Easy Whole Grain Sourdough Bread
You will love this hearty whole grain sourdough bread! The recipe is super quick and easy to make, and you can also include additional grains or flours. In Germany, it is known as Vollkornbrot.
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I am so excited to share my family’s whole grain sourdough bread recipe with you. Over the decades, I have baked hundreds of loaves of Vollkornbrot – and I love it just as much now as ever.
Actually, this may be the most popular bread in Germany!
What makes this bread recipe special
New To Sourdough? Check out My Super Simple Sourdough Course!
The ingredients
These are the ingredients for the basic recipe:
- Whole wheat flour: I prefer organic whole wheat flour and usually mill my own flour
- Sourdough starter: If you don’t already have one, you can easily make a no discard sourdough starter
- Water
- Salt: Simple sea salt is what I use all the time
Substitutions and variations
This is the fun part – at least for me and everything you can do with this whole wheat sourdough bread recipe:
- Different flours: While my recipe says whole grain, you can also make a 50:50 bread with equal parts all-purpose and whole-grain flour, or any other type of flour. It’s also fun to use heritage wheat varieties such as Red Fife, Sonora, or others (here’s a list of more heritage wheat varieties). Rye flour works particularly well in sourdough bread recipes. If you’re not ready to invest in a grain mill, I recommend you check out King Arthur’s whole grain flours.
- Other grains: These days, I actually barely use wheat. I love ancient grains such as spelt, einkorn, kamut, and rye. However, I have also successfully added ingredients such as millet, quinoa, or amaranth.
- Nuts and seeds: For a hearty healthy bread, I often add flax seeds to this bread. Depending on my mood and the season, I might add pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, or hazelnuts to it as well. If you are using a lot of rye flour, you might like to add some caraway seeds to the dough as well.
- Other flavors: Feel free to add additional ingredients such as cardamon or herbs to your bread.
Whole grain sourdough bread recipe video
How to make whole grain sourdough bread
- Make the dough and let it rise for 3-6 hours.
- For the second rise, transfer the dough to a greased and floured loaf pan.
Notes on making the dough
- Before you begin, be sure you have an active sourdough starter.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, the sourdough starter, salt, and water. In the winter, it is a good idea to use warm water.
- Mix well. You can do this by hand with a large wooden spoon or Danish dough hook or in your stand mixer.
- Cover the bowl with a beeswax wrap, a damp towel, or a plastic wrap to keep the top of the dough from drying out.
- Let the dough rest in a warm place for 3-6 hours.
Second fermentation
- If you don’t mind having a whole wheat starter, you can take off about ¼ cup of the dough for your next starter.
- Cover it again and place the covered dough in a warm place but room temperature works just as well.
Baking notes
- When the dough has visibly risen over the rim of the loaf pan, preheat your oven to 350˚F.
- Move the oven rack to the bottom third of your oven.
- When whole grain sourdough is properly baked, the internal temperature should be around 195˚F.
- The best way to tell if the bread is done is to tap the bottom of the loaf pan. If it sounds hollow, your bread is done. Otherwise, return it to the hot oven for another 10 minutes, then recheck.
- Let the bread cool down in the pan for about 15 minutes before turning it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Sample schedule
While this schedule depends on so many variables, here’s a rough outline of what has worked the best for me:
- 10 pm: The night before I want to bake, I activate my sourdough starter. This is the essence of my very simple sourdough method.
- 7 am: I quickly grind my grains and mix my dough.
- 1 pm: I transfer the dough to a loaf pan.
- 6 pm: I bake the bread.
Again, this is a very rough schedule. In the summer, the rise time tends to be less, in the winter the dough ferments much slower. Sometimes, I might be busy in the middle of the day and might transfer the bread to the loaf pan a little later in the afternoon. However, you can also do the bulk fermentation overnight and bake your bread the next morning. With just a bit of experience, you will quickly figure out what works best for your schedule.
