Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

I get bored easily so like to experiment with variations on recipes. I've been making bread from my rye sourdough starter a couple times a week, so I'm on a quest to find my favorite sourdough recipes. This one is great. It's made entirely with white whole wheat flour, but it is fluffy instead of dense like most homemade whole wheat breads. Most of the sourdough recipes I've seen either use multiple rise times or allow the dough to proof for 12+ hours, but this one only has a single, four-hour rise with no dough reshaping. That is mostly because I forgot about it while doing other things and when I came back to the kitchen, the dough was huge so I thought I might as well bake it. My forgetfulness paid off, because this is my favorite sourdough variation so far.

Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

1 1/2 cups sourdough starter
1 cup soy milk, room temperature
1 Tbsp active dry yeast
3 Tbsp wheat bran
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp salt
3 Tbsp Earth Balance, softened
4 cups white whole wheat flour (plus more for kneading)

Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, then turn dough onto a floured surface and knead for several minutes, until dough is smooth and stretchy. Form dough into a loaf shape on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet, then cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap and place in a warm area to rise for at least four hours.

Preheat oven to 400F at the end of the rising time. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped.

Variation: For a denser, even more flavorful bread, try replacing the white whole wheat flour with freshly ground red winter wheat flour (one of my local grocery stores has a wheat berry grinder), the Earth Balance with olive oil, and the sugar with molasses.

Pumpkin Spice Bran Muffins

I wasn't able to get a decent picture of these because my kids were more concerned with eating the muffins than food photography. I started out by using pumpkin puree in place of oil and then decided to add the spices for a pumpkin pie flavor.

Pumpkin Spice Bran Muffins

1 1/2 cups wheat bran
1/2 cup hot water
1 cup soy milk
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3/4 cup pumpkin puree
1 Tbsp ground flax seed mixed into 2 Tbsp water
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp allspice

1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour


Preheat oven to 400F.

In a large mixing bowl, combine wheat bran and hot water. Allow to sit for a few minutes so the bran absorbs the moisture. Meanwhile, combine soy milk and apple cider vinegar in a small bowl or measuring cup. Allow to curdle, then stir into bran. Mix in brown sugar, pumpkin puree, and flax. Sift in baking soda, salt, and spices, stir, then sift in white whole wheat flour and mix until well combined.

Spoon batter into 12 greased or papered muffin cups. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.

Kumquat Cashew Bran Muffins

A local grocery store had kumquats for $2 a pint, so I picked some up. I had no idea what to do with the odd little citrus fruits. They are entirely edible except for the seeds. The skins are sweet and the pulp is tart.

In my respiratory infection-induced delirium, I decided muffins would be a good way to use some of these mystery fruits. If you don't have kumquats available, try chopped apples instead. I wasn't sure how these would turn out, but they are quite good and Turbokid loves them.

Kumquat Cashew Bran Muffins

1/2 cup untoasted wheat germ
1/2 cup wheat bran (alternatively, you can use all germ or bran totaling 1 cup. I only had 1/2 cup germ left, so I used both)
1 Tbsp ground flax seed mixed into 3 Tbsp water
1 cup almond milk (I used vanilla)
3 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp blackstrap molasses
4 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbsp oil
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup chopped and seeded kumquats
1/2 cup raw cashew pieces

Preheat oven to 400F.

Mix wheat germ and wheat bran together in a mixing bowl. Stir in flax mixture and almond milk and let sit briefly until some of the moisture is absorbed. Mix in sugar, molasses, baking powder, salt, and oil, then mix in the white whole wheat flour. Fold in chopped kumquats and cashews.

Fill lined or greased muffin cups with the batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes.