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Bolles Wheat Sourdough
This is a fresh-milled whole wheat bread recipe that also works with large-scale stone milled flour. It’s a simple sourdough formula of flour, water, and salt with a fair amount of dough development to acheive a lofty and tender bread. I used bolles hard red spring wheat to get a bread that is wonderfully wheaty but not bitter. With a protein level of 14.4%, this deep red wheat is even higher in protein than most durum wheat and the glutenin-gliadin composition seems to be ideal for a strong gluten network. Breadtopia’s bolles wheat was organically grown by Ben Penner Farms in Minnesota. This relatively new wheat varietal was bred to have excellent yield and disease resistance through extreme weather events.
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The dough feel with bolles wheat is excellent and the recipe below uses several gluten development methods to maximize the strength of this high protein wheat: saltolyse (autolyse with salt), slapping and folding, stretching and folding, lamination, and coil folding. Below is a video that shows the dough hydration after adding the sourdough starter and demonstrates the technique of slapping and folding dough in the mixing bowl to help incorporate the starter and strengthen the gluten.
In the recipe instructions, you’ll find links to videos for the other gluten development techniques as well as dough shaping. The dough in those videos is Sourdough Pain de Campagne, which is only 25% whole grain flour. You should stretch this 100% whole grain dough a bit more gently and expect some tearing when you laminate it. Lamination provides a relatively quick, tremendous boost to gluten strength so I believe it’s worth the effort, but if you don’t have the clear workspace for it, you can substitute another round of coil folding.
Make sure you check out the photo gallery after the recipe for process photos, including what the dough looks like at the beginning and end of both the bulk fermentation and the final proof. I give rise times in the instructions, but these are specific to my summer kitchen temperature of about 79F and my particular sourdough starter strength. You may be baking this bread in the winter or with a more or less lively starter, so it is always best to “watch the dough and not the clock.”
Bolles Wheat Sourdough
Freshly milled bolles hard red spring wheat flour makes a whole grain bread that is aromatic, super flavorful, and high in protein as well as fiber and other nutrients. The crumb is tender and relatively open, and the slices are quite pliable for sandwiches and more.
Ingredients
Instructions
Saltolyse (Time 0:00)
Dough Mixing and Gluten Development (actions at time 0:30, 1:00, 1:30, 2:00)
Shaping and Final Proof
Baking
Photo Gallery
Shopping List
Sourdough Starter (Dry)
Mockmill 100 Grain Mill
Danish Dough Whisk — Large
Oval Rattan Proofing Basket
Breadtopia Clay Baker — Batard
Expandable Cooling Rack
Dr. Oetker Dough Scraper Successor
Breadtopia’s Choice Kitchen Scale
$18.00Stainless Steel Mixing Bowls — Set of 3
$39.99Bolles Wheat Sourdough