 While it's definitely harder to achieve a high rise on a loaf of whole wheat bread, that doesn't mean it always has to be dense and bland. Since whole wheat flour contains the entire grain, it has more trouble developing gluten since only certain parts of that grain contribute to gluten development. On top of that, those other parts of the grain act as little razor blades that slash apart the gluten network as it develops. But by making a few tweaks, including increasing the hydration to make the dough more extensible, we're able to achieve a relatively light and delicious loaf of whole wheat sourdough bread. And today, I'm going to show you how to make it. So let's get into it. If you're new here, my name is Charlie, and on this channel, I show you how to make delicious food using simple ingredients and techniques. So let's make some bread. Also, before we get into the recipe, just a quick reminder that I've created a free sourdough quick start guide that walks you through everything you need to know in order to bake a successful loaf of sourdough bread. So to download it, be sure to click the link in the description below. So for this recipe, which makes two loaves, we'll need 140 grams of Levan. To make the Levan, mix 25 grams of your mature starter with 65 grams of flour and 65 grams of room temperature water. I'm just using my usual blend of 50% whole wheat and 50% all-purpose flour here. But if you want to make this recipe using entirely whole wheat flour, you can of course use whole wheat flour for the Levan as well. It's really just up to you. Either way, just let that rise until at least doubled in size, which should take about 8 to 12 hours. As usual, I'll include a sample baking schedule on the full post on my website, which will be linked below, but generally I like to mix my Levan at night and begin mixing the dough the next morning. So here we are about 10 hours later and my Levan has risen nicely, so we can start mixing the dough. In a large bowl, add 575 grams of water, along with 140 grams of your Levan, which would be just about the entire thing, then stir to dissolve. Keep in mind, you can of course scale this recipe by just scaling all of the ingredients, including the Levan accordingly. Now add 650 grams of whole wheat flour and stir until everything is fully saturated. In this case, I'm using a finely ground whole wheat flour from Central Milling, which I'll link below for anyone interested. This recipe is also great for incorporating some other types of grains like einkorn spouts or rye. So if you want to do that, just replace 175 grams of the whole wheat flour with 175 grams of the flour of your choice. And you'll also want to use 50 grams less water in that case, so you should use 525 grams of water in the previous step, rather than 575 grams. If you do incorporate other types of flours, I don't recommend using more than 175 grams for this recipe, because those other types of grains contain less gluten than typical wheat, so you'll have to start changing the process more significantly as you add more and more of them. So you'll notice that if you do use them, your dough will have a bit less gluten development than mine does, but the final results should turn out just as well. Anyways, once everything is mixed, just cover your bowl and transfer it to a warm environment at about 80 degrees Fahrenheit or 27 degrees Celsius and allow it to rest for an hour. This auto-leases a bit longer than usual because the whole wheat flour takes longer to absorb the water and start developing gluten. Anyways, after that hour, it's time to add 14 grams of salt along with another 30 grams of water and fold those into the dough. This brings the total hydration of the dough to about 93%, which is pretty high, but you do need to use a high hydration with whole wheat dough just because that whole wheat flour can absorb so much water. If you use too low of a hydration, your dough won't be extensible enough and you'll end up with a tight and overly dense crumb. So at first, it may seem like the dough will never come together, but throughout the course of the bulk fermentation, the folds will help us to develop plenty of strength in the dough. Anyways, for now, just return the dough to your 80 degree environment and let it rest for another 25 minutes. Now, during the bulk fermentation, we're going to perform six sets of folds spaced out at 25 minute intervals. The first four sets will be stretch and folds where you'll grab a portion of the dough and stretch it as far as it'll go without tearing, then fold it back over itself and repeat that process eight times around the perimeter of the dough. Then after the fourth set of folds, you'll flip the dough over before placing it back into your warm environment. The last two sets of folds will be coil folds. So for these, you'll lift the dough up and allow it to stretch downward and then fold it back over itself. Repeating that process a total of four times around the perimeter of the dough. These coil folds are much more gentle than the stretch and folds, so they're ideal for preserving the airiness in the dough toward the end of bulk fermentation. Now after the sixth set of