Ancient Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread

This recipe is from www.breadtopia.com with added honey for sweetness. Breadtopia is my favorite online source for organic ancient wheat berries and ancient wheat sourdough bread recipes. They also respond promptly to my baking questions via email, the quality of their wheat berries is better than I’ve found anywhere, and a lot of their bread recipes explain the experiment process of baking by including information on ferment and bake time, as well as ingredient percentages, which I find informative and helpful. This bread tastes best the day of baking so we typically eat some fresh on the first day, and then slice, separate with parchment paper, and freeze. When ready to eat again, we remove it from the freezer and pop it in the toaster. It rises really well and has a great nutty and slightly sweet taste, but it is fairly dense so it is best for toast or an open face sandwich, but would also work for a sandwich if you don’t mind a more dense wheat bread. I have been keeping this on hand instead of store bought bread for a few months now with no complaints from my family!

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This only applies to Amazon links – my other links are not paid, but just a way to help you find good ingredients. I will only link to products that I use and have vetted for taste and quality. I’m hoping this won’t affect the way you read my recipes, but will be a way for me to improve it over time.*

Ingredients

• 600 grams organic sprouted whole spelt berries, freshly milled
• 450 grams non chlorinated water
• 80 grams active sourdough starter
• 65 grams raw honey
• 12 grams course Celtic sea salt or Redmonds Real salt

Directions

Add 80 grams active sourdough starter to a straight sided food storage container or a bowl. I like these straight sided containers because you can measure how much the dough increases.

Add 450 grams water to the starter and mix well.

Add the freshly milled flour on top of the water/starter mixture.

Add the honey and salt on top of the flour.

Mix all ingredients well and knead into a roughly shaped dough ball. This will be pretty sticky and won’t form a shape.

Let sit, covered, for 20 minutes, and then perform a stretch and fold with floured hands.

Cover and let sit for 20 more minutes and perform one more stretch and fold with floured hands.

Cover and let sit at room temperature for 6 hours. I keep my kitchen in the low 70’s and this timing works great.

After 6 hours, oil a loaf pan. I use this Le Creuset heritage loaf pan, and it works great and looks pretty.

Lightly flour a wooden cutting board or surface of choice, remove dough from container with floured hands, and gently spread out into a rectangle. Fold sides in and around to form a rectangle loaf shape.

Place dough in loaf pan.

Let sit at room temperature for 1 1/2 hours. Your dough should be about 3/4-1/2 inch from the top of the pan when it’s ready.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees about 15 minutes before dough is ready.

Place an aluminum foil tarp over the loaf pan like a tent and place in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, remove foil tent, turn oven down to 425 degrees and bake for another 15-25 minutes. The original recipes states that the internal temperature should be over 200 degrees, but for some reason, mine never gets that high. I typically put mine in for the 15 minutes and then check it in 5 minute increments and remove it from the oven before the sides get too burnt.

Let sit on a wire rack or if you don’t have one, on a pretty wooden cutting board, until completely cooked. This may take a couple hours, but is very important so you don’t have gummy bread.

Slice and enjoy warm with grass-fed butter, with a sandwich, for grilled cheese, or even just plain. This bread tastes best the day of so it’s best to eat it right away, or slice and separate each piece with parchment paper, put in a ziplock bag and freeze it until ready to eat. We take each slice out as needed.

I hope you enjoy!

*This bread can be made with a variety of ancient wheat berries, but you’ll have to change the water ratios depending on the type of wheat. Some are thirstier than others. I have made it with Kamut berries as well and it is very good. My percentages changed to 300 grams kamut, 300 grams whole spelt, 400 grams water, 65 grams honey, 80 grams starter, and 12 grams salt. Once I make this version again, I’ll post my updates.