Sourdough Sandwich Loaves - NO yeast

The one on the left has sunflower seeds in it and sesame seeds on the outside. The other one is just plain.

For people who do not want to eat yeast for whatever reason, here is a bread or two for you. Now, if you want me to bake a loaf for you, you would have to let me know three days ahead. Why? Let me explain....

This is how long it takes to make this bread. In order to have a strong sourdough culture I start out with only one tablespoon of sourdough culture per loaf. I double the volume by adding one tablespoon of flour and 1/2 tablespoon of water and let it sit for 12 hours at room temperature. I continue doubling the culture three more times in 12 hour intervals before it is ready to be mixed with the final ingredients. In other words, it takes 48 hours till I have enough culture to bake a loaf of bread. After mixing and kneading the dough it takes about four to six hours till the first rise is done and the bread dough is nicely risen. I then form a loaf and let it rise again which could take between 2 and 3 hours. It takes an hour to bake and ideally the bread should be cooled completely before slicing it.

I think it may not take as long in the summer when it is hot outside and usually also inside my house. I will also try to see if I can cut the culture fermenting time in half and still get the same result. I like to experiment but the down side is that I might end up with more bread to eat than my family can handle and my freezer is already full with "experimental" bread. Maybe I should open my front door and shout, "Anybody hungry?" like in Vedic times, you know....

Bohemian Sourdough Rye Bread (NO yeast)

This bread is about half wheat half rye flour and was made without yeast. By the time I found a minute to take this picture, the bread was already several days old, but still tasted great. The advantage of using sourdough over yeast is that sourdough bread is a good keeper. It does not dry out as fast as yeasted bread and the addition of rye flour helped in this regard as well. Actually, we had the last slice of this bread today for dinner with our soup and although the bread was already 10 days old, it still tasted good, just a little bit on the dry side. Even though I baked it as a free form loaf it did not flatten when I turned it out onto the baking sheet from the proofing basket. I am starting to like unyeasted sourdough bread so much that I might just not bake yeasted bread any more, at least not for my family...

When it comes to the people I bake for, they mostly prefer a square loaf of nicely risen yeast bread and I do not blame them. After all, this is what most of them grew up eating. And I am happy baking it for them. After all, the customer is king.... or queen....

Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread - no yeast!

Last Sunday a young couple came to my table at the temple and asked me if I also make sourdough bread, the kind that does not have any yeast in it. For some reason they do not like to eat anything with yeast in it. While I have made sourdough bread many times before, I only tried it a few times without any yeast in it. It turned out to be a brick, very dense and chewy. I did not like it, so I gave up on it. I did tell this lovely couple though that I would make them a loaf without adding yeast, but warned them that the bread would be on the dense "side." It was fine with them as they do not like the fluffy bread anyways. The next day I did some research on the Internet to find a method to make good sourdough bread that is not too dense. Then it dawned on me that I never tried to make whole wheat sourdough bread, I always make it with mostly rye flour. Since I like to experiment I converted my rye sourdough to a whole wheat one and got to work. It bubbled away happily and I had a feeling that the bread would come out great, and it did! Not dense at all and the taste was phenomenal. I could have eaten the bread all at once, if my stomach could have fit it all.

I was so happy with the result, I called the couple to let them know that I figured out how to make "fluffy" sourdough bread. They were less than enthusiastic. Apparently they really DID want the bread to be on the dense side. They dislike the fluffy American style bread. Oh well, I can make you a brick if you want, but as far as I am concerned, I prefer the "fluffy" version...

I think I will be selling my "fluffy" unyeasted sourdough bread this Sunday. Let's see who else likes it "fluffy" ...

Two Kinds of Sourdough Rye Breads

This one is called Swedish Limpa Rye Bread. It was made with a rye sourdough starter, but also contains yeast. Molasses gives it a nice dark color and it has some interesting spices in it as well - cardamon, fennel and anise seeds plus orange oil. One cannot really taste it that much in the bread. I baked this bread directly on a pizza stone with steam which gives it a rustic look and a thick and chewy crust. If you have good teeth and love rye bread, then this one or the next one would be perfect for you. I grew up on rye bread and love it, unfortunately I do not have good teeth....


This is another take on the 50% rye bread made with rye sourdough starter. Again, thick and chewy crust with a moist interior. This one only has caraway and anise seeds in it. The good thing about rye bread is that it keeps a long time.


Speaking of rye sourdough - here it is, bubbling away. This one is ready to be used in bread baking.

German-style Many Seed Bread

This is my second favorite bread. It has pumpkin, sesame, sunflower and flax seeds in it, hence the name "Many Seed Bread". It is more on the dense and chewy side, but it tastes great. If you love seeds, you would definitely love this bread!


