail is made from 100% whole wheat, or with some changes which I’ll discuss below, it also works with ancient grains such as emmer, Khorasan, spelt, and einkorn. This recipe has been tested with fresh milled flour from my grain mill and with regular 100% whole grain flours and it works well with either type of flour. Based on a French style of…

·
The magic of this sourdough pizza dough recipe What makes this sourdough pizza crust magic is its flexibility. You can make this same dough, and depending on your schedule, there are three different timelines you can work with: The flavour of this dough is also what makes it magic… If you rest it overnight in the fridge, it develops the most delicious sourdough flavour that goes so well with many kinds of pizza toppings. The overnight ferment also helps to…

·
Whole Grain Fresh Milled Flour Sourdough Bread Recipe for Beginners If you’ve never made any whole grain fresh milled flour sourdough bread (or any bread at all) before, this recipe is exactly where you can start. With a simple mix of just four ingredients – fresh milled flour, water, salt, and sourdough starter, this is a basic, frugal, lean bread dough. It’s the kind of everyday bread you can feel good about making and eating day after day. You don’t…

·
The Art of Making Sweet Whole Grain Sourdough Treats that Actually Taste Good When you’re making a sweet whole grain sourdough loaf or other treat, you don’t want there to be overwhelming sourness or an assertive red wheat flavour. For best results, make sure that your starter has not overfermented (it’s even fine to use it slightly underripe), and avoid using red wheat. This recipe uses 25% pre-fermented flour and a minimal fermentation time, which gives the health benefits of…

·
If you’re new to sourdough, you may be wondering which baking timeline makes the best bread. The answer is “it depends”. It depends on your schedule, your goals, your lifestyle, and the temperatures in your kitchen. At the end of the day, baking needs to fit in with your life, not the other way around. In this post I’ll discuss all the different considerations that go into different sourdough timelines, and why I use different schedules at different times of…

·
Here is my tried and tested method for creating a sourdough starter from scratch which is perfect for sourdough beginners, and for anyone interested in whole grain fresh milled flour. You can use fresh milled flour from your own grain mill, or organic 100% whole grain flour of any kind. For the best chances of success, choose whole grain rye flour for making your first sourdough starter from scratch – if you don’t like rye bread, once your starter is…

·
The last three times that I’ve finished writing a book, I’ve been really motivated towards my writing my next one, sometimes concurrently putting the finishing touches on the last book while excitedly mapping out and researching the next one. This time it’s a bit different. I have some possible ideas for new books, but nothing that is really shouting out to me as something I need to work on right away. At the same time, I feel like I want…

·
Phytic acid in sourdough and whole grains I’ve been getting some questions about the phytic acid in whole grains and sourdough, and thought it would be a good idea to go into detail about how this works, and why you don’t need to be alarmed about it. Along with a bunch of good stuff that is not in refined flours, phytic acid is present in whole grains. If phytic acid is not broken down by the phytase enzyme by soaking,…

·
Creating a sourdough book for the rest of us: A 100% Whole Grain Sourdough Book with easy recipes and practical design In some ways I’m grateful for the haphazard way I started with sourdough. I had previously been baking with yeast and had never found any recipes that really suited me, so I’d figured out my own. Switching over to sourdough, I took the same approach. I made some terrible loaves to begin with, but eventually figured out how to…

·
How to make fresh milled flour sourdough bread from scratch The time involved in making bread from scratch can be divided into hands-on time and hands-off time. Some bakers might use a lot of hands-on time, kneading a lot to develop strength in the dough. Other bakers might use a no-knead approach and use more hands-off time, with just a couple of minutes of hands-on time. You don’t need to knead your bread at all. The purpose of kneading is…