Super Seedy Wholemeal Sourdough Bread

This bread is more than just bread.

Inspired by German-style wholemeal rye loafs, our Super Seedy Sourdough Bread has got it all: Super tasty, full of seeds, richly moist, nutritious,… This bread is so wholesome, we simply nicknamed it ‘wholebread’. It does more than live up to the name. If you are looking for the most tasty, wholesome super seedy loaf of bread in the universe, you have found it right here!

What makes this bread so awesome:

• Super-super-seedy
• Very, very Nutritious
• Sourdough
• Wholesome ingredients
• Easy to make – no kneading!
• Goes with anything
• Stays fresh for weeks – if it lasts that long!

You don’t believe us? Sounds suspiciously fantastic. Let me break it down for you in detail …

Easy and simple to make

No kneading, no shaping, no ridiculously long resting times!
You might think a bread like this must be really complicated and difficult to make. Think again! It is actually the easiest kind of bread I make. It requires no kneading at all! I simply mix the dough by hand using a spatula or spoon, until the dry and wet parts are combined. Usually not longer than a couple of minutes. After ten minutes at rest, all the moisture has been nicely absorbed and the dough is ready to go into the lined loaf tin.

The only tricky bit is that you need a sourdough starter to make the preferment and to prepare it a day in advance. Using sourdough is, however, much easier than you would think at first. Once you have a starter going, you can keep in the fridge for a few weeks easily. It will still reproduce nicely. If you haven’t got a starter yet, you have many options. And you won’t have to go and spend a lot of money in whole food shops or online for a sourdough starter. Maybe one of your friends has got a starter going? Bakers who use sourdough are often happy to give a way a bit of starter for free. Even if it’s made from different type of flour, you can easily start a rye sourdough from a wheat starter and vice versa. And honestly, it’s also really easy to start your own sourdough from scratch. It’s so easy, we’ve done it in the van on our last trip! (And it survived even without being properly refrigerated)

So no excuses here. Making sourdough bread is not any more difficult than making other bread. And compared to most other handmade breads, making our super seedy sourdough bread is even easier. No kneading, no shaping, no ridiculously long resting times!

Rye sourdough

(Tip: You can also make our super seedy sourdough bread with other types of wholemeal flour!)

In Germany and Austria, this type of bread is quite common. Whether you are familiar with it or not, know this: Our wholesome bread is like no ‘normal’ bread. First of all, rye flour will produce a very different kind of bread than white flour, or even wholemeal wheat does. Rye behaves and also tastes very different than wheat. All the added ingredients add a lot of extra flavour, texture, density and richness. The sourdough fermentation of the rye makes for an even more complex aroma composition, while increasing the longevity of the bread. It will stay nicely fresh and moist on the inside for weeks, even when going a bit dry on the outside. But most of the time, the loaf does not last us that long. ;-) And if it does go a bit stale, it’s just as awesome toasted, if not even better.

Packed with wholesome nutritious goodness

Don’t let the smallness of the loaf fool you – this super seedy sourdough bread is densely packed with good stuff! Actually, flour only accounts for less than half of the total dry ingredients weight in this recipe! The bigger part of the bread is comprised of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, flaxseed, oat and rye flakes and dried cranberries. The wholesomeness of the bread is completed by the use of wholemeal rye sourdough. With normal breads, usually what you eat it with brings the flavour to the dish. But a slice of this bread will grab the attention of your tastebuds at least as much as its toppings.

That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t combine it with your favourite bread toppings – whether savoury, sweet, fatty or light. Anything will go well with this bread. It is delicious with just some vegan butter, jam, olive oil, peanut butter, hummus, vegan cheese, tofu, vegan cream cheese,… whatever your favourite bread topping – I guarantee you that it will taste twice as great on a slice of this bread.

So what are you waiting for? Treat your tastebuds to something special. Whether breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner. This bread adds a lot of YUM! to any meal and occasion.

