Sourdough Bread, 100% Whole Wheat Recipe

Recipes

The best way to ensure a steady supply of delicious bread is to make it yourself. A convenient and healthy option is to make whole wheat sourdough bread using a bread machine. I was unable to find a recipe for this so I created one myself. At first, I read some bread-baking books, watched countless YouTube videos, and tried several online recipes to learn how to make different types of bread in an oven. I then began experimenting and refining my approach to make whole wheat sourdough bread using a bread machine. Below is the recipe I came up with.

This recipe assumes you know your own sourdough starter. Many websites and YouTube videos can teach you how to make and maintain your own starter. If you only bake once every couple of weeks, as I do, you can keep the starter in the fridge for weeks or even months. When you’re ready to use it, take it out of the fridge and feed it for three or four cycles until it becomes active enough to leaven bread. After baking, feed some of the starter once more, wait a couple of hours, and then return it to the fridge until you are ready to bake again.

This bread tastes best when toasted. After baking a loaf, it lasts about 4 to 5 days at room temperature, so I leave half of the loaf on the counter in a bread box. I slice the other half, separate the slices with parchment paper, and store them in a plastic bag in the freezer. These frozen slices can be popped directly into a toaster, allowing you to enjoy individual servings straight from the freezer.

Supplies and gadgets

Zojirushi Breadmaker – Great bread machine. It has two paddles so the dough mixes very well. Also has customizable cycles, for which I will give you my detailed instructions.
My Weigh KD-8000 Digital Food Scale – I’ve had to replace this scale using its warranty twice, but it’s still my favorite scale.
Bread Box
Whole wheat flour
Vital wheat gluten flour

Recipe

A video demonstrating me using this recipe can be found here. The first time you follow this recipe, you will need create a few custom bake cycles on your Zojirushi Breadmaker, as listed at the bottom of this page.

Place the bread machine pan (with the paddles) on the scale. It should weigh 1065g. Press the “tare” button. Then add:

470g Water, then press tare
8g Olive oil (1 Tbsp), tare
225g Sourdough starter, mix gently with a silicone spatula to dissolve the starter, tare.
560g Whole wheat flour
20g Vital wheat gluten
9g Salt

After adding all the ingredients into the bread machine pan, there’ s no need to mix it. Just place the pan into the bread machine and then:

1) Start cycle 15 (memory 1) – This will knead for 8 minutes (everything else off)

Can open the lid at anytime to check on it. If contents are not mixing with the paddles, use a spatula to gently push some of the contents at the top to the bottom. Also can push down the dough that sticks to the side walls. Close the lid to resume the mixing cycle.
The machine beeps after 4 or 5 minutes to add seeds (optional). Just open the lid and close it to stop the beeping.
After this cycle is finished, reach a hand to the bottom of the pan and remove the two paddles. I used to also remove the dough and fold it a few times (as shown in the video), but the that doesn’t seem to improve the shape of the bread so I recently eliminated that step. Even if the dough looks irregular after removing the paddles, it evens out before baking.

2) Start cycle 15 (memory 2) – This will allow for a bulk rise for 3 – 4 hours (depends on how active your starter is). Then bake for 65 minutes.

Set an alarm to check on the bread before the baking starts. If it hasn’t risen enough, let is rest an additional 30-60 minutes.
Set an alarm to remove the bread right after baking. Cool on a cooling rack for 1-2 hours before slicing it.

3) If you need to let the dough rise longer,

Cancel the cycle
Set a separate timer for the extra time for rising (30 or 60 minutes)
When the dough has risen enough, start Cycle 15 (memory 3) to start baking
Set an alarm to remove the bread right after baking. Cool on a cooling rack for 1-2 hours before slicing it.

Programing your Breadmaker’s custom bake settings for this bread recipe:

Set cycle 14 (memory 1) as follows:

Rest: 0 min
Knead (mix): 8 min
Shape: off (optional to shape it into a log)
rise 1: 0 min
- knock down (won’t do anything because paddles were removed)
rise 2: 0 min
- knock down
rise 3: 0 min
Bake: 0 min

Set cycle 15 (memory 2) as follows:

Rest 0 min (preheats it, especially important if the whole wheat was cold from the fridge)
knead (mix): 0 min
Shape: off
rise 1: 0 min
- knock down (won’t do anything because paddles were removed)
rise 2: 0 min
- knock down
rise 3: 3 to 4 hours (This will keep the temperature slightly warm for the bulk rise. Can start with 3.5 hours and figure out your ideal time, which depends on how active your starter is.)
Bake: 65 min

Set cycle 16 (memory 3) as follows: