Granary sourdough

This time, I wanted to find out two things:

• Is it possible to make a granary sourdough loaf?
• What happens to sourdough when you bake a loaf in a traditional loaf tin?

I adapted Dan Lepard's recipe for white leaven bread, replacing the strong white flour with granary flour:

• 200g white leaven
• 325g water
• 500g granary flour
• 1.5 tsp salt

I carried out the usual method of stretching and folding at regular intervals (see earlier post for timings).

After a few hours I noticed that the dough was not as stretchy as the usual white leaven dough.

To let the dough rise, I divided it into two. One I put on my usual flat round baking tray with a lip, also using baking parchment on the bottom. For the other, I put the dough in a traditional baking tin, with a rectangle of baking parchment at the bottom. After 5 hours both doughs had only risen by about a half, compared to the white dough.

I baked them at a slightly lower temperature than I would normally, as I guessed that the flour had more sugars in from the granary flour.

The loaves did not rise a lot in the oven. The round loaf was about half the size of a normal white sourdough loaf.

The bread had a lovely crust on it and both were better (more airy) than the granary bread I made the week before, using instant yeast and kneading for 10 minutes. If I were to make granary bread again, I would definitely use this recipe and method again.

The bread baked in the traditional loaf tin had a much denser texture compared to the one baked as a round on a flatish tin. So I shall stick with baking my bread as a round on a flatish tin.

The finished loaves may have been denser because the extra bits in the dough (eg grains) made it heavier and harder to rise. I also wondered if my natural white leaven yeast did not like feeding on granary flour and whether that had made a difference to the rise.

The granary flour produced a heavier loaf than the white flour, but yes, I found out it is possible to make a granary sourdough loaf.

NB Granary flour is a trademarked flour by Hovis, and includes malted cracked grains. When baked it turns brown from the added malt, a sugar, rather than because the flour is wholemeal. Today I found Allison's bread flours which I shall try next time: Wholemeal Seed & Grain Bread Flour and Seed & Grain Bread Flour which don't have malt in. They also make Country Grain Bread Flour, which appears to contain malt.