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Home » Sourdough

Sprouted Grain Sourdough Bread

Published: Apr 16, 2020 · Modified: Jun 7, 2022 by Baked · This post may contain affiliate links · 41 Comments

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A delicious loaf with complex flavour and texture, this whole wheat blend and sprouted grain sourdough is a great addition to your baking rotation.

Sprouted wheat sourdough bread in a Dutch oven with parchment paper.

Why Sprouted Sourdough?

Sprouted grains not only contribute phenomenal texture to a loaf, they’re also considered to be quite healthy, which is a great bonus for those looking to add more whole grain to their diet.

We love a good basic sourdough bread, but this is more of an adaptation on our cinnamon raisin sourdough because it doesn’t require bread flour. Regular all-purpose and whole wheat flours form the dough, while the stretch and folds build the structure.

If you’ve been making sourdough for a while and would like to branch out, this sprouted grain sourdough is an ideal place to start. Sprouting is a natural extension of sourdough baking–especially if you’re milling your own flour–and adding sprouted wheat makes for a more complex and highly textured loaf. It stands up well to just about any topping and toasts like a dream.

You can buy sprouted grain breads at most grocery stores nowadays, with brands like Silver Hills and Ezekiel in the mainstream. We think homemade is better, though. And once you make this loaf, we’re sure you’ll agree.

What’s in this bread?

  • All-purpose (white) flour
  • Whole wheat flour – red fife in this case (see below for more information)
  • Sourdough starter for the levain
  • Sea salt
  • Water
  • Sprouted wheat berries
Cross section of bread to show interior crumb.
Sprouted grains close up.

All about sprouted grains

Sprouted grains are whole grains that have been soaked and germinated (or allowed to sprout). This process allows the vital enzymes to be released which breaks down the starches and make the grain more digestible. The sprouted grains also add a nice chewy texture to the bread.

You can find wheat berries at most health food and bulk stores, or online at places like Flourist. Sprouting them will take a couple of days, so you’ll want to start sprouting at least one day before starting the levain. (See the schedule below for more detailed information.)

If you want to make the sprouted wheat berries in advance, they can be be made and refrigerated several days before using. Sprouted grains are ultra chewy and toothsome, so they add a nice texture to just about anything (they’re great in grain bowls).

How to Make Your Own Sprouted Wheat

Two Days Before Making Bread

Take approximately ¼ cup of wheat berries (about 50 g) and soak them in enough water to fully submerge for 2 hours. Drain the wheat berries well, then transfer them to a mason jar (important for being able to watch their progress), and set them aside in a dark corner of your kitchen.

Rinse and drain the berries a few times throughout the day. By the end of day 1, you should notice small white tails coming from your grains. 

The Day Before Making Bread

The tails of the wheat berries should be a little longer now (see photo above). The grain is now sprouted and will be ready for your bread. You will need to do this step a at least one day before you are ready to make the bread, but can do it several days in advance and store the fully sprouted wheat berries in the fridge until you are ready to bake.

Oval sourdough bread with three cuts in the top.

Red Fife Wheat

The whole wheat element in this loaf is whole grain Red Fife flour. Red fife is a heritage variety of wheat that was the Canadian baking standard of wheat from 1860 to 1900. Eventually, Red Fife was replaced with new strains of wheat that were more pest resistant.

Over the last 20 years, Red Fife has seen a resurgence in organic and artisanal bakeries and become more popular for home bakers. It has a similar nuttiness and can be compared to other more popular heritage grains like spelt, khorasan, and einkorn. You can often find it from small distributors such as Flourist.

Toast with a egg, herbs, and pickled onions, with a soft yolk.

Substitutions

Just a couple: You can use bread flour in place of all-purpose and regular whole wheat instead of Red Fife. We think another ancient wheat would work, too, like whole grain spelt, but we haven’t tested this yet.

You can use any kind of sprouted grain if you don’t have/can’t find wheat berries. Think sprouted buckwheat, barley, rye, millet, or any other grain that will sprout. We particularly love the texture of wheat berries, though.

Step by step:

Four images, clockwise from top left: sprouted grains in a container, water being poured into the dry bread ingredients, dough with sprouted grains folded in, and a shaggy dough just after mixing.
Two photos: on left, dough in proving basket before rising, and right, after rising.
Oval loaf of bread with three diagonal scoring marks.

