Multigrain sourdough

My current favourite sourdough recipe. The bread is a bit dense because of the high rye and whole wheat content, but the seeds make up for it by adding an interesting texture.

Ingredients

Starter

• 20g sourdough starter
• 100g all purpose flour
• 100g water

Dough

• 560g warm water (~35-40 °C)
• 200g dark rye flour
• 150g whole wheat flour
• 650g all purpose flour
• 2tbsp maple sirup
• 20g salt

Soaker

• 50g flaxseed
• 50g black sesame
• 50g rolled oats
• 50g sunflower seed
• 50g pumpkin seed

Day 1

Typically I would start the bread late in the evening, but it depends on how long it takes to activate your starter. Figure that out or tweak your ratios for a specific duration and then work backwards from when you want to start autolyse.

• Feed the starter and let it rest overnight
• Soak seeds in room-temperature water and let them soften overnight

Alternatively, you can soak the seeds in boiling water on day 2 when you start autolyse. This results in the seeds being slightly crunchier. When they are soaked overnight, they will be softer and less prominent.

Day 2

• Drain the soaked seeds
• Autolyse the warm water, bubbly starter (should float), maple syrup and all flour
• Knead in a mixer on slow for a couple of minutes; let it rest for 30 mins
• Add 20g salt and the soaker, mix on slow speed for 2 mins, then increase to medium-high for another 2 mins
• Right after mixing (no rest) transfer to plastic container coated with olive oil to ferment with a lid for 30 mins
• Do a pull & stretch fold 4-5 times, another 30 mins
• Do a pull & stretch fold 4-5 times, then tuck the dough under itself 4-5 times, let it ferment until it doubles in volume (for me this takes 2.5-3 hrs but your mileage may vary)
• Flour the work surface, use scraper to free the dough, cut to two halves (or four quarters if you prefer smaller loaves like me), use scraper to shape them into buns, let rest under towel for 20 mins
• Flour proofing baskets, do the Tartine shaping procedure if you are so inclined, move to baskets, cover with tea towel, let rest for 60 mins
• Keep in fridge overnight or at least for one hour to chill it and make the bread retain its shape when baked

Day 3

• Preheat oven to 280 °C using static heat with pizza stone/steel (or dutch oven) in it for at least 15 min
• Switch to convection at 250 °C, add bread (if you are not using dutch oven, add steam during the first 15 mins of bake if your oven supports this)
• Switch to 230 °C (and crisp mode if your oven has one) for another 18 mins

The steam / crisp bits are optional, the main reason for them is to caramelize the crust.

Personally, I like to split my dough into four quarters and bake all in one batch on a large pizza steel. They barely fit, but it can be done and doing it in one batch saves a lot of time and energy. And the small loaves make great gifts for friends. Because who doesn’t like good bread?