Whole grain bread with preferment
Description
Tired of buying bread at bakeries that you can barely even call bread? Then make a delicious, wholesome homemade whole-wheat bread with a pre-ferment. It’s very easy! See for yourself in the step-by-step recipe. You can bake this bread not only in a loaf pan, but also as hearth bread—round, oval, whatever you prefer. Serve warm or cooled. Perfect with tea.
Instructions
- 1
Step 1
Prepare the ingredients.
- 2
Step 2
To make the sponge, dissolve 5 grams of fresh yeast in warm water.
- 3
Step 3
Add 250 grams of whole-grain flour.
- 4
Step 4
Mix, cover with plastic wrap, and place in a warm spot to ferment.
- 5
Step 5
After 2–3 hours, the sponge is ready for kneading the dough.
- 6
Step 6
Pour 80 ml of warm water into a mixing bowl, dissolve salt in it, add 5 grams of fresh yeast, add flax seeds if you like, then mix together.
- 7
Step 7
Transfer the sponge.
- 8
Step 8
Add 250 grams of whole wheat flour.
- 9
Step 9
Knead the dough; if you are kneading in a mixer, five minutes at low speed is plenty. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and leave it in a warm spot or at room temperature for another 2–3 hours.
- 10
Step 10
Lightly dust your work surface with flour, bran, or a mixture of both, lay out the dough, do not knead it further—simply stretch the dough into a flat sheet.
- 11
Step 11
Fold the top edge of the dough toward the center, pinch, fold the sides of the dough toward the center.
- 12
Step 12
Do another turn and pinch the seam tightly; tuck and roll the shaped loaf until it is evenly rounded.
- 13
Step 13
Place the shaped bread dough into the tin “seam side down”, cover with a towel, and let rise for 1 hour.
- 14
Step 14
After proofing, the dough has increased in volume. Preheat the oven to 250°C. Bake for the first 10 minutes at 250°C, then reduce the temperature to 180°C and bake for another 40–45 minutes.
- 15
Step 15
Transfer the finished bread to a cooling rack, cover with a napkin, and cool to room temperature.
- 16
Step 16
Whole wheat bread came out delicious, fragrant, with a crisp crust and a true wheat flavour. Simply spread butter on a slice of bread and enjoy what you baked with your own hands.