help with whole grain sourdough

Hello everyone,

With some trepidation, I have now tried baking sourdough bread, twice.  It has been a flop, and, just in case, today I killed my starter and started a new one.  I realized that I did not refresh it correctly (from 100 g of 100% hydration started I removed 50 g, and then to the remaining 50 g added 25 g water and 25 g flour, when the correct amounts, I think, should have been 50 g of each).  Not surprisingly, it has been only somewhat active, but before realizing my error, I attributed it to bad luck.

But back to the baking.  I tried 100% whole grain sourdough.  Below is the formula, which I found on this site.

The fist time I kneaded it by hand, and the second time in my brand-new DLX, which I am just figuring out how to use, with great help from old posts on this site.  The first time I made it as 100% sourdough, and today I added 1 g of yeast because I suspected that my started might not do the job.  The final dough seemed a bit too tacky both times, but I left it that way thinking that it would improve after bulk fermentation, but it did not, and remained a bit tacky and slack, so that I could not even score it.  The gluten was fairly well-developed, as far as I could tell.  I weighed the ingredients and followed the directions, and the dough seemed to do OK, besides being slack.  The loaves (one round and one batard) went into the oven somewhat spread out and flat-looking and had zero oven-spring.  They did not collapse either.  They just came out looking more like flat breads than loaves.

I am wondering if someone has ideas on what I am not doing right.  The bread has great flavor and great crust.  So far we have have been enjoying it in the form of croutons.  I would love to make it well. My husband, who loves sourdough bread, believes that it is just too complicated and unpredictable to mess with, and I should just leave it alone.  I MUST, MUST, MUST have my, "Here is the great loaf, I told you so!!!"  moment :)

Thank you for your advice!

JMonkey

This may be my favorite hearth bread. When made well, it has an open crumb, which is unusual for 100% whole grain breads, and a deliciously sour and nutty flavor.

Overall Formula
Whole wheat flour: 60%
Whole spelt flour: 30%
Whole rye flour: 10%
Water: 75%
Salt: 2%

5% of the flour is in the starter, which could be whole wheat, whole rye or whole spelt, and can be  60% hydration or 100% hydration.

Ingredients
Whole wheat flour: 300 grams or 2 generous cups
Whole spelt flour: 150 grams or 1 generous cup
Whole rye flour: 50 grams or a generous 1/3 cup
Whole grain starter: 40 grams if stiff (a dough ball about the size of a golf ball); 50 grams if wet (about 3-4 Tbs)
Water: 375 grams  or 1.5 cups + 1 Tbs
Salt: 10 grams or 1 and 3/8 tsp

Mixing
Dissolve the starter into the water, and then add the salt. Mix the flours together well, and add to the water. Mix until everything is hydrated.

Dough development and the first rise
However you develop the dough, it’ll need to rise at room temperature for 8-10 hours. Use the wet finger test to see whether it’s fully risen in the morning.

Shaping
Be gentle. You want to retain as many of those air bubbles as possible. Rounds and batards are the traditional shapes.

Second rise
You can let it rise for another 2 to 3 hours at room temperature. You can also speed things up (and increase sourness) by placing the dough on an upturned bowl in the bottom of a picnic cooler, throwing a cup of boiling water in the bottom and covering it quickly. After an hour, throw another cup of hot water in. The rise should only take a couple of hours this way.

Baking
Score the bread as you like. Hash marks are traditional for rounds, and batards usually take a single, bold stroke down the center or a couple of baguette-style slashes.

While you can certainly bake this bread on a cookie sheet, it benefits from a stone and some steam, or a covered baker. However you do it, bake at 450 degrees for about 40 minutes.