Oh look, it's Dietrich

One of the things that was remarkable about moving into our new place was making a new sourdough starter. We began with flour that had come from our three disparate houses, and that thing bubbled into an absolute sourdough monster in no time at all. Between that, the awesome oven we have, and still more trial and error, I've gotten pretty damn good at making beautiful, tasty white sourdough bread.

A whole grain bread, though, has eluded me for some time. I tried an all-rye recipe a few times, but the loaves were always, if not brick-like, at least somewhat too dense. 100% whole wheat loaves proved equally difficult, even with super-long overnight retards and proofing times, even with added fat. The bread would be dense, grainy, with very little spring if any, and would fall apart when you sliced it or handled it too much.

Finally this weekend I tried this recipe, being careful to watch especially the second video and learn how to properly handle rye flour. I changed a few things - I used white whole wheat flour in place of bread flour, omitted the seeds and the zest, and substituted maple syrup for molasses. I just wanted a tasty whole grain loaf without all the fancy stuff.

Not having a stone cloche baker, I decided to experiment with a technique I picked up from glancing over meristem's gorgeous Tartine book: baking in a closed cast iron Dutch oven.

The results:












This bread is thick-crusted, with a delicious spongy crumb and a balanced flavor. I am so psyched to make it part of my regular repertoire.