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Scored whole grain sourdough bread with a golden, flour-dusted crust on a wooden board

Whole Grain Sourdough Bread

A wholesome everyday sourdough with a golden crust and open crumb — a Nordic loaf made with a mix of sifted and whole grain wheat.
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Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Rising & chilling 20 hours
Total Time 21 hours 5 minutes
Servings: 1 loaf
Course: Bread
Cuisine: Scandinavian
Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients
  

Starter
  • 140 g active sourdough starter (about ⅔ cup) — bubbly, ripe, and passing the float test
Dough
  • 400 g water (about 1⅔ cups), lukewarm
  • 300 g bread flour (about 2⅔ cups), — or sifted landhvete
  • 150 g whole wheat flour (about 1¼ cups) — or fine wholemeal landhvete
  • 100 g coarse / stoneground whole wheat flour (about ¾ cup) — or coarse wholemeal landhvete
  • 15 g fine sea salt (about 2½ tsp)
  • rice flour, for dusting a few tablespoons — resists sticking far better than wheat flour

Equipment

  • A digital kitchen scale I bake everything by weight; it's the difference between a good loaf and a lucky one.
  • A bench scraper makes handling sticky, high-hydration dough far easier.
  • Linen cloth (couche) Lining the basket keeps the dough from sticking and leaves a clean surface
  • A banneton (proofing basket) holds the dough's shape through the overnight rise and gives that beautiful spiral pattern.
  • A bread lame for one clean, confident scoring cut.

Method
 

Day 1
  1. Feed your starter the morning you bake (or the night before) so it's lively when you mix — it should be domed, bubbly, and float in water.
  2. Mix the dough. In a large bowl, whisk the starter into the lukewarm water to loosen it. Add all three flours and mix by hand until no dry flour remains — you'll have a shaggy, sticky dough. Hold the salt back for now. Cover and rest 1 hour at room temperature.
  3. Add the salt. Sprinkle it over the dough and work it in thoroughly, squeezing and folding until fully incorporated. The dough will tighten up slightly.
  4. Stretch and fold — every 30 minutes, at least 4 times. With a wet hand, grab one side of the dough, stretch it up, and fold it over the center; turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat around the whole dough (four pulls = one set). Cover, rest 30 minutes, repeat. Over these 2 hours the dough goes from slack and shaggy to smooth, elastic, and airy.
  5. Bulk ferment until risen. After the folds, cover and let it rise at room temperature until it's grown by about 30–50%, looks domed and jiggly, and shows bubbles on top and along the sides. Depending on your kitchen this is roughly 4–6 hours total from mixing — warmer is faster, cooler is slower. Watch the dough, not the clock.
  6. Shape. Tip the dough onto a lightly floured surface and fold it into a taut round (or oval), pulling it toward you against the counter a few times to build surface tension. Dust the shaped dough with rice flour — it resists sticking far better than wheat flour and gives the cleanest release.
  7. Into the banneton. Line your proofing basket with a cloth and dust it generously with rice flour, then set the dough in seam-side up. The cloth and rice flour together are what stop the dough from sticking to the basket.
  8. Cold retard overnight. Cover and refrigerate 12–16 hours. The slow, cold rise builds flavor and firms the dough so it's easier to score and springs higher in the oven.
Day 2
  1. Preheat, hot. About 45–60 minutes before baking, heat the oven as hot as it goes — around 250°C / 480°F — with two trays inside: your perforated baking tray (or a regular baking sheet) on the middle rack, and an empty metal roasting tray on the rack below. The baking tray needs to be properly hot before the loaf lands on it; the roasting tray is what makes your steam. Both metal, never glass — glass can shatter when the water hits it.
  2. Turn out and score. Turn the cold dough out onto a sheet of parchment, seam-side down. Score the top with one confident slash using a bread lame or sharp blade — this controls where the loaf opens up.
  3. Bake with steam. Slide the loaf, still on its parchment, onto the hot baking tray on the middle rack — parchment and all, in one quick movement. Immediately pour about 1 cup of just-boiled water into the hot tray below (stand back — it steams up fast) and shut the door quickly to trap it. Bake at 250°C / 480°F for 20 minutes. That burst of steam is what gives you a glossy, blistered crust and a big rise.
  4. Finish in dry heat. After 20 minutes, take the tray out (the water will have boiled off, and you want dry heat now to crisp the crust), drop the oven to 200°C / 390°F, and bake another 15 minutes until deeply golden. To be sure it's done, the loaf should sound hollow when tapped and read 96–99°C / 205–210°F in the center — the most reliable check. Still pale? Give it a few more minutes.
  5. Cool completely. Lift it out and cool on a wire rack for at least 1–2 hours before slicing. Cutting too early makes the crumb gummy — this last wait matters.

Notes

  • Let the fridge do the work. The overnight cold rise does the heavy lifting — better flavor, easier scoring, and a taller loaf. Don't skip it.
  • Weigh, don't scoop. A digital scale is the single biggest upgrade for consistent sourdough; the cup measures above are approximate.
  • Got a Dutch oven? You can bake covered instead: lower the loaf into a screaming-hot pot, lid on, 20 minutes at 250°C / 480°F, then lid off at 200°C / 390°F for the last 15 — no water tray needed.
  • Sticky is right. The whole grain flours drink up water, so this is a moderately high hydration dough (~73%). It'll feel tacky — that's exactly what you want.
  • Rice flour is the trick for proofing baskets — it doesn't absorb into the dough the way wheat flour does, so the loaf lifts out cleanly and keeps a crisp pattern.