Beginner Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread Recipe (2024)

Try this beginner whole wheat sourdough bread recipe for a healthier twist on your favorite classic sourdough loaf.

Hi there! My name is Chantal, and I’m the author of this blog, Ironwild Fitness.

I’m also a mom, personal trainer, and certified carb-o-holic.

🙂

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Seriously though.

I have a bit of a rant to make about health, this low-carb fad that’s happening, and everything that’s happening this year.

So, if you’re just here for the recipe, go ahead and scroll down.

But I just have to warn you – making sourdough bread (especially whole wheat sourdough bread) is a process.

It’s a labor of love, and I have spent my fair share of time troubleshooting the art of making sourdough.

So you might want to read some of my tips and stories about why I got into making sourdough bread, how I make my starter, etc.

If not, I won’t be offended.

But really, I just want you to make the best possible whole wheat sourdough bread, so you’re missing out if you just skip ahead.

Anyway.

Related Reading:Healthy Breakfast Egg Muffin Cups with Turkey Sausage

The Sourdough Bread Revival

Long ago, making sourdough bread was commonplace.

Then, active yeast began to be sold commercially, and we forgot how to make bread.

Lol.

That’s the short version.

Obviously, there’s more to it than that.

But truly, most of us didn’t know how to make our own sourdough starter, let alone make whole wheat sourdough bread completely from scratch.

Then 2020 happened.

In this super-fun year, we saw supermarket shelves raided.

Food (and toilet paper) was hoarded.

Commercial active yeast was in such high demand that it became temporarily unavailable for many of us.

So, the internet became overwhelmed with people remembering that you actually canmake bread completely on your own.

And you don’t have to have yeast.

At least this is what happened in my experience.

Related Reading:Yummy Red Chicken Pozole Recipe

Totally, Completely Out Of Commercial Active Yeast

When we were getting ready to hunker down for the first shutdown of 2020, I sent my husband for yeast and flour like any good little homemaker.

(Oregon shut down super early on, and went on to do so again multiple times.)

My husband came home with two measly packets of active yeast and gluten-free flour.

Because that’s all that there was left.

And even though I lean on the prepper side (think doomsday, people) and am naturally interested in homesteading and self-sufficiency, I totally didn’t know how to make my own whole wheat sourdough bread.

At that point, I could actually care less about whether my bread was whole wheat or not.

The point is – I realized that though I thought I was prepared to live without the grocery store – I really, truly wasn’t.

I lacked the skills and materials to make a basic loaf of bread.

And, while we typically don’t eat a ton of bread in our house, our natural inclination to stock up had us thinking about bread.

To tell the truth, I totally thought that baking bread from a starter rather than using yeast was out of my wheelhouse – and I put it off for a few months.

I used up what yeast I had and didn’t attempt sourdough until we were halfway through the year.

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But now I’m super glad that I learned how to make my own sourdough, and I’ve even taught my mom and mother-in-law (gasp!) how to do it.

(I’m the first homemaker in the family since my grandparents.)

A Long Road To This Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread Recipe

I will say this again, to be clear – making sourdough bread isn’t necessarily harder than making yeast bread – but it IS a long process.

But I think that if you lean into it and consider it a skill and an art, you’ll actually become slightly addicted to it.

I spent several months learning how to make a basic, beginner loaf with all-purpose flour before finally putting together this here whole wheat sourdough bread recipe.

And I’m PROUD.

There’s a certain satisfaction in seeing a process through and making things with your own hands.

This whole wheat sourdough bread recipe is the perfect example. Trust me, you’ll really enjoy sourdough making – it makes you feel so accomplished.

Anyway, I will say that some troubleshooting is in your future if you’re new to making bread on your own – especially if you’re making a starter from scratch.

Related Reading: 7 Must-Read Homemaking Tips For Beginners

I spent several weeks making my own starter, and I failed initially.

If patience isn’t your virtue, then it’s okay to bum some starter off of someone else.

You can even buy it online (slightly sketchy, but whatever).

Don’t worry, I’m going to give you plenty of tips, troubleshooting ideas, and a few other resources to check out.

Initially, I went with a classic, artisan-style “white” sourdough.

Once I felt that I’d mastered a basic loaf, I started playing around with other things.

I tried an herbal loaf, mixed with my favorite garlic-rosemary blend.

(It was just okay.)

Then, I decided that if I was going to be eating so much bread, I better figure out how to make a “healthier” version – with whole wheat.

So, I modified my favorite basic recipe from Jill Winger – and the result is the recipe you see here.

(One thing I will note is that I didn’t have honey – and if I had, I wouldn’t have used sugar. So that could be an even healthier substitute – but with how little sugar is used in the whole loaf, it’s whatever.)

Is Sourdough Actually Healthier Than Regular Bread?

Well, there are two things that I want you to consider here.

First of all, I would argue that all fresh, homemade bread is better than *most* store-bought bread.

