The inspiration for this sourdough comes, not unexpectedly, from Maurizio Leo. If you love baking sourdough bread and don’t follow Maurizio’s blog or Instagram, or have his James Beard Award-winning book, you’re missing out on the best information out there on both the science and the art of sourdough. I’ve learned most of what I know about bread making by following and reading those who have done it before and better than me, and encourage you to do the same.
This particular bread is a remix of two of Maurizio’s recipes – his Fifty-Fifty Wholegrain and Sunflower Sesame Sourdough Breads. I’ve made each of them separately several times, and been delighted with the results, with the Sunflower Sesame getting some of the highest praise from my small cadre of bread tasters that any bread has ever gotten. (If you know me, it’s all about the praise…)
If you follow my instagram, you may be aware that I’ve been working my way towards the perfect 100% home-milled wholegrain sourdough loaf, and that my most recent attempt yielded a fine tasting but denser loaf than I’d like. It may have been the fact that I’ve been using a particularly thirsty Rouge de Bordeaux heritage grain that demanded more water than the recipe had allotted it, and added in things like walnuts and dried cherries before perfecting a plainer loaf first. I’m not giving up, but I am taking a break until I finish up my supply of the Rouge, after which I’m going again for the 100% using a varietal yet to be determined.
In the meantime, I decided to up the percentage of wholegrain in the ever-popular Sunflower Sesame Loaf, which is about 30% wholegrain, by using Maurizio’s Fifty-Fifty loaf as the base. I did adjust the total quantities to make them easier to deal with and tweaked the water to account for the black sesame seed soaker and honey. In this smaller 50% percentage, my heritage wholegrain appeared to behave itself and I ended up with an 80% hydration (considering the honey as hydration, since it’s mostly water), not-too-difficult to handle, lively yet sturdy dough. (Thank you, King Arthur…)
I baked this bread according to Tartine’s method, which starts with a 500 degree F preheat, then lowers to the same 450 degree F baking temp that Maurizio uses. I don’t know how much difference this makes, but my oven temp drops quite a bit when I leave the door open while I score my bread, so it makes me feel better to start at a higher preheat temp.
If you want to try making this bread, and have any questions or need a little coaching or encouragement, feel free to reach out to me. This sourdough thing takes a village.
Half Wholegrain Sunflower Sesame Sourdough
Ingredients
Levain
- 48 g Active Sourdough starter
- 48 g water
- 24 g white bread flour (I use King Arthur Organic)
- 24 g wholegrain flour (I used finely home-milled Barton Springs Rouge de Bordeaux)
Inclusions
- 35 g black sesame seeds
- 35 g boiling water
- 130 g sunflower seeds
Autolyse
- 450 g white bread flour
- 450 g wholegrain flour
- 630 g water
Mix and Add
- 35 g honey
- 60 g water
- 18 g fine sea salt
Topping
- white sesame seeds
Instructions
Levain
- Mix levain ingredients using 78 °F water until all flour is incorporated. Loosely cover and let sit for 3 hours till active.
Inclusions
- Mix the black sesame seeds with the boiling water in a small bowl. Let cool, then cover and set aside till bulk fermentation.
- Toast sunflower seeds on a large baking sheet in a 350 °F oven for 8-10 minutes. Watch closely! Cool and set aside till bulk fermentation.
Autolyse
- After your levain has sat for 1-2 hours, mix autolyse ingredients in a large bowl using wet hands and a bowl scraper to fully incorporate the dry ingredients. Loosely cover and let sit near your levain till levain is ready.
Mix Dough (desired temp 78 °F)
- After 3 hours, check levain for readiness using the float test. If it's ready, it's time to mix your dough.
- Check autolyse temperature – if it's too high, use cooler water in the mix, and vice versa if it's too low.
- Add the levain, honey, salt and half the water to the autolysed dough. It will come apart, but then come should come together easily. If it's too wet and shaggy, hold back the rest of the water. Otherwise, add the other half of the water and continue to mix till dough comes together.
- Use slap and fold technique on an unfloured bench with wet hands to strengthen the dough. Transfer back to the bowl, cover loosely and start the bulk fermentation.
Bulk Fermentation
- Allow dough to ferment for about 3 hours, during which you will perform 5 sets of stretch and folds at 30 minute intervals. At the first stretch and fold, incorporate the black sesame seek soaker and sunflower seeds as follows – Spread 1/4 of the seeds evenly over the dough, performing one stretch and fold. Rotate the bowl a quarter turn, spread another quarter of the seeds on top and perform another stretch and fold. Rotate again and repeat, then rotate and repeat one last time with the last remaining quarter of the seeds. Cover dough.
- Repeat stretch and fold sets every 30 mins for a total of 5 stretch and fold sets. After the last stretch and fold, let dough rest for the remaining hour of bulk fermentation.
Divide, pre-shape and shape
- At the end of bulk fermentation, confirm your dough is ready to pre-shape. It should have bubbles on top and the sides, dome downward at the sides of the bowl, and feel elastic and strong. If it needs more time to achieve readiness, give it what it needs.
- When the dough is ready, gently scrape it onto a clean bench and divide equally using your bench knife. Using your bench knife and a moist hand, shape each piece into a smooth round. Let rounds rest for 30 minutes, uncovered.
- Prepare your proofing baskets by placing cloth liners and dusting them lightly with rice flour. Spread and even layer of white sesame seeds on a sheet pan or clean towel. Dry your bench for shaping.
- Dust the top of your rounds with flour, flip over flour side down on the bench and shape into either a batard or a boule. After shaping, quickly roll the top side in the seeds so they stick. (If you need to spray a bit of water to moisten it, do so) Gently transfer to the prepared proofing basket, seam side up. Place basket into a clean, reusable plastic bag and put in the fridge for an overnight proof. If the dough does not come to the top of the basket, allow it to sit another 30-60 minutes at room temperature to achieve some height, then bag and transfer to fridge.
Bake
- Preheat your dutch oven in a 500 °F oven for at least 30 minutes.
- Immediately before baking, remove one bread from the fridge. Evert onto parchment paper and score. Gently drop into the preheated dutch oven, cover and transfer to the oven. Reduce the oven temp to 450 °F and bake for 20 minutes, then remove the lid. Continue to bake for another 20-25 minutes till internal temp is 206-210 degrees F and crust is a rich, golden brown color. Cool on wire rack at least 1-2 hours before slicing. For the second loaf, raise the temp to 500 and preheat your dutch oven again for 15 minutes, then repeat as above.
