Denver Power Sourdough

This culture is awesome.

Every now and then I get a profound yearning for the flavor of whole wheat bread and for age-old complexity and depth of real sourdough. And those two together will just kick your butt.

There is nothing like it in the world. It is history itself in its most fundamental form. When I read about Egyptian pyramid builders being paid in bread and beer I go, w-h-a-a-a-a-a-t? And then I have this solid bread, a meal by itself and a beer, and I realize fundamentally that is all one needs to live. So yeah, I can see that.

Add a tomato to that or a slice of ham and I find myself in prayerful state of mind of thanksgiving.

This very powerful starter languished in the refrigerator as sponge for months unattended until I finally dragged it out and revived it from slumber. It sprang back to life with astonishing alacrity. Of all other cultures, none of them behave like like this one does. It odor is sweet, and its flavor quite incredible. 

ARTS!

It's going to be awhile before I mess around with sourdough again and this revives so brilliantly I might as well dry it for long storage instead of have it hanging around as sponge or as levain. This is the starter spread out on a Silpat. It turns into flakes and I'll probably turn it to powder.

This loaf is 1.5 cups water, 1/2 cup highly active sourdough starter.

3 cups whole wheat milled here at home from the brewery downstairs. 

1 cup of bread flour so the dough as at least some amount of gluten development and elasticity. But not much. This is reversed percentage of what bakers usually do for whole wheat. It's difficult to get a decent loaf with anything over 25% whole wheat flour. 

When commercial bakers say 100% whole wheat, they're speaking their specialized industry language. Yes, it has 100% of the types of wheat particles, but the components of wheat granules are broken down and separated and then mixed back in but not to the original percentages. 

Lies! All lies!

The things marketers are allowed to get away with. It's misleading and therefore unethical. If their bread was truly 100% of each grain then their loaves would be 10X heavier, a lot more robust and way more flavorful. They'd taste of real wheat. You wouldn't recognize them as bread.