Challenge Yourself With This 50/50 Wholemeal and White Sourdough

Level up yourself and refine your dough-reading skill with this recipe

As a sourdough addict, I enjoy trying out recipes, inclusions and of course different types of flours. I have experimented with wholemeal, rye, Typo 00 (Italian flour), heritage flour (flour milled from ancient grains), and high protein flour (21.8%) for sourdough. Among all, wholemeal flour is the one I would go for when I feel like changing the recipe up a little.

Even though I have been making sourdough for a while now, working with wholemeal flour is a challenging task. Because of its composition, it affects the way wild yeast and bacteria work and the entire fermentation stage. If my beginner-friendly wholemeal and white sourdough recipe is an entry-level exercise, this 50/50 wholemeal and white sourdough could be your (and my) next challenge.

Not gonna lie, before I finally wrote this post, I have tried several times using the same recipe to get the result I am happy with. There was a time when the dough was left too long on first rise and it ended up flat and little oven spring. There was also a time when I cold-proofed the dough for two days in the fridge, resulting in an extremely sour loaf.

Despite all the trial and error, I was rewarded with an absolutely delicious loaf in the end. The level of sourness is just right. The bread was moist, slightly tangy and with the crust, it was impeccable.

A fun fact about me

I don’t always like wholemeal bread. When I was little, my mom bought wholemeal bread loaves all the time and I hated it. It wasn’t until I was a grownup, that I started to appreciate the flavor and nutrition benefits of whole grain flour. And now I love using it in my sourdough!

50/50 wholemeal and white flour sourdough recipe

weight	ingredient	baker’s percentage
200g	baker’s flour (12.5% protein)	50%
200g	wholemeal flour (12.1% protein)	50%
340g	water	85%
100g	starter	25%
8g	salt	2%
total 845g

Workflow

Night before	Feed starter (1:3:3)
Day 1
8:25	Cold proof in the fridge overnight.
8:35	Bulk Ferment starts. (Dough temp: 23.8 degree) Stretch and Fold : perform twice with 30 minutes in between. Coil Fold : perform 2-3 times (30 minutes intervals) depending on gluten development.
14:05	Pre-shape: tighten the dough into a ball. Rest for 30 minutes
14:45	Final shape: batard (oval) Rest for 15 minutes
15:00	Bulk Ferment starts. (Dough temp: 23.8 degrees) Stretch and Fold : perform twice with 30 minutes in between. Coil Fold : perform 2-3 times (30 minutes intervals) depending on gluten development.
Day 2
14:20	Pre-heat oven and baking steel to max temperature setting.
15:20	Prepare boiling water for steam. Score the bread and bake. 250 degrees, 20 minutes, with steam 230 degrees, 23 minutes, without steam.
	Cool down for at least 1 hour before cutting.

Notes

* When hand mix the dough, I weigh the salt together with the flour. Before adding the flour/salt mixture to the water and starter mixture, make sure the salt is distributed evenly throughout the mixture to avoid direct contact with the starter, which may interfere starter’s activity.

* As my beginner-friendly wholemeal and white sourdough recipe mentioned, the more wholemeal flour in the dough, the more water it will need. That is why this recipe calls for 85% water (hydration). Feel free to adjust the water content to suit your needs.

* I stopped bulk ferment when the dough increased by about 30%. There is a subtle difference in volume change. The best way is to look for other signs indicating the completion of bulk ferment. Performing a poke test helps too. For more details, check when does bulk fermentation complete.

* Although the dough didn’t seem growing much, it was ready to move on to the pre-shape stage. The first time I made this 50/50 sourdough, I left the dough proved until it was almost 70% increased in volume. I could tell the dough was losing its strength when I finished pre-shape. During bench rest after pre-shaping, the dough was spreading out and getting flat. And the result? It was a flatter bread with a rather sour taste, which for me is an overproofed loaf.

* As usual, the video is here. (sound on)

* The last attempt, the dough tastes moderately sour, exactly the way I like it. I would probably push the bulk ferment a little bit more for the open crumbs.

At the end

Making sourdough bread with new flour is always a challenge. The only way to master it is to practice and keep going. I, as well, feel frustrated sometimes when I can’t make sourdough the way I want it to be. But I know it’s a process that I have to cope with my dough and my emotions.

May all the good bread be with you.