Baker’s Schedule

Day 1 

Morning (24-36 hours)

Soak the wheat for sprouting: Place wheat berries in a jar and soak them in water for two hours. Drain and rinse them a few more times. Let them sit in a dark corner of your kitchen to sprout.  See more details above.

Evening (overnight)

Make the Levain: Mix the starter, water, and flour together in a bowl. That’s it. Cover the bowl with a plate and leave it on the counter to ferment overnight for approximately 8-12 hours.

Day 2

Afternoon

Autolyse: (30 minutes). Combine the fermented levain with the additional flours and water in a bowl. Let rest for 30 minutes.

Folding (3 hours): Add the sea salt and sprouted wheat berries to the dough and stretch and fold the dough every 30 minutes for the next 3 hours.

Rest, then shape (30 minutes): After the folds are complete, turn your loaf on to the counter and let rest before shaping. Prep your basket, banneton, or bowl for proofing.

Evening (Overnight)

Shape the loaf and place in a floured bowl or banneton (top-down, seam side up). Cover with a tea towel. Set in the fridge overnight.

Day 3 

Morning (1 hour, 20 minutes). Preheat the dutch oven for 30 minutes. Bake the sourdough for 45-50 minutes. Remove the pot from the oven and carefully lift out the loaf using the edges of the parchment paper. Let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

Toast with a egg, herbs, and pickled onions.

Why We Use Levain (Leaven)

While you could use straight starter in your sourdough, and we often do, levain can be easier for a number of reasons. Yes, it adds an extra overnight rise to the process, but it also means that you can use your starter straight from the fridge.

Unless you’re feeding your starter daily and it’s almost always ready to use, making a levain is often a more practical solution because your main starter can stay inactive and stored away. It also means that you can control the type of flour going into your loaf more easily.

You can see in our sourdough sandwich bread, for example, that it almost looks like a whole grain blend. That’s because we used a 100% rye starter, so it looks like there’s some whole wheat flour in the mix. A mostly all-purpose levain, with just a little bit of starter, would solve that.

Close up of sourdough bread with sprouted grains showing.

More Great Sourdough Recipes

Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread
Sourdough Focaccia
Sourdough Dinner Rolls
New York Style Sourdough Bagels
And if you want to keep baking, we have a whole space dedicated to sourdough recipes, including lots of discard recipes!

Loaf of sourdough bread on white background.

If you make your own sprouted grain sourdough, let us know by tagging @baked_theblog + #bakedtheblog on Instagram! We love to feel like we’re in the kitchen with you.

Sprouted wheat sourdough bread in a Dutch oven with parchment paper.

Sprouted Grain Sourdough Bread

5 from 4 votes
Author: Sophie Mackenzie
Prep Time 30 mins
Cook Time 45 mins
Rising Time 1 d
Total Time 1 d 1 hr 15 mins
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Description

 

A delicious loaf with complex flavour and texture, this whole wheat blend sprouted grain sourdough is a great addition to your baking rotation.

Equipment

  • Measuring cups and spoons or a digital kitchen scale
  • 2 Mixing bowl
  • Tea towel
  • Banneton
  • Dutch oven
  • sharp knife or bread lame
  • Wire rack

Ingredients
 

For the Levain

  • 2 tablespoons sourdough starter, see notes
  • ¼ cup water, room temperature
  • ⅓ cup all-purpose flour

For the Bread

  • 3.7 oz. levain, made the night before- see instructions
  • 1 ⅓ cups water, room temperature
  • 1 ¾ cups white all-purpose flour
  • 1 ⅓ cups whole wheat flour*
  • 2 teaspoons sea salt
  • 3.5 oz. sprouted wheat berries, see instructions in post

Instructions
 

TWO NIGHTS BEFORE BAKING (see notes)

    Make the Levain:

    • In a medium mixing bowl, mix together starter, water, and flour.
    • Cover bowl with a plate and leave it on the counter to ferment overnight, approximately 8-12 hours.

    One Day Before Baking

    • Once your levain is bubbly and active, remove 3.7 oz. (105 grams). Transfer to a large mixing bowl and mix with water until well-distributed. Add the white and whole wheat flours and, using a dough whisk and/or your hands, mix to form a shaggy dough.
    • Cover with a tea towel and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. 
    • Next, add salt and sprouted wheat berries. Using your hands to squish everything together, mix to combine. 