Below the recipe, you will find some tips on substituting ingredients and about the method.

Substituting ingredients

If you haven’t got all the ingredients listed in the recipe, don’t worry. It’s not so much the exact composition, as the concept and blueprint that make the bread what it is.

Rye flour is the very standard for making bread in German speaking areas of Europe, but not in many other places in the world. We’ve done some testing, and this bread comes out just as tasty if you simply use wholewheat flour instead of rye. So why shouldn’t it work with other types of wholemeal flour as well?

As far as seeds go, you can easily just use more sunflower seeds in place of the admittedly expensive pumpkin seeds. Why not try sesame or chia? I encourage you to try out different kinds of seeds, or whichever you have in your pantry! I am sure nuts would be interesting, too.

The rye flakes might be tricky to find. You can use additional oats, barley or spelt flakes. Even bran or bran flakes would make an alright substitute without affecting the overall outcome too much.

The dried cranberries were a last minute idea when I first ever made the bread. While I think raisins are a bit too sweet, replace the cranberries with currants. Leave them out entirely will make a just as tasty, less sweet bread.

It’s up to you what you make from this recipe! You can stick closer to my formula for the beginning, or use it as a starting point for your own wholesome creation!

Method

Sourdough Preferment

Like mentioned before, I start this recipe by preparing the sourdough preferment on the day before I bake. I dissolve some ‘old’ sourdough starter, which I kept aside in the fridge from the previous time, in lukewarm or handwarm water and mix it with rye flour. I cover the bowl, leave it out on the kitchen worktop and then forget about it until the next day. On baking day, after 12 to 24 hours of ripening, the sourdough preferment is ready to use. It should have bubbled up, either expanded in volume or already sunk down again.

Mixing the Dough

Before I mix everything together, I like to roughly grind the seeds and flakes in a spice grinder or food processor. A few seconds will easily do. I feel like they integrate with the structure of the bread a bit better. Not completely fine – I like it when there are still some bits in there. I just prefer them a bit smaller (See the pictures).

Same for the cranberries. They are a bit chunky unchopped, I like them a bit spread out in small bits. I chop them on a chopping board rather than using a blender, as they are too sticky.

After that it’s just a matter of mix it all together until you have a moist and uniform mixture. Don’t worry about gluten build up or getting it smooth and non-sticky – it won’t be! It’s not supposed to be. This bread simply doesn’t work like that.

Resting and rising

I leave the mixture to rest for 10 minutes to allow the dry ingredients to soak up the moisture. Then I transfer it into a lined loaf tin and smear it flat with a spatula. We have a non-sticky reusable teflon baking sheet that is cut to fit into a standard loaf tin. I haven’t tried a greased one, but why not give it a try?

I like to cover the surface of the bread with extra seeds. It looks good, and they taste awesome when they get toasted in the oven! The bread needs to rest for about an hour to rise slightly out of its tin. It won’t rise as much as other breads. Careful not to leave it too long, or it will likely have a caved area close to the surface, and the slices will easily fall apart. So to be safe it’s better to be on the less risen side. It’s a quite dense bread anyway!

Baking

After one hour of rest, the bread is ready to go in the oven! It might feel like forever, but 90 minutes at 175˚C is just right for this one. We cover the bread in the tin after the first 45 minutes, to keep the seeds on top from burning.

After the full 90 minutes, take the bread out of the tin and let it cool down on a cooling rack. Wait until it is fully cooled down before cutting it, or has just minimal residual warmth. Otherwise it is still too moist and soft inside. The bread will continue to cook and firm up after it comes out of the oven.

Time to enjoy it! Though it should be noted, that the flavour will develop further over the following days. We love to use this bread in our Vegan Chickpeas on Toast recipe.

What else is there to say about our super seedy sourdough bread? I think I’ll (finally) stop here. From here on, all that’s left is for you to try and taste it ;)

Happy baking!

Paul & Sophie