Posted on 22 Comments

Buckwheat Flour Sourdough

Here is a great option for all the buckwheat fans out there. I am not going to list all the health benefits of this grain, but in the context of bread baking it adds incredible flavor to the sourdough bread and creates this beautiful grey color. Hope you’ll like the buckwheat flour sourdough recipe below.

Ingredients

Sourdough starter 

Dough

  • 270g bread flour (90%)
  • 30g buckwheat flour(10%)
  • 207g water (69%)
  • 18g (6%) cold water added along with salt. Total hydration 75%
  • 60g levain (20%)
  • 6g salt (2%)

Directions 

Starter

  • 7 am add starter to the water and whisk together, add flour, mix well, cover loosely, let it sit at room temperature 74-78F until in about 8-10 hours starter reaches its peak (triples or more in volume). Learn how to make starter from scratch here.

Dough:

  • 5 pm mix water with flour and cover, let it rest for 1 hour to complete the autolyse.
  • During the autolyse process the flour absorbs the water, becoming fully hydrated. This activates gluten development.
  • 6 pm add sourdough starter. 
  • Mix on low speed of your mixing machine for 2-3 minutes, or KitchenAid on speed 3 for 3-4 minutes until well incorporated. 
  • Also if for some reason you don’t have a mixing machine, you can incorporate starter into the dough by hands. Using Rubaud method or slap and fold method (about 5-7 min).
  • Cover, let it rest for 30 minutes.
  • 6:30 pm add salt and extra water. 
  • The process of adding extra water is called bassinage, it helps to tighten up gluten. Mix on low speed of your mixing machine for 2-3 min, or with KitchenAid on speed 3 for 5-6 minutes until well incorporated. The dough should come up together, but still be sticky on the bottom.
  • Please note, if you perform mixing by hands, using Rubaud method or slap and fold method, that takes about 10 minutes. Do a couple of stops in between kneading, it helps tightening up gluten.
  • Continue gluten development and structure building by performing stretches and folds during the warm fermentation period.
  • Leave to rest 30 min. At 74-78F /23-26C.
  • 7 pm wet your hands and perform 1st stretch and fold.
  • 7:45pm 2nd stretch and fold.
  • 8:30 pm 3rd stretch and fold.
  • 9:15 pm 4th stretch and fold.

Performing stretches and folds helps with gluten development. Keep monitoring the dough, if it rises too fast, you can shorten the time between stretches to 40 minutes or less.

  • After the final stretch let the dough proof for 30 minutes at 76-80F/ 23-26C. You should see some bubbles on the surface, the dough has to become lighter. We are looking for 40%-50% rise. 

Preshaping Sourdough

  • 9:45 pm Transfer the dough on to a work surface and dust its top with flour. Flip the dough over so the floured side faces down. 
  • Fold the dough onto itself so the flour on the surface remains entirely on the outside of the loaf. This will become the crust. 
  • Place the dough round on a work surface and let it rest for 30 minutes uncovered.

Shaping Sourdough

  • 10:15 pm dust the dough with whole wheat flour. Use a dough scraper to flip it over on to a work surface so the floured side faces down. 
  • Starting at the side closest to you, pull the right 2 corners of the dough to the left, then fold them up into half of the dough. Repeat this action on the left side too.
  • Finally, roll the dough. Shape it into a smooth, taut roll.
  • Transfer the roll, seam side up, into a prepared proofing basket (loaf pan with kitchen towel).
  • Cover it with plastic and return the dough to the 80F (27C) environment for 15 minutes. 
  • Then transfer the dough to rise for 14-24 hours in refrigerator.
  • Preheat your oven to 500 F, place a cast iron pan with the lid inside for 45 minutes – 1 hour.
  • Remove the dough from the fridge. 
  • Flip it over on a parchment paper, score it with a sharp knife or a scoring lame
  • Transfer it on to the hot cast iron pan, cover with lid (to create steam for a beautiful and crusty crumb).
  • Bake at 500F for 15 minutes with lid on.
  • Remove the lid, lower temperature to 450F. 
  • Bake for 20 more minutes until golden brown.

Enjoy!

22 thoughts on “Buckwheat Flour Sourdough

  1. Hello dear, good afternoon. I really liked the recipe, because I have saracene wheat and I didn’t know how to use it. It will be my next bread. For sure.Have a great weekend with your family Kiss.

    1. My dear Maria!
      It’s very healthy and good, you should try it.
      Good luck 🙏🙏🙏

  2. Hi Natasha,
    For making the sourdough starter that goes into the dough, do i have to use 5g initial starter that is at peak, or before peak, or after peak?
    Hope to be able to try this recipe!

    Thank you.

    1. Hi!
      You can use 5g of your starter on it’s peak or after peak🙏

  3. Hi Natasha,

    Thanks for the recipe. Will try very soon

    1. Let me know how it will go 🙏

  4. Hi. I just made this buckwheat sourdough with my only difference being my levain was all wholemeal.
    My loaves came out very flat with barely any oven spring. Could this be due to my starter?

    1. Sorry to hear your bread came out flat, so many factors involved: weak starter, not enough strength developed during fermentation, over or underproofed.

  5. Just made this is in the oven even as I type this. The oven spring was really good so it is going to be a very nice looking loaf of bread. Can’t wait to eat it.
    Since this makes a small loaf I may play around with the quantities to make a full size loaf.

    Thank you for this recipe. Natasha you go girl!

    1. Thank you so much for your feedback. Hope you’ll like it.

      1. Hi, this is next on my list to try. I already love this recipe because you have added time stamps to help me plan 🙂 I don’t have my process down yet and at times I find myself up at 2 am when my dough doubled in size 🙂

  6. Thank you for sharing this absolutely fabulous bread! Wonderful crumb, lovely oven spring! I’d like to make a larger loaf, does this recipe double as written, please?

  7. When do add the levain?

  8. Absolutely delicious loaf! Very flavorful with a beautiful crumb. Thank you for sharing this recipe!

    1. Thank you 🙏

  9. Hello 👋 .What is this LEVAIN?
    Thanks

    1. Hi!
      It’s a sourdough starter ready for use in the dough

  10. Hello, bread turned out delicious and wonderful crumb! My only issue was the color was not as dark as in the picture and the buckwheat flavor was not there. Do you know what the issue might be?

    1. Hi!
      Depends on the flour.

  11. You said “rise in the fridge”. What is the temperature inside your fridge? Thank you.

  12. Hi! What temperature do you have while raising in the fridge?
    Thank you!

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