folds, return the dough to your warm environment for a final 25 minutes. After that 25 minutes, it's time to begin dividing and shaping the dough. So turn out the dough onto a lightly floured surface with the top side down and divide it into two equal sized pieces. Then flip each piece over and use your bench scraper to pre-shape each piece into a taut ball, being careful not to over-shape which could cause the surface to tear. The goal here is just to create some initial tension. So once their shape, just dust the loaves with a bit more flour and cover them with a kitchen towel for a 25 minute bench rest. After that 25 minutes, it's time for the final shaping. I like to shape my loaves into batards, so I'm getting out my oval banditons and dusting them with some rice flour to prevent any sticking. I like to use brown rice flour just so my loaves don't end up with a white residue on the surface, but that's all just personal preference. White rice flour will work just fine as well. So to shape the loaves, make sure the floured side is facing down, then start by gently stretching the dough into a wide rectangle like so, then fold the portion of the dough closest to you over the middle. Next, fold the left and right sides over each other in the same way, developing as much tension as possible without tearing the dough. Then grab the two corners furthest away from you and fold them in toward the middle. This creates a little thicker portion in the middle of the loaf which then tapers out toward the edges. So tuck that fold in as you roll the dough over, then tuck again and roll again until you've reached the end of the dough. It also helps to develop a bit more tension by dragging the dough along your work surface a few times with your hands or bench scraper. Finally, just gently place the loaf into the banditon seam side up. If you notice any seams that haven't fully closed, you can pinch them shut at this point and even stretch the dough over itself a bit more if you think it could use some more tension. You'll notice that the dough won't be quite as extensible as a non-whole wheat loaf because the whole wheat flour of course contains the entire grain so it has a harder time developing gluten. Which is also why whole wheat loafs tend to turn out a bit denser, but since we used a high hydration here paired with plenty of folding, we can still achieve a pretty decent rise. Anyways, if you'd like to shape a boule, the process is pretty similar and I talked about it in my basic sourdough bread recipe so I'll leave a link to that portion of the video below. Either way, just repeat the shaping process with the second loaf and transfer your banditons to some sort of food safe plastic bag or anything else that will achieve an airtight seal to prevent the dough from drying out. If you use plastic bags, you can obviously reuse them for future loaves if you like. Then transfer those banditons to your fridge for the final proofing until the loaf spring back slowly when poked, which should take about six to nine hours. It's a bit harder to tell how quickly the loaves spring back when they're in the plastic bags, but you can still get a good idea. Now for those of you that have seen my previous videos, you know that I'm a big fan of the Dutch oven method for baking. So once the loaves are about an hour away from being ready to bake, go ahead and preheat your oven with a Dutch oven inside to 500 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 260 degrees Celsius. So here we are after about eight hours of proofing and my loaf spring back slowly when poked, meaning that they're ready to bake. I've had my oven preheating for about an hour now, so all that's left to do is score the loaves and bake them. So as quickly as possible, remove the bottom of your preheated Dutch oven and flip the loaf onto it. Then score the loaf, making sure to score at an angle to the surface of the loaf for the best possible ear at about one half inch to one inch deep. Then quickly place the lid onto your Dutch oven and throw the loaf into the oven. After 20 minutes, remove the lid from your Dutch oven, and hopefully your loaf has risen nicely by this point. So now just reduce your oven temperature to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 230 degrees Celsius, and allow the loaf to bake for another 15 minutes or until the desired level of browning is achieved. As always, you'll want to wait until the loaf has completely cooled before cutting into it to allow the inside to finish cooking. When you do cut into it, you should be left with a beautifully tender and relatively open crumb bread, which is a far cry from the dense flavorless loaves that you typically think of when you think of whole wheat bread. As with most sourdough, these will last at least a week on your counter, and you'll even see that the flavor tends to change over time, so they might become slightly more tangy during the next few days after baking. So now that you know how to make whole wheat sourdough bread, be sure to click the video in the bottom right corner of the screen to pick up some tips on how to get a better oven spring. So there you go. I'll see you all in the next one.