Whole Grain Wheat Bread

This bread is interesting because of how it's made. Only one type of flour is used - whole grain wheat flour - but there is a lot of fermentation and interesting preparation steps going on. Sourdough, poolish and a flour soaker all ferment over night. And there is a total of 4 1/2 hours of fermentation time even on baking day.

Sourdough

• 120g (4 1/2 oz) whole grain wheat flour
• 120ml (4 oz) water
• 12g (3/8 oz) wheat sourdough starter

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stir well, cover with lid or plastic wrap and let prove at room temperature for 16-20 hours. Since I always have a lot of wheat sourdough starter, I just used a whole batch of 250g of that, even though it's made from all purpose wheat flour.

Poolish

• 120g (4 1/2 oz) whole grain wheat flour
• 120ml (4 oz) water
• 0.1g fresh wet yeast

Combine all ingredients in a bowl, stir well and cover with lid or plastic wrap. Let rest for the same time as the sourdough.

Flour Soaker

• 20g (3/4 oz) whole grain wheat flour
• 95ml (3 1/4 oz) water

Mix water and flour in a pot and slowly heat up on the stove, permanently stirring with a whisk until the mixture starts to thicken. Keep temperature constant and stir for 2 minutes; the mixture will turn into a mash. Cover and put in the fridge for at least 3 hours. I made it the night before and left it in the fridge over night. 

Dough Autolysis

• Sourdough
• Poolish
• Flour soaker
• 370g (13 oz) whole grain wheat flour
• 175g (6 1/8 oz) plain yoghurt

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and knead with the dough hook on lowest speed for 2 minutes. Cover and let rest for 30 minutes.

Main Dough

• Autolysed dough
• 12g (3/8 oz) vegetable oil
• 35g (1 1/4 oz) honey
• 11g (1 1/2 tsp) salt

Add ingredients to autolysed dough  and knead with dough hook on lowest speed for 5 minutes. Increase to speed to 2 and knead for another 8 minutes. Cover with lid or plastic wrap and let rest rest at room temperature for 1 1/2 hours.

Grease a rectangular baking pan well with butter. Place dough on floured surface and divide into half. Roll each half into a roll about 1 1/2 times the length of the baking pan and twist the two rolls around each other.

Transfer dough into baking pan, cover with plastic wrap and let prove for 2 1/2 - 3 hours at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 200°C (395 °F).

Brush the dough with hot water and place on the middle rack of the oven. Spray a lot of water in and bake for 10 minutes. Then open the oven to let out steam, close again and continue baking for 20 minutes. Then take the bread out of the pan, and bake for another 15 minutes. To get a nice crunchy crust open the oven door a little bit during the last 5 minutes of that.

Take the bread out, brush again with hot water and let cool on cooling rack.

Original recipe (German language) in "Das Brotbackbuch" by Lutz Geißler, published by Ulmer Eugen Verlag.