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My recipe for multigrain sourdough is a variation on a recipe from Artisan Baking. (I generally pattern my recipes after something known, so I don’t have to guess at the amount of salt. I could calculate it at 2-2.75% of the flour weight, but my kitchen scale isn’t accurate enough to weight such small amounts of salt.)

The original recipe is for Kalamata Olive Bread, contributed to Glezer’s book by Thom Leonard of the Lawrence/Kansas City area. I’ve made these basic changes:

• Doubled the recipe.
• Increased the amount of starter within the recipe by 50% (reducing other ingredients to compensate).
• Omitted the olives.

To succeed with this recipe, you’ll need several tools, many of which are listed in my pizza tools article: a mixer, parchment paper, a pizza stone, and a peel. Also, you’ll need:

• KitchenAid grain mill. Attach this to your mixer to custom-grind your own grains. This is essential for making wholegrain breads, because it allows you to vary the coarseness of the whole grain.
• A steam pan — an old pie plate or cookie sheet that you can throw boiling water into to create steam in the oven during the bake. The temperature changes will warp this pan over time, so you should not use your nice new nonstick bakeware.
• Two round brotforms, 9 to 10 inches in diameter.
• A kitchen scale, to weigh flour. (Compaction and humitidy affect flour volume, so it’s safest to measure by weight.)

The following recipe is more of a guideline for intermediate to advanced bakers. I’ve provided the general process; you’ll have to apply your own experience to judge proper hydration, timing, and handling.

Days 1 and 2

• Refresh your sourdough starter, leaving it at room temperature between feedings. This recipe calls for a firm starter in the French style. The process for creating and maintaining such a starter is well-documented in Artisan Baking.

  I refresh my starter at least 3 times, preferably 4, before beginning the breadmaking process. I wait 8-12 hours between refreshments. I blend the flours used for refreshments, mixing about one-third whole-wheat with two-thirds unbleached white.

Day 3, morning

• Refresh the starter one last time. You’ll need 75g for the bread and 10g more to keep the starter going, so you should make sure the refreshed starter weighs at least 85g.

Day 3, afternoon/evening

• Chop 75g of the starter into small pieces. Dump them into 1.5 cups lukewarm tap water. Let the dough bits soak for a few minutes to soften. Then stir in 345g of mixed wheat flours. I use half to two-thirds high-protein unbleached white bread flour, such as Giusto’s Organic Ultimate Performer, and one-third to half whole wheat flour. Stir well, making sure to smash and combine all the lumps of starter. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit on the counter overnight (12-16 hours).
• Measure 440g of spelt berries and 60g of rye berries. (Feel free to adjust this ratio, or incorporate wheat berries or whatever is on hand. You’ll need 500g total.) Pass the berries through the grain mill, grinding them to your desired coarseness. Combine with 1.75 - 2 cups water; stir to mix. All the grain must be wet. This is especially important if you used a course grind, because you don’t want under-hydrated berries in the bread.
  Pictured are the soaker (foreground) and starter (background), 12 hours after mixing. Note how the starter has risen. The soaker, of course, will not rise.

Day 4, morning

• Briefly combine the starter, the soaker, and 445g flour (primarily or entirely high-protein bread flour), plus up to 100g of other dry ingredients (rolled oats, oat bran, wheat germ, ground flax seeds, cooked brown rice, semolina, etc.). Add water only if necessary. The total grain weight should be 1290 - 1400g.
• Let the loosely-mixed ingredients stand for 10 minutes while you clean up the kitchen.
• Add 2T salt to the dough and mix with the dough hook on slow speed for 7-10 minutes total. Drizzle water into the bowl if the salt isn’t getting mixed in. Also, pull the dough out of the mixer and fold it by hand a few times to ensure that the salt gets mixed in thoroughly.
• When the dough feels right (yes, you have to judge for yourself), pull it into a tight ball and transfer to an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 4 hours.
• Turn out the dough carefully, split it in two, and form each into a tight ball (without deflating). Prepare the brotforms by liberally coating with brown rice flour. Set one dough ball into each form, cover loosely with plastic wrap, then a clean kitchen towel, and then a plate. Let rise for 3-6 hours (depending on temperature).
• One hour before you estimate the dough will be ready, put the stone and steam pan in the oven and heat to 500°F-550°F.
• My bread is usually under-risen at this point, but I need to bake it anyway because dinner guests are already getting dressed. You can see how small the risen dough looks in the form. Baking at this point ensures a great oven spring, but the finished bread will be smaller and denser than if the dough was given time (and/or temperature) to complete its rise.
• Boil water. You’ll need it to make steam in the oven.
• Flip one loaf out of its basket onto a piece of parchment paper. To do this, lay the parchment across the top of the brotform. Hold the form in your hands, thumbs underneath and fingers on the rim holding the parchment against the rim. Carefully flip the assembly upside-down. If you have used enough brown rice flour in the form, the dough will drop out of the form without prodding.
• Scrape some of the excess rice flour off the dough with a razor or brush (but take care not to deflate the dough). Score the raw loaf with a razor. You can use a tic-tac-toe pattern, a spiral, or an asterisk.
• Use the peel to transfer the dough onto the hot pizza stone, and immediately dump a half-cup of boiling water into the steam pan. Apply steam again in 30-60 seconds.
• After 10-15 minutes, reduce heat to 425°F, and spin the loaf front-to-back.
• Bake until the crust is deep golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when thumped.
• When the first loaf comes out of the oven, re-heat the oven to 500-550°F. Give it 10 minutes to come up to temperature, then bake the second loaf.
• Let the loaves cool for 45-60 minutes before slicing.

If you’ve baked your bread before it was fully risen, and if you’ve scored it deeply enough with the razor, you’ll get a big oven spring. As pictured, the loaf may even spring out of round. This is a sure sign that the dough could have been given more time (or a warmer place) to rise.

The crumb on a mixed-grain bread, especially a bread with such a high percentage of home-ground whole grain, tends to be tighter than what you’d get from a bread made of refined flours. Pictured is a typical result. The irregular hole pattern is characteristic of breads leavened with wild yeasts, and occurs here even though the rough grain pieces prevent the holes from being too big.