Ancient Wheat Sourdough Bread
Ancient wheat sourdough bread has a golden crumb that is nutty, slightly sweet, chewy and delicious. The bread is relatively simple to make and bakes up nicely in a loaf pan. Try different wheats and combinations of wheat to come up with your favorites.
- Prep time
- 30 min
- Cook time
- 45 min
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Difficulty
- MEDIUM
Ingredients
- 600 g ancient whole wheat flours (I used 300 grams einkorn and 300 grams khorasan flours) (4 2/3 cups)
- 410 g water (1 3/4 cups) *See Notes
- 80 g sourdough starter (1/4 cup)
- 12 g salt (2 1/8 tsp)
Instructions
- 1
Mix the ingredients together then transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl or straight-walled bucket. The dough will be sticky because of the einkorn flour.
- 2
With very little gluten strength potential in this dough, the benefit of stretching and folding is marginal. For a small boost in chewiness and aeration, let the dough rest 20-30 minutes, then do 1-2 rounds of stretching and folding with 20-30 minutes rests in between.
- 3
When the dough has expanded by 60-75%, end the bulk fermentation. My dough needed 6 hours in a mid 70s°F kitchen with sourdough starter that had been refreshed and refrigerated a few days prior.
- 4
Scrape the dough out onto on a floured work surface and shape it to fit your loaf pan. See the Photo Gallery below for images of these instructions: Flour the top of the dough, pat it into a flat circle, and use your bench knife to fold the dough in thirds. Pat the letter-fold shape a little flatter and fold it in thirds again, on the short edge. Flip the dough and use the bench knife to push and pull the dough into a longer tube.
- 5
Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled loaf pan, cover and let rise until it is about 3/4" from the top of the pan. This took my dough 1 1/2 hours.
- 6
Preheat your oven to 450°F. Create a tented cover for your pan by wrapping the base of the loaf pan in aluminum foil and then removing the foil and using it to cover the pan. See the Photo Gallery.
- 7
Bake the bread with the cover on for 30 minutes at 450°F and uncovered for 15-20 minutes more at 425°F. Aim for an internal temperature over 200°F. This is higher than the usual 190°F for sandwich breads to help the crumb not be gummy.
- 8
Let the bread fully cool on a rack for several hours before slicing. Store in a bag or on a cutting board under an inverted bowl.