    Do the first fold:

    • To do this, get your hands damp and reach under the dough on the opposite side of the bowl from you. Pull the dough up and over towards you.
    • Repeat this so the side closest to you now folds to the side farthest from you. Lastly, repeat this so that the side on your left folds towards your right and your right folds towards your left. Think of it as wrapping a package. Then, scoop your hands under the ball of dough and flip it over completely. This completes one “fold”.
    • Complete 6 more folds: Do one fold every 30 minutes for 3 hours total.

    Shaping the dough:

    • Tip the dough out of the bowl onto a lightly floured surface and rest 20 minutes. Don't skip this rest step! Meanwhile, prepare your banneton by dusting it with flour. Alternatively, layer a clean tea towel in a medium mixing bowl and dust liberally with flour (50-50 wheat and rice flour is a great dusting combo).
    • To shape, flour a clean surface with just a touch of flour. Too much flour will prevent the dough from sticking to the surface and getting taut.
    • Gently fold the bread up like a burrito, then flip it over so that it’s seam side down, and use your hands to cup and roll the dough. You want to make as much surface tension as possible without tearing the outside of the loaf.
    • Once shaped, turn the loaf into the banneton (top-down). Gently flour the top of the loaf (which is actually the bottom) before covering with a towel.
    • Transfer the shaped loaf into the fridge to rest overnight.

    Day of Baking

    • Place a dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 260°C (500°F) or as hot as your oven can go, but no higher than 500°F. After the oven has come to temperature, let the dutch oven continue to preheat for another 30 minutes.
    • Once preheated, take bread out of the fridge. Gently invert the dough onto a piece of parchment paper (seam side down) that is large enough to lift your bread into and out of the dutch oven.
    • Score the bread with a sharp knife or bread lame.
    • Using oven mitts, carefully remove the hot dutch oven placing it on the stovetop. Remove the lid, then quickly and carefully lift the dough into the pot using the edges of the parchment paper as handles. Using oven mitts, carefully place the lid back on the dutch oven and put the vessel back into the oven.
    • Reduce oven temperature to 230°C (450°F) and bake for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the lid (be careful of steam) and bake for another 20-25 minutes with the lid off, or until the bread is golden to dark brown (depending on preference) and crusty.
    • Using the parchment paper as handles, transfer the bread from the dutch oven to a wire rack. Cool completely on a wire rack before cutting into it, at least 4 hours. 

    Notes

    If you have 105 g active, bubbly starter, plus extra to feed for your next round of baking, you can skip the levain step and use starter directly. The option of making a levain is helpful unless you’re feeding your starter daily and it’s almost always ready to use. Making a levain is often a more practical solution because your main starter can stay inactive and stored away.
    *We use Red Fife flour, but any whole wheat flour will work!
    If heat makes it too difficult to extract the dough and parchment layer safely, just let the loaf cool in the Dutch oven—don’t risk burning yourself.

    Nutrition

    Serving: 1g | Calories: 150kcal | Carbohydrates: 32g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 1g | Sodium: 326mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 1g
    Did you make this recipe?Let us know on Instagram @baked_theblog or tag #bakedtheblog!
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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Amy Bode says

      April 13, 2021 at 3:39 pm

      Thank you for this recipe! It made a beautiful, tasty loaf! I really appreciate the time you spent sharing it! Can’t wait to try your other recipes!

      Reply
    2. Maryla says

      April 23, 2021 at 5:58 pm

      How many grams of hard wheat berries do I need to get 100 g of sprouted wheat berries? I know the questions sounds stupid, but you wrote “take approximately ¼ cup of wheat berries (about 50 g)” and recipe calls for 100 g sprouted wheat berries. Does 50 g wheat berries soak up 50 g of water to make for 100 g sprouted wheat berries?

      Thank you very much for the recipe….a while ago I purchased 1 kg of wheat berries on a whim, and it’s about time to use them!

      Reply
      • Sophie Mackenzie says

        April 24, 2021 at 5:39 pm

        Hey Maryla, the wheat berries will plump up a bit, so we stick with soaking 50g. You might end up with a little more or less than 100g after they have soaked and sprouted, but that slight off measurement won’t mess up the final loaf—it is very forgiving.