That is true if the bread you’re eating is highly processed and full of preservatives.

(Most are unless they are organic and labeled preservative-free.)

Typically, when you buy bread from the store, it is shelf-stable for several days to weeks, even.

Bread from the store almost alwayshas a lot of unnecessary ingredients.

Regular bread that you make at home is usually going to have very few ingredients, and that’s how it should be.

However, bread that you make at home isn’t going to last but a few days on the counter.

That’s because there aren’t a bunch of additives (that in my opinion, we weren’t even meant to eat).

Some bread freezes well, and some don’t.

I have yet to try freezing this bread, but it’s best fresh out of the oven anyway, so I’m happy to make it.

So there’s that – no preservatives/additives = healthier.

Secondly, there’s the fact that sourdough is fermented and made with wild cultures.

Fermented food is good for your gut, and supposedly, some people with gluten sensitivities are able to eat sourdough just fine.

Read about different types of carbs and a low-carb diet here.

I won’t pretend to know a lot about the science behind fermented foods but think about probiotics and gut health.

We know that fermented foods promote a healthy gut, which can improve digestion, help with hormones, and more.

If you want to get into the prebiotic/probiotic details of it all, this is a good article that I found!

Now, know that varying levels of fermentation can be had loaf-to-loaf, so it’s hard to know exactly how beneficial each loaf of sourdough is over “regular” yeast bread, but it is definitely said to be better overall.

So – when you look at it as a skill, art, and in the light of health – sourdough is definitely a worthwhile skill to learn.

Taking Care Of Sourdough Starter & Sourdough Tips For Beginners

If you’re completely new to sourdough and want to make your own starter, I recommend venturing over to Pinterest for that process.

That info would take a whole different blog post.

You can come back to this recipe in about two weeks if you haven’t started yet. 😉

But here are a few resources if you’re in that boat:

• How to Make Sourdough Starter From Scratch – From Farmhouse on Boone
• Sourdough 101 – From Bob’s Red Mill, which BTW is here in Oregon 🙂
• Step-by-Step Sourdough Starter – From Amy in the Kitchen

What I like to do is read a bunch of different blog posts and tutorials on basically everything before going forth with my own projects and recipes – and that’s what I did here.

From that, I’m able to take advice and tips from many experienced bloggers and forge my own path accordingly. 🙂

Anyway, I do have some tips specifically for those of you who are new to baking sourdough.

1. Use new-ish flour. Don’t use flour that has sat in your pantry for 9 months. It might be “dead.” This happened with my first starter – I used old flour and it never bubbled or became active. Use fresh stuff!
2. Start your loaf first thing in the morning or right before bed. Not enough time rising is the #1 cause of sad, pitiful loaves. They really need 6-10 hours to do their thing. I either start first thing, let rise all day, and bake for dinner, or I start before bed and then bake first thing in the morning.
3. If you don’t have a Dutch oven, you can use a roasting pan with a lid. Sourdough typically needs to steam and continue to rise in the oven!
4. You don’t need fancy tools or even parchment paper, but they do help. I use a LAME (pronounced lohm) to score my bread for fun, plus a Dutch oven and parchment paper. I don’t have proofing baskets like many others recommend!
5. Master the basic loaf several times before you get wild with it! The skills you learn in the first few loaves will carry over to most other loaves you try.

As For Your Starter & Troubleshooting

Okay, I get it – this is getting long.

But who would I be if I didn’t share all of my knowledge with you?

I want you to have warm, fresh bread any time you want it – that’s all.

Anyway, one of my biggest tips as far as your starter is to never assume that it’s fully “dead.”

My MIL texted me the other day saying she killed Gladys (she named her starter), and I was like, “WAIT! HOLD THE PHONE!”

Don’t throw it away just yet!

You can usually “fix” your starter, and you can even revive it from just a tiny bit of a “good” starter.

The other day, we were traveling and my husband just dropped my glass starter jar and it spilled all over the streets.

(Yes I take it with me places.)

It was horrifying.

Okay, that’s a bit dramatic.

It would have been wayyy more horrifying had I not just separated a little bit of my started into another jar for insurance.

The point is – you can start with just a tiny bit of starter, and you can almost always revive an inactive starter.

Just learn how to troubleshoot!

Sometimes all you need is warmer water, newer flour, and a little love!

I’m not going to pretend I know everything about troubleshooting, but I’m also not one to give up super easily on these types of things.

So – I’m going to send you over to my personal sourdough hero, Jill Winger, to “fix” any sourdough problems you might have.

She has a great podcast and blog post about troubleshooting sourdough issues.

Read it before you give up on your beloved bread!

Onto the recipe!

Thank you for reading – I hope you like my whole wheat sourdough bread recipe!

Here are some other posts you might like:

• Healthy Breakfast Egg Muffin Cups with Turkey Sausage
• Peanut Butter Banana Protein Shake Recipe
• Yummy Red Chicken Pozole Recipe

-Chantal