Challenge Yourself With This 50/50 Wholemeal and White Sourdough

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

As an sourdough addict, I enjoy trying out recipes, inclusions and of course different type of flours. I have experimented with wholemeal , rye, Typo 00 (Italian flour), hertage flour (flour milled from ancient grains), 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 serveral times using the same recipe to get the result I am happy with. There was time when the dough was left too long on first rise and it ended up flat and little oven spring. There was also time when I cold proofed the dough for two days in the fridge, resulting an extreme 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 was until I’m an grownup, I start 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	Hand mix the dough Weigh up water and starter in a bowl and mix it until the starter is dissolved. In another bowl, weigh both flours and salt. Use a whisk or chopstickes to mix the mixture.* Add flour/salt mixture into water, using a scraper to mix until the dough is formed. At this point, the dough would be shaggy looking.
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	Cold proof in fridge overnight.
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 degree, 20 minutes, with steam 230 degree, 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 flour/salt mixture into the water and starter mixture, make sure the salt is distribute evenly throughout the mixture to avoid direct contact with starter, which may interfere starter’s activity.

* As mentioned in my beginner friendly wholemeal and white sourdough recipe, 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 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 doesn’t seem growing much, it was ready to move on to 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 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 couldn’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 with you.