        Reply
    3. Jerry Obrecht says

      July 08, 2021 at 1:50 pm

      I was surprised to not see a comment or step about drying the berries after they have soaked and sprouted. To get sprouted-berry flour, one has to dry the berries, auch as in a dehydrator or very, very low set oven, for maybe a full day; then one can grind the dried, sprouted berries for use in the bread recipe. So, if you start with 100g of red unsprouted berries, soak ’em, then dry them, you should end up with 1oog of sprouted berries.

      Also, has anyone used only sprouted berry flour in a loaf?

      Reply
      • Alexandra Daum says

        July 09, 2021 at 4:00 am

        Hi Jerry, the wheat berries aren’t dried after soaking for this recipe because they’re not being ground before use. We have made loaves with only sprouted flour and it works in much the same way as regular flour – there’s virtually no difference, as long as you go by weight.

        Reply
    4. Kitty says

      August 31, 2021 at 8:09 am

      Thank you for this brilliant recipe. It worked out really well; I have swapped out the whole wheat flour for sprouted wheat flour too, and it turned out just as well.

      Reply
      • Kelly Neil says

        August 31, 2021 at 11:26 am

        Aw, that’s so awesome Kitty! Thanks so much for letting us know! xo!

        Reply
    5. Sylvia says

      September 25, 2021 at 10:24 am

      Delicious bread! My only issue were the wheat berries that ended up on the outside and as part of the skin, they are very hard and crunchy. Should I have steamed them longer?

      Reply
      • Sophie Mackenzie says

        September 26, 2021 at 6:51 pm

        Hey Sylvia, I would say maybe it cooked too long without the lid. So yes, you could add a few minutes to the steam (or covered bake) and remove some time from the uncovered bake. Try popping your finished loaf in a plastic bag to help the crust soften.<3

        Reply
    6. Bev Thorn says

      November 18, 2021 at 6:22 pm

      Thanks for the great recipe and instructions. I added walnuts and cranberries in anticipation of Thanksgiving prep to see how it would fly. It was terrif! First boule was a bit to brown for me, so I cut the temp back to 400 and cooked it less time (25 mins covered, 15 mins uncovered) and took it out when temp reached 200. Perfection!

      Reply
    7. Molly says

      February 28, 2022 at 11:45 am

      Im very surprised to see this bread going from fridge to oven without any counter time! Any thoughts on why this doesn’t lead to raw bits in the middle? It’s counter (haha) intuitive for me

      Reply
      • Alexandra Daum says

        March 01, 2022 at 3:57 am

        Hi Molly, it’s quite common to bake sourdough from cold as in this recipe. There won’t be any raw bits in the middle, it all comes up to temp very quickly in a hot oven.

        Reply
    8. Joey says

      April 05, 2022 at 1:34 pm

      I’m mid recipe right now. Are you certain about the first part of sprouting the berries. I’ve not found any “berries” but found organic Rye and Spelt kernels. I find the 2 hour soak and “end of the day” should have sprouts already very quick. I have read in other posts and sites up to 3-5 days to get the tails. Just checking. If you are confident I’ll change to a mason jar now.

      Reply
      • Sophie Mackenzie says

        April 05, 2022 at 8:58 pm

        Hello Joey, spelt should work just as well as wheat. Sometimes the full grain is called berries, other time kernels or grains, but all will work. As far as the sprouting process, the amount of time will all depend on the ambient conditions of your house, so going off of how the berries look is best. You just want a tiny little tail (as seen in that close up photo), which we got on day 2 (or about 30-48 hours later). You don’t need to keep the grains soaking until you see sprouts, they just need to be rehydrated to begin the germination process. Hope that helps :)

        Reply
        • Joey says

          April 06, 2022 at 9:02 pm

          Thanks for the reply. I used rye kernels after all. this morning they Al had little tails just as you predicted. Loaf is now cold proofing in its banneton. Tomorrow am in the oven! Thanks again!

          Reply
    9. Arthur says

      April 05, 2022 at 3:28 pm

      Yes you can use sprouted whole wheat flour to bake a good Sourdough bread. Your starter will work on the gluten, and proteins in the sprouted flour, justi like your regular flour.
      Thanks

      Reply
    10. Lambert Bazinet says

      April 25, 2022 at 4:20 pm

      This is a fantastic recipe. I have tripled the amount of sprouted berries numerous times with excellent results. One of the very best according to those to whom I gave one of these loaves.

      Reply
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