If you are looking for a complicated way of making sourdough bread and wish it to come out with a phenomenal loaf that’s crusty on the outside and soft and fluffy on the inside, don’t look here! I am not a perfectionist by any means. Maybe one day I’ll be! But for now I go for the easiest way I can to get the healthiest, most edible food on my table that my kids (or most of them) will eat and so I can feel like I fed them well and did my part to keep them healthy. And as my husband and I are people, too, we need to eat nourishing food as well.
This is far more simple than the seven-day popular method going around where you add and discard and add and discard and weigh and who knows what else. Not only is it unnecessarily complicated, but it uses white flour, which I’m not sure what the point of that is, since there are no health benefits to white flour except that it fills you up. It does taste good, though! But if I'm going for taste in white flour I'd rather go straight to seven- layer cakes. When it comes to bread, I try to put as much whole wheat as I can get away with.
I’ll explain step by step how I do this and you can take it away and make it even better! And let me know how it goes.
First of all, I have a wheat grinder. I order wheat in a bucket and turn on the grinder as I pour in the wheat and out comes the freshest flour you could ever want. Possibly a drop coarser than the stores, but that is part of the charm.
I grew up with my mother’s wheat grinder, which she got when she lived in Berkeley, CA, a machine that has presence, commands respect, and is as heavy as could be. I’m sure it’s older than I am, but it still works great.
I spent months researching which wheat grinder I wanted till I settled on a German-made one because it looked pretty enough to keep on the counter. I would not want to be shlepping a heavy grinder up and down every other day. So even though I don’t love buying German products, in this case I rationalized that they wanted us to die but here their product is helping Jewish people live wholesome and healthy lives. How cool is that!
So I use freshly ground organic whole wheat flour.
The other ingredients are
Filtered water
Himalayan salt (lots of important minerals)
Oil: I use either refined coconut oil (it doesn't have a coconutty taste but still retains some of the healthy qualities of the good kind of saturated fat and the nice consistency) or avocado oil which is also one of the few healthy oils there are. Extra virgin olive oil is also excellent but because this recipe is slightly sweet, a bit of a treat, I wanted to use a neutral oil. I won’t go so far as to call it challah, though in my home it is challah! But you may not think it qualifies.
Sweetener: I use unrefined coconut sugar, sometimes honey (Tishrei time)
White flour: since 100% whole wheat can yield a very dense bread, I do use organic white flour to fluff it up a bit. I use about a quarter or a third white. For Rosh Hashana when the children demand white sweet challah, I up the sweetener and the white flour. Sometimes I even do half white.
Ok, are you ready?
Sourdough Starter, the easiest way you can imagine!
Take a quart-size mason jar, pour in one cup (freshly ground) whole wheat flour and one cup filtered water. Stir till completely mixed. Cover with saran wrap and leave on the counter for three days, stirring it once every day. If your house is very cold, this may take longer. In Florida where it's nice and hot most of the year, the starter can sometimes even be ready in two days. At the end of the three days, it should have some bubbles and smell pleasantly sour. If it is not, you can do a little bit of the complicated way by taking out a small amount and adding new flour and water and waiting another day to try to get it to activate. But three days was always enough for me.
You may now use some or cover properly and store in your fridge till ready to use. When you need it, please take it out of the fridge several hours earlier so it can come to room temperature. Whenever you use a cup of sourdough, replace the starter with equal amounts flour and water, stir, cover with saran wrap and leave on the counter overnight or several hours till you see it bubbling away.
Sourdough Sponge
When you’re ready to make your first batch of bread, take a nice size bowl. Pour six cups of filtered water in, one cup of your sourdough starter, and about 8 cups of whole wheat flour. (Replenish your starter, mix, cover lightly and let sit till bubbly; then cover well and return to fridge.) Cover sponge with saran wrap and let sit about 8 hours, more or less. If it gets bubbly earlier, you can start the next step earlier. If it's bubbly but you don’t have time to continue yet, it can wait a couple more hours.
So now the mixture should be a bit bubbly and should have a nice fermented sour smell.
The dough for the bread
Now we will knead the sponge with all the other ingredients.
Add one cup coconut sugar (more or less depending on your taste. For Rosh Hashana, our sweet version has a cup and a half, usually part of it honey. If I was making this just for adults, I may halve the cup cuz we don’t need it as sweet. But right now there are always children around b”H!)
Add one cup of refined coconut oil or avocado oil.
Add two tablespoons Himalayan salt or sea salt
Add 6-8 cups flour, either whole wheat or white or a mix.
Mix it all together. Now for the kneading.
White flour, between 3-5 cups depending on how much more is needed. Add flour and dig your hands in to knead. I’m sure you know how to knead, so go for it, adding as much flour as is necessary till you have a lovely, smooth ball of dough in your bowl. I personally love to knead in my bowl; my mother always takes it out onto the floured counter and kneads over there. Find your best way.
You can be creative and add spices (that’s if you’re using a lesser amount of sweetener, like maybe half a cup) such as thyme, rosemary, oregano, dill, basil, or coriander.
You can try a hint of cardamom or nutmeg in the sweeter version.
Rising and Shaping
Let it rise for at least two hours, then punch down. Take a piece off and make the hafrashas challah bracha and shape to your heart's content. I make about six medium loaves. You can do four larger ones or about 25 rolls.
Optional: brush the challah with beaten egg, and then sprinkle sesame seeds (healthy and gives a nice crunch) or poppy seeds on top.
Rising again and baking
Let rise another 3 hours, or more or less depending on how the rising is going.
Bake at 350 for an hour if the loaves are pretty big, or less if you made smaller rolls. Check on them.
I forgot to tell you the many health benefits of sourdough whole wheat bread! You can probably look up more facts than I have patience to tell you but suffice it to say that this is the only food that the Gemora doesn’t say to limit. (And sourdough whole grain bread is what they used! No yeast existed, and white flour was a treat!) This should be a staple in your diet. It is probably one of the healthiest foods you can eat (though rye sourdough is another story, possibly even healthier, which maybe I'll share one day too). It is chock full of nutrients that are only absorbable by your body in the sourdough form. (Plain whole wheat, not fermented, has phytic acid which locks your body’s ability to absorb calcium and other nutrients). It is teeming with friendly bacteria. And the proof is that even after it is baked, you can actually use the crust to make a new starter (I have to find out how, but it definitely can be done). These healthy bacteria keep your immune system strong and don't let invading bacteria take over. Good bacteria is needed for proper digestion which is a cornerstone of health.
This bread is filling and lasts a while in your bread box, though if you won’t be eating it right away, go ahead and freeze some of it. You can’t get tired of it, you just vary the spreads that go with it. You can practically live on this kind of bread alone. But don’t forget, you need Torah. The fact that it says Man can’t live on bread alone, he needs Torah, shows that on a physical level he can live on bread alone. But we are not mere physical beings!!!
Have a great day! Please give me feedback!
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