Note: Your first loaf of whole grain sourdough may not come out exactly the way you want it to – don’t be discouraged! Please keep trying – you will get a better feel for it and you will succeed!
Whole grain sourdough bread FAQs
There are a few reasons. Your sourdough starter may have been too young or wasn’t active enough. In that case, you can add a pinch of commercial yeast to your dough. With a bit more practice, you will be able to bake the perfect loaf every time!
Because of the high hydration level of this dough, this whole wheat sourdough bread recipe works best in a loaf pan. However, you can let your dough ferment in a bowl or proofing basket lined with parchment paper, similar in size to your Dutch oven and very gently transfer it to your Dutch oven for baking.
There are a few! Depending on where you source your grains and the quantities you buy, it can be more economical than buying whole-grain flour. More importantly, your flour will be very fresh and won’t have oxidized or gone rancid.
Sourdough takes longer time than yeast. However, that fermentation depletes the starches which means it has a lower glycemic index. It also increases the B vitamins in the bread.
Useful tools and equipment
You don’t need much, but for the best results, I recommend having:
- Grain mill: If you are serious about baking your own whole wheat bread, you might want to invest in a high-quality grain mill. You can read more about the grain mills that I use and recommend. Then you can easily make your own fresh whole grain flours. And it’s even stone-milled flour!
- Danish dough hook: It’s wonderful not having to mix the dough in a stand mixer!
- Large mixing bowl: Even though bakeries use stainless steel for their sourdough bread doughs, I like my big enamel mixing bowl. I like being able to mix the dough without having to worry about it spilling over.
- Loaf pan: It is much easier to bake your loaf of bread in a loaf pan than to shape and form a round loaf. On top of that, I prefer having bread with a rectangular shape. That way, all the slices are pretty much the same size. My favorite one is a 9.5″ x 5.5″ glass dish.
I have an entire blog post about my favorite bread baking tools.
Whole Grain Sourdough Bread | Vollkornbrot
Ingredients
- 5 cups whole grains (such as wheat, rye, spelt, einkorn, millet, flax etc)
- 1 ½ – 2 cups active sourdough starter
- 1-2 TBSP salt
- 1 TBSP caraway seeds (optional)
- 3 ½ – 4 cups filtered water
Instructions
- Either use freshly milled flour or use store-bought flour.
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, the sourdough starter, salt, and water.
- Mix well.
- Cover the bowl with a beeswax wrap, damp towel, or plastic wrap to keep the top of the dough from drying out. Let the dough rest in a warm place for 3-6 hours.
- Grease and flour a loaf pan. Transfer the dough to the loaf pan and gently smooth out the top of the dough.
- Place the covered dough in a warm place but room temperature works just as well.
- Once the dough has visibly risen, preheat your oven to 350˚F.
- Bake your bread until done. The internal, final dough temperature should be around 190˚-200˚F.
- Let the bread cool down in the bread pan on a wire rack for about 15 mins. Carefully invert the loaf pan, remove the bread, and let it cool on a wire rack.
Notes
- with this recipe you can pretty much use any grain you want
- you can also replace some of the whole-grain flour with white flour to give it a lighter taste
Nutrition
Serving and storing suggestions
While tempting, I recommend waiting a few hours (or overnight) to cut the first slice. That way the bread will be much easier to cut.
Ideally, you want to store your bread in a linen cloth bag or bread box. That way, it should easily stay fresh for a week.
If you don’t go through it within a week, I recommend storing it in the fridge in an airtight container or plastic bag. You can also freeze it for a couple of months, then thaw it on the counter overnight. Some people, especially in smaller households, often freeze it in slices. You can then quickly toast the slices before eating.
We love eating a fresh slice of bread with homemade butter, jam, cheese, or cold cuts! This is my favorite everyday breakfast.
Other bread recipes you might like
- Authentic Pumpernickel Bread
- Rye Sourdough Bread
- Gluten-Free Whole Grain Bread
- Quick Soda Bread
- German Breakfast Rolls
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Yummy
I am so glad you like this recipe ~ Anja
I have your Sourdough Simplified book which has this recipe however in the book and on this website there is no cook time listed. A good estimated time would help to determine a close time to watch for the breads completion.
