Recipe

Here's my current, always-evolving recipe for a single loaf of 100% whole wheat sourdough bread. I try to make the steps look simple; click the button to show the notes with more details.

To get started, the list of ingredients is blissfully, marvelously simple:

• Flour. This site is all about using 100% whole wheat. Start with whatever you can find.
• Water. Tap is fine.
• Salt. Any kind is fine (except maybe flavored, unless you think it would work).
• Sourdough starter. If you don't have any you can substitute commercial yeast, or else use a "hybrid" of starter and yeast; see notes labelled OPTIONAL in the recipe.

You'll also need some tools—see the tools page for details.

Also consider the schedule for the overall recipe, depending on how long the dough will need to ferment. Roughly:

• The Overnight Loaf. For dough that uses only sourdough starter (no added yeast), start the recipe in the evening and let the dough rise overnight.
• The Daytime Loaf. Adding some commercial yeast cuts fermenting time down to a few hours, so you can start in the morning and finish the same day.