All the ingredients in my Bosch mixer, ready to be kneaded. When the mixer is done kneading, I usually always knead my bread dough by hand for about five minutes to make sure it has proper gluten development - and to get a little bit of a workout since I do not have time for that otherwise.

Sprouted Wheat Bread Again

This one was made with half the vital wheat gluten of the original recipe. Taste was the same but it was a little bit too sticky and moist for me. I think I will go back to the original recipe. I am getting addicted to this bread. Yeah, it is that good!


As you can probably tell from this bread - I love sesame seeds....

No Gluten = Brick

Here is my newest experiment: 100% Sprouted Wheat Bread without the addition of gluten.

As you can see from the picture it turned out to look like a brick and was rather dense.

It did taste very good though, just like the one made with the gluten, just less gummy. Not that gummy is necessarily a bad thing, it is a matter of preference. My husband said that he likes them both. The sprouting process brings out the natural sweetness of the grain. One loaf only has 1 Tbs. of organic agave nectar in it, yet it tastes subtly sweet. I ate it with cheese but one could eat it with butter and jam as well. In my opinion it tastes a lot better than the sprouted grain breads you can buy at Ward's. Those do not taste fresh to me. My loaf tastes just as good two days old. It is naturally moist and does not dry out much.

The bread sliced up.

Now that I have two versions of this bread, guess what? I will try a third one! This time it will be an in-between bread, meaning, I will add some gluten but not as much as the recipe calls for. I will experiment till I get it right. I am stubborn....

100% Sprouted Grain Bread

Yes, you can make it too. It is easy but quite messy and it takes time...
Here are the sprouts, ready to be mashed. I used my Green Power twin gear juicer which mashed the sprouts really nicely. A food processor will do the job too, but you will not end up with the same dough consistency.

Then you add some salt, yeast and sweetener (I used organic agave nectar) and probably some water and vital wheat gluten (optional) and start kneading. This is were the fun starts.

I added the gluten and put it through the juicer together with the sprouts and ended up with a glue paste. I will never make this mistake again. I had to put the dough in the food processor to cut it up to be able to work with it.

Knead. Let it rise in a pan. Bake. That's it. Simple, isn't it? Well, actually not quite. Try it and you will find out. ;-)


Here is the finished loaf. The loaf was light and airy. I will omit the gluten next time and hope it will not come out too dense. I am already sprouting some more grain for my next batch...

100% Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread

Two days ago I made this bread. It tasted sooooo good that I ate just about half of it right away. My kids loved it as well. I spread it with butter and jam and it tasted better than cake. I am not a fan of rich baked goods and I would choose this bread over cakes or cookies any time. It had the perfect combination of cinnamon, raisins and walnuts, not too much, not too little.


The night before I made a biga. This picture is very poor, sorry. A biga is a pre-ferment which I put in the fridge over night to develop flavor. In this case it is made of flour, milk, safflower oil and a tiny bit of yeast.
Here is what Wikipedia has to say about biga:
Biga is a type of pre-ferment used in Italian baking. Many popular Italian breads, including ciabatta, are made using a biga. Using a biga adds complexity to the bread's flavor and is often used in breads which need a light, open texture with holes. Apart from adding to flavor and texture, a biga also helps to preserve bread by making it less perishable.


Guess what this is? Another biga? No. It is called a soaker; does not have any yeast in it and does not go in the fridge over night. I kept it at room temp. over night. It is made of flour, salt, milk and raisins.


Bread in the pan for the rise.... And rise it did beautifully.

Whole Grain Sourdough Rye Bread

I made two kinds of Sourdough Rye Bread to find out which one would taste better. This one is a 50% Rye Hearth Bread which I baked on a pizza stone to give it a rustic look. Though it tasted excellent, I still would like to improve the texture of the bread. It is, like pretty much everything else I bake, 100% whole grain and that makes it a little dense. It is a big improvement over other rye breads I made before though.



This is my second version of rye bread and is called Three-Stage 70 Percent Sourdough Rye. Here you see the loaves rising on a cookies sheet. I used the Detmolder Method of Rye Bread Production which builds the sourdough slowly over 2 days to make the culture strong and healthy. This method is supposedly used by professional bakers in Austria and Germany and I must say that when I tasted the bread it immediately reminded me of my childhood. It tasted exactly like the rye bread I used to eat as a child in Austria.



The two breads in comparison. On top the "Austrian" Rye Bread and on the bottom the 50% Rye Hearth Bread. I am still not totally satisfied with the results, so back in the kitchen I will go and try to improve the recipe.