Thanks for the catch! I will update the post but I usually bake my bread for 90 mins ~ Anja
I have been baking this bread about every 10 days for decades and hope you will love it as much as we do!
Thanks for sharing this recipe, I love that it can be done in one day and is baked in a loaf pan. I’d love to make this with white flour but am not experienced enough to play around with water quantities. Any suggestions?
BTW, your website and youtube channel are great resources, I’ve learned so much from you!
Just use enough water to make it a heavy dough that you can still stir, if that makes sense. Or watch one of my videos to see what it looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2qCZHzF9ow&t=4s ~ Anja
Just like the german Vollkornbrot my mum made!
Nice! I am glad you like it ~ Anja
Any update on this recipe with grams?
Thank you 🙂
I have updated it 🙂 ~ Anja
Hi Anja, I have followed your method and taken care of my new baby starter for the last 10 days. It got some bubbles and smelled wonderfully like sourdough. So, I took the plunge and made my first loaf tonight. However, the dough stuck to my hands very badly-so I added more flour (I’m using wheat). I put it in my cast iron pan and waited 6 hours, but it didn’t rise. I baked it anyway to see what would happen and it was very dense and doughy inside. What did I do wrong?
I wonder if your starter was strong enough for making bread. Please do not give up! You will be successful soon if you stick with it ~ Anja
Hi Anja. Thanks for all your traditional lifestyle tips and style – they are a good antidote to our fast, throwaway world. Just wanted to encourage you to post the metric (weight) measurements for your Vollkornbrot recipe (and all your recipes). There was some confusion over the number of cups of whole grains as opposed to cups of milled flour. Measurement in grams/ounces would be more accurate and straightforward than cups.
P.S. If I add some whole wheat berries or rye seeds into the mixture, how much would be good, and do I need to reduce the amount of flour? Also, do the whole grains need to be precooked (boiled) at all before they are added?
I am so glad your enjoying my content! It depends on how much you’re adding in the way of wheat or rye berries but if you’re just adding a handful, you will not need to decrease the flour. Also, if you’re doing an 8 hour or so fermentation time, you do not need to boil them. I am currently in the process of adding metric measurements to my recipes but I have to do it manually and only have so many hours in a day ~ Anja
my bread from last night, so yummy…..
https://ibb.co/54599MZ
Hi Anja,
I managed now to bake this bread, reminds me of my childhood in Germany.
https://ibb.co/jRmC7FP
Very nice, thank you for sharing ~ Anja
The bread looks delicious, but the instructions are unclear, why not say how many grams of flour you used, how much starter, it would be very nice if you put some effort into clarification of this.
I wonder if there is any scoring necessary? and do you make some kind of steam in the oven?
No scoring necessary and steam will certainly help. I will update the recipe with additional metric measurements ~ Anja
I am needing help. I have tried this recipe twice now. The first time was very wet and this second time very wet as well. What is happening?
Five cups spelt flour
1.5 cups active spelt starter
3 cups water
Thanks for any assistance.
The difference might be your flour, so definitely use less water ~ Anja
I think your directions are very unclear. I used 5 c flour and 3 1/2 c water and got a soupy mix. Some of the comments make me think I am supposed to grind my own grains. However, you do not say that. I have to try to salvage my soupy dough.
Did you use whole-grain flour? Some flours absorb liquid at different rates but you can always add more flour ~ Anja
I’m in love with your methods i’ve been baking rye 100% or close. if i don’t do extra steps like pre- ferment and scalds my bread is gummy. Is this recipe at all gummy ? i bake 6X the recipe. You use the words visible risen in the loaf pan what % would that be. i have many sizes pans usually pullman .Thank you 🧑🍳
My bread is either whole wheat or a mixture of various grains and should not be gummy. 100% rye bread will naturally be more dense but shouldn’t be gummy, either. Have you tried lowering the oven temperature and increasing the baking time? Anja
I find it unclear about the flour. Recipe says 5 c whole grains. One comment says that is about 7.5 cups flour where another comment says use 4-5 cups flour. Also do you add the nuts and seeds when you first mix the dough or before adding to the bread pan.
