Light Wholemeal Sourdough Bread Recipe
made using the dry dough sourdough (desem) technique.
 This lovely sourdough bread tastes like a fine wine - deeply sour, but understated. It's a treat for the senses, and will require a bit more commitment than some of the more basic recipes here. But the rewards, ahh, yes, the rewards...
When you have been searching for the holy grail of sourdough breadmaking for as long as I have, to discover someone (in fact many 'someones'...) has visited these shores (desem, or dry dough sourdough) before is both humbling and daunting - people who have breadmaking as their passion, I have observed, have none of the arrogance of coffee snobs. They just learn, and share, and learn some more. We all have failures, because we all experiment, and thus we get any chips knocked off our shoulders each time something doesn't work. It's a lovely thing, and so too is the world of specialist forums. So thanks to 'floydm' for bringing us www.thefreshloaf.com. A great forum, with many great minds freely sharing their breadmaking experiences.
The beautiful thing about sourdough breadmaking is that there is always another technique worthy of investigation. The Dry dough technique has had me enthralled for the past few months.
 Dry Dough sourdough technique makes a very deeply sour starter, which is used more sparingly than regular or liquid sourdough starters. The enzyme balance is quite different to other starters too, due to the consistency of a dry biscuit, which is eventually achieved in the starter. Check out the dry dough sourdough starter article in this website. Have a go at making it. When it's happening, come back here!
Light Wholemeal Sourdough Bread Recipe
using the 'dry dough' sourdough method.
You'll need:
800g of white stonemilled wheat flour 
400 grams of lite stonemilled wheat flour
120 grams of dry dough starter
700 - 800 mls of water
25 grams cooking salt
You'll also need to be near the dough for a good couple of hours. This recipe requires a bit of bench work, and quite a few short bursts of activity over a few hours. You can be doing something else at the same time, like writing your book, for example. The breadmaking is quick work, just a few repeats. Awesome, awesome bread awaits!
 Method:
Mix the dry dough starter with the water - reserve about 100 mls for adding later. Break up the dry dough and stir through the water. The water will become cloudy with little lumps through it. Allow to stand for ten minutes to disperse, if you like.
 Pour into your mixing bowl or dough box. Continue to break it into the liquid, so it activates more evenly in the dough.
Add in all the flour and push down into the water mixture with your fingers and then your fist. You might need to add a little more water. A tough, tight dough - like consistency should be the result. Allow to rest in a warm place for an hour.
When it's rested, add the salt. Same technique - push it through the dough with your fingers at first. Then, as the dough comes together, start kneading it into a large ball, leaving the seam at the bottom. Place the rough ball of dough back in your doughbox or bowl, cover it, and return it to your warm place.
Every fifteen minutes, remove your dough from the box or bowl. You'll notice that what was a very tough dough has softened a great deal. Work it for a few minutes on the benchtop.
Here's a good basic kneading technique: 
Place the dough with the seam facing you (in other words upside down) on the bench.
Flatten out the ball of dough with your knuckles. Fold into a longitudinal rectangle and flatten again with your knuckles.
 Roll up into a cylinder. Turn the cylinder sideways (pointing the cylinder in front of you), flatten again with your knuckles, and roll up. Place the ball of dough back into the dough box, cover and rest.
Repeat the same thing in approximately fifteen minute intervals for the first hour or two of dough development - as many as six turns can go into the dough. Each turn takes only a minute, and is very clean, as no flour or water is added.
In this manner, you will be getting a really well developed dough, which is comparible to a machine made dough for the development it achieves. Be careful when using this technique to avoid tearing the dough. If it begins to tear, let it rest for another fifteen minutes before trying again. If it tears every time, you have taken the dough too far.
Once you have put a number of turns into the dough, allow it to rest for a couple of hours.
Remember, the more turns you can get into the dough, the lighter your finished bread will be. You will notice that with each successive turn, the dough feels silkier and more elastic.
 Once the dough begins to feel slightly stick or tacky, that's about it - after this point, all your efforts will have a negative effect. Leave it alone now. It will recover.
Once your dough feels light and elastic, allow to proof for a couple of hours, just at room temperature.
After this period of time, your light wholemeal dough will be ready to be cut and formed. It should have doubled in size, and be holding its shape even when fully 'gassed'.
 Remove the dough from the box or bowl it's in. Place it on the bench, and simply divide the dough evenly in two. You can weigh it, or use your eye.
Round the chunks or dough. Spray with water and leave on the bench.
Rest for another fifteen minutes, then pick up each cylinder using only the outsides of your hands, cupping the dough like a bowl with your hands underneath. I guess you could say it is a bit like holding a book in your palms. Stretch the face of the dough to begin a cylinder shape, and simply squeeze the base together with the outside edges of both hands.
Lay the two cylinders on the benchtop, spray with water and dust with rice flour or semolina. Make a curvey 'S' shape shallow slash, and cross it through the middle to make a running writing 'f' (creative licence for 'flemish' sourdough...).
Place on flat baking trays, allow to proof (in boxes, as usual) until quite large and not resisting being poked with a little fingertip.
Final Proof
You will get quite a good rise from this. The crumb, when it's baked, will glow - because of the development that you will have achieved from so many kneadings.
This dough will rise very quickly from the final turn, so watch out. Have the oven preheated, with water placed in a bowl on the floor for slow release of moisture. This bread will also get a good amount of oven kick, if you've mixed and turned the dough correctly.
Baking
 As a default setting, I preheat my oven to 200 degrees celsius for all breads baked on trays. Once the bread is in the oven, I wind it down gradually in 20 degree intervals every 15 minutes. Once the bread has coloured well, it's done. This can be an hour or more. Once you get down to 140 degrees, don't go lower. Just hold it there.
This bread is best made with a thick crust, and is utterly delicious. I have to say that I've tasted a lot of sourdough bread in my time, and this one is up there for flavour. It's complex, delicate, earthy and subtle, all at once. Quite an achievement.
Follow the instructions for baking sourdough bread in this website.
Here's a list of links to other sourdough recipes in the site for you to try:
Happy Sourdough Baking!
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