Sourdough Honey Whole Wheat Bread

Sourdough Honey Whole Wheat Bread is an easy loaf I discovered back when I first learned to make a mini sourdough starter. It's a sliceable sandwich bread with a golden crust, soft crumb, and just a hint of flavor from the starter.

Somewhere along the way my sourdough starter died, this recipe went into hibernation, and I forgot how good it was -- until Sue reminded me. I revived the recipe, baked a loaf, took better photos, and immediately remembered why it earned a spot in my regular rotation.

Why Add Baking Soda to Yeast Bread?

I also remembered an important detail: the baking soda. This recipe is a little unusual in that it's primarily a yeast bread, but it includes a small amount of baking soda in the dough. The baking soda helps the crust brown more deeply, softens the crumb, and balances the natural acidity of the whole wheat flour and sourdough starter. Leaving it out didn't ruin the bread, but the loaves made with baking soda were noticeably better.

Three Rising Times

The bread has three different rising times, with the first being something like an autolyse where the flour hydrates in the liquid before salt and other ingredients go in. In this recipe, the yeast goes in with the autolyse, so it's more of a modified autolyse. After that you have the two standard rises -- one in the bowl and the other in a loaf pan.

If you like the idea of whole wheat bread but don't have any sourdough, I recommend Wheat and Flax Bread. If you just want white bread, the Gold Medal White Bread recipe is great.

• Sourdough Lemon Poppy Seed Biscotti
• Sourdough Cheese Swirl Bread
• Small Batch Sourdough English Muffins
• Sourdough Discard Biscotti
• Sourdough Discard Scones

Recipe

Sourdough Honey Whole Wheat Bread

An easy sourdough loaf that only requires a small amount of starter

5 from 1 vote

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 35 minutes mins

Rising Time 4 hours hrs

Total Time 4 hours hrs 55 minutes mins

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Servings 12

Equipment

• Stand mixer with dough hook

Ingredients

 

• 1 ⅛ teaspoon yeast, instant or active dry
• 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour (210 grams)
• 2 cups bread or all-purpose flour (210 to 250 grams)
• ½ cup water
• ½ cup milk
• 6 tablespoons active starter (80 grams)
• 2 tablespoons honey (40 grams)
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• ¼ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ tablespoons butter, softened softened

Instructions

 

• Grease a standard size loaf pan.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast, ½ cup whole wheat flour (70 grams) and ½ cup of the bread flour (63 grams).
• Combine milk and water to make 1 cup of liquid, and heat to 125 degrees F. Pour the liquid mixture into the flour mixture and stir well, then add the bubbly sourdough and beat until well blended. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set in a warm place for 1 ½ to 2 hours.
• Stir in the honey, salt, baking soda and butter, then add the remaining 1 cup (130 grams) of whole wheat flour. Add remaining bread flour half cup at a time, stopping to stir after every half cup addition. You may not need the last half cup if using bread flour rather than all-purpose
• Using the dough hook, knead the dough until smooth and elastic. You can also do this by hand if you don't have a dough hook. Cover the dough and let rise until doubled in bulk (about 1 hour). Transfer to the greased 9x5 inch loaf pan and let dough rise again until doubled - -probably another hour.
• When ready to bake, preheat oven to 375 degrees and bake for 35 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow.

Keyword loaf pan, Sourdough

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