Episode Details

Send us a question or voice memo!

What actually changes when you start adding more whole grain to sourdough?

In this Lessons episode of Saving Bread, Allison White breaks down what happens when a familiar country loaf moves from mostly white bread flour toward 40, 50, 60, or even 100 percent whole grain.

Whole wheat is not white flour with a little extra color. It is a different raw material, and as the percentage increases, it can change water absorption, gluten development, fermentation speed, starter activity, dough strength, pH, handling, and ultimately what a successful loaf looks like.

We begin with the wheat kernel itself and look at the role of the bran, germ, and endosperm. Then we move into the basic microbiology of sourdough, including what yeast and lactic acid bacteria are doing during fermentation, how naturally occurring flour enzymes help make sugars available to those microorganisms, and why changing the flour can change the behavior of both your starter and your dough.

We also get practical with inoculation and pre fermented flour. Why does adding more levain usually shorten fermentation? How can lowering inoculation help when freshly milled whole grain is moving too quickly? Why can two bakers both say they use 20 percent levain while actually working with very different amounts of pre fermented flour?

Then we bring it back to the country loaf and talk through how to begin increasing whole wheat without changing every variable at once.

The goal is not to make 100 percent whole grain bread behave exactly like a loaf made with strong refined bread flour. At higher percentages, you are allowed to redesign the bread.

We also touch briefly on pH and why a target developed for a mostly white flour dough should not automatically be applied to a high whole grain dough. A full Lessons episode on pH is coming soon.

At the end of the episode, I challenge you to choose one whole grain flour and bake with it for ten loaves. Keep the other variables as consistent as possible, take notes, and learn the flour in front of you instead of chasing one universal hydration or fermentation number.

This Friday, Baylin Speidel joins me again for the companion conversation. We will talk about hard red wheat, hard white wheat, extraction rates, flour terminology, flour blending, and how to choose a grain based on what you actually want it to do in your bread.

This episode is the fermentation and dough side. Friday is the flour selection side.

RESOURCES

• Andrew Janjigian and Wordloaf: Wordloaf

• Preorder Andrew Janjigian’s Breaducation, publishing November 17, 2026: Breaducation from Ten Speed Press and Penguin Random House

• Thomas Teffri Chambelland: Thomas Teffri Chambelland

• Sourdough Baking: A Treatise by Thomas Teffri Chambelland: Sourdough Baking: A Treatise

• Sourdough Panettone and Viennoiserie by Thomas Teffri Chambelland: Sourdough Panettone and Viennoiserie

• École Internationale de Boulangerie, founded and directed by Thomas Teffri Chambelland: International Bakery School

• San Francisco Baking Institute classes: SFBI Classes

• Modern Bread and Viennoiserie with Thomas Teffri Chambelland at SFB