Cup measurements are not very accurate and ultimately it depends on the size of your loaf pan. I add the nuts before adding to the loaf pan ~ Anja
How many loaves does this recipe make? It looks delicious!
it makes medium sized 1 loaf ~ Anja
Can you leave the dough overnight in a warm place instead of the 3 – 6 hours?
If you want to leave it overnight, I’d put it in the fridge, otherwise it gets overproofed ~ Anja
Can I put this bread together, then put in the refrigerator overnight, then bake the next day?
You should, it might be a bit more sour, though ~ Anja
Hi Anja, it’s not clear in the recipe if you grind the flax seeds or leave them whole. Do you grind them?
Good question! I actually grind most of them together with my other grains and then toss a handful of whole flaxseeds into the dough for extra texture ~ Anja
Hi Anya! Thank you so much for this wonderful recipe. I am very excited to make this rustic old world sourdough but the recipe is just a bit unclear to me. I am unsure if I use 5 c of flour or all the flour made from grinding 5 c of grain which would be about 7 1/2 c flour? Thanks so much for your kind response!
Yes, I am using about 5 cups of grains. I will update the recipe accordingly ~ Anja
This looks like such good bread. I will have to make it. Thank you for sharing!
I am so glad you like this recipe! Happy baking ~ Anja
You have so many ads hiding the written content, it is impossible to read the recipe. Moving on to find a better managed site.
I am sorry that you’re finding the ads overwhelming. You can always click “close” or the “x” to make them disappear ~ Anja
I have a quick question…can I make a bigger batch, and store some of the dough in the fridge for the baking within the next few days? I know that refrigeration slows the fermentation…sometimes it would be nice to just reach into the fridge, pull out the dough, and cut out the longer rising phase.
Hi Rae, that is a good question. I would like to say yes but then I have never tried it myself. However, if you’re anything like me, you might just experiment and see what happens. If you do try it out, let me know how it turned out ~ Anja
I want to make your sourdough bread, but I want to bake it in a loaf pan rather than a cast iron skillet. What are the different steps and oven temperature, also how long is baking time?
Thank you, Rosalie
I do bake it in a loaf pan so the times and temperatures in this recipe should work for you. Hope this helps ~ Anja
What is the measurement of whole grain flour equivalent to 5cups of whole grains? I don’t have any equipment to grind my own. Thanks!
A general rule of thumb is that 1 cup of wheat berries is equal to about 1.5 cups of flour when milled ~ Anja
I would love to make a wheat free bread. Can you suggest a mixture as without wheat it’s very difficult to get the texture as a normal bread had
Hi Antonetta, I hope I understand your question correctly: you’re looking for a wheat-free mixture, not necessarily gluten-free. I often use a combination of rye, spelt, and einkorn berries that I grind right before baking. You can also buy rye flour, spelt flour, and einkorn flour. If you’re looking for gluten-free flour, I am not too familiar with them but maybe you find this helpful: https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/gf-sourdough/art-of-gluten-free-sourdough-baking/ ~ Anja
I want to make this bread, but I do not have a grinder.
How much store-bought flour should I use?
I think you’ll need less than 2 pounds for this bread as I would use about 4-5 cups of flour. Hope this helps and happy baking ~ Anja
Hi Anga,
I am going to try your bread recipe and adjust amounts to bake in 2 cast iron bread pans. What were the original grains used by your family? Thank you, John
Hi John, I am so glad you like the recipe and that you’re giving it a try!! I am not sure what my great grandparents were using but I know my grandmother was mostly using wheat and in the later years, as it became available, spelt. However, rye works really well in this very flexible recipe! Happy baking!
This looks good! Thank you!
Thank you so much for stopping by!