Multigrain Sourdough Bread

Side view of a round loaf of sourdough bread with multigrain.

5 from 2 votes

Make some Multigrain Sourdough Bread at home and enjoy slices of soft and gut-healthy bread. This delicious sourdough is easy to make with just seven ingredients and you can adjust the baking time to work with your schedule!

Course Bread

Cuisine American

Keyword multigrain sourdough bread

Prep Time 30

Cook Time 50

Rise/Ferment Time 8

Total Time 9 20

Servings slices

Calories 200kcal

Author Sue Ringsdorf

Ingredients

75 grams bubbly, active sourdough starter
350 grams warm, filtered water
40 grams honey
175 grams whole spelt flour
325 grams bread flour
10 grams fine sea salt
75 grams Harvest Grains Blend (soaked in hot water) - or 10-grain cereal

Instructions

** READ the blog post in it's entirety before making this sourdough recipe!
Carefully measure out the starter and water and use a fork and stir. Then proceed adding the other ingredients in the order listed and stir again with a fork.
75 grams bubbly, active sourdough starter, 350 grams warm, filtered water, 40 grams honey, 175 grams whole spelt flour, 325 grams bread flour, 10 grams fine sea salt, 75 grams Harvest Grains Blend (soaked in hot water)
Then use your hands to bring the ingredients together. It will look shaggy. Cover with a damp towel and let it sit for 45 minutes. (Be sure to set a timer.) This is the AUTOLYSE.
While the dough is sitting in autolyse, soak the multigrain cereal in about 60 grams of hot water.
After 45 minutes, add the multigrain cereal to the bowl. Then start the stretch and folds. Use your hand and lift the dough up on one side, stretching it upward, and then punch into the center of the dough. Turn the dough and repeat. Continue this process for about 30 seconds. This is the STRETCH AND FOLDS.
ADDITIONAL STRETCH AND FOLDS: I recommend doing additional stretch and folds if time permits. Do these every 30 minutes for 3-4 more times to further develop the gluten structure.
Let the dough rise for 6-8 hours, or overnight. It should almost double in size and appear soft on top. Small air bubbles may appear as well. This is the BULK RISE.
Note: I recommend placing a damp towel on the dough for the overnight rise. You might also add a bit of oil to the top to keep a crust from forming on the dough overnight.
Add a light dusting of flour to a baking mat or clean surface. Remove the dough to the mat and gently form into your desired shape, usually round or oblong. Don’t punch the dough down because you don’t want to remove all the air. Let dough sit for five minutes.
After five minutes, use your hands to pull the dough toward you, dragging it along the mat to tighten it up. Repeat in the other directions to tighten. (Make sure you don’t have too much flour on the surface when tightening the dough, so there is some needed friction necessary to tighten it.)
Place the dough, seem side up, in a bowl lined with a towel or a prepared banneton basket (pictured below). Cover with a damp towel and let it sit for about an hour or longer. For this bread, it does not need to double again in size. This is the SECOND RISE.
For both the bowl or banneton basket, you’ll need to prepare them. For a bowl, add a thin tea towel dusted with rice flour (or regular flour will work in a pinch). For the basket, add some rice flour as well. The rice flour will help prevent sticking while regular flour may not do this as well.
Prepare for baking. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Carefully remove the loaf to a piece of parchment paper, smooth side up. Then take a serrated edge knife or a bread lame (linked below), and score the bread a couple of times. Place the bread (including parchment paper) into a dutch oven.
Bake. Add the lid to the pan and bake for 20 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake an additional 30 minutes, or until bread is nice and golden on top and bottom.
Cool. Remove pan and then use parchment paper as handles to lift the bread out of the pan. Place on a cooling rack. Let the bread COMPLETELY COOL before slicing.

Notes

Expert Tips

Make sure your starter is ready. If you store your starter in the refrigerator between use, make sure it’s active and ready to go before baking with it. I often feed it 2-3 times before using it after resting (i.e. sleeping in the refrigerator).
Be flexible. If you’re bulk rise is taking longer than normal, or the starter isn’t as bubbly as you’d like it, be flexible. You can add time to either of these, and still make delicious bread. Many factors will come in to play as to when your sourdough is ready. In the summer months, the humidity and heat will make the process shorter. In the winter months, the process may be longer.
Measure carefully and then adjust as needed. Make sure you use a digital scale to measure your ingredients in grams. This is important. Even with measuring carefully, you MAY need to adjust slightly. When your hands are on the dough doing stretches and folds, you will come to feel if more water/more flour is needed to make the dough pliable and soft. This comes with practice.
Practice. Like I said above, as you practice making this bread and enjoying the bounties, you’ll learn all the little nuances to the sourdough process. Practice makes perfect!
Let the bread cool. One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to slice the bread immediately after coming out of the oven. If you do this, it will be doughy tasting. Let the bread completely cool before slicing!

Nutrition