Healthy Sourdough Bread Recipe, that will help you make the most Delicious Healthy Bread, rich in protein and fiber.

This healthy sourdough bread has incredible crackly crust and absolutely soft and moist crumb inside.

It is super delicious as it has delicious seeds like sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and flax seeds.It also has some whole wheat flour which adds an earthy and nutty flavor to this healthy bread.

As you bite through the slices, you can feel it’s deliciously chewy and full of flavors; you can taste those nourishing seeds and at the same time it has all the goodness and flavors of sourdough bread.

We can enjoy this bread as its own or its absolutely delicious with some plain butter.My kids love this healthy sourdough bread and when I make this at home, it usually get finished in a few minutes.

Why you will love this Healthy Sourdough Bread Recipe

This Healthy Sourdough Bread Recipe uses, lot of protein and fibers which are essential for our body. So we can consider this homemade bread as one of the healthiest sourdough breads.
As we use sourdough starter as the leavener instead of commercial yeast, it is more easily digestible in our body.
The taste and smell of this high protein sourdough bread is absolutely delicious; the flavors of sourdough bread and the flavor from seeds and whole grains!
The method that we use in this healthy high protein sourdough bread recipe is easier and simpler.We do only “two stretch and folds” and “one coil fold” to strengthen the gluten.
It is easy to customize this healthy homemade bread recipe by using nuts, seeds and whole grains of your choice.

Video:High protein, High fiber, Healthy Sourdough Bread Recipe

Ingredients for making this High Protein Sourdough Bread

Bread Flour: 325 g or approximately 2.5 cups(loosely packed)
Whole wheat flour: 50 g or approximately .5 cup-1 tbsp
Sesame seeds:10 g or 1 tbsp
Pumpkin seeds: 10 g or 1 tbsp
Sunflower seeds: 24 g or 2 tbsp
Flax seeds: 36 g or 3 tbsp
Salt :8 g
Active Sourdough Starter :80 g
Water: 280 ml

For topping, use your favorite seeds (around 50 g).

The toasted seeds on top, especially sesame seeds, add a beautiful aroma and taste to this healthy high protein sourdough bread.

If you don’t have sourdough starter with you right now and you want to make open crumb bread with crispy crust using commercial yeast; then you will love this bread made with biga.

How to make Healthy Sourdough Bread

We can make this healthy homemade sourdough bread in 5 simple steps.

Prepare the dough
Bulk Ferment the dough
- Strengthening the gluten
- Calm Fermentation
Shaping and transferring to banneton
Cold Fermentation
Scoring and Baking

Prepare the dough

To make this seeded sourdough bread, we are going to use a mix of different seeds.We can use chopped nuts also here.

I have used my favorite mix of seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and flax seeds.

seeds for making healthy sourdough bread

As flax seeds contain a strong pectin covering outside, we need to crush or grind them in order to unleash its nutritious goodness.So I ground the flaxseeds and have used ground flax seeds in this recipe.

As the first step for making this high fiber sourdough bread, we are going to add in all our ingredients into a bowl except the starter, which we will add later.

So into a large bowl, add in the water, salt, all the seeds (sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, ground flax seeds).

ingredients for making high protein sourdough bread

Then add in the whole wheat flour.We can use the same amount of other whole grain flour as well, like spelt, rye, einkorn etc.

Then I added bread flour, which has 13 % protein in it.For making sourdough bread , it is advisable to use bread flour than all purpose flour or plain flour.

Now combine everything together until there are no dry flour left.I have used the rear end of a wooden spoon to mix them together.

Now cover and let it sit for around one hour.

This will give some time for the gluten to develop, which will help the dough to expand and rise well and to hold all the air bubbles within, without any tearing during the rise.

Add the starter

After one hour, let’s add in the starter.

We need to make sure that our starter is active and good.It should get doubled in size in around 6 hours after feeding it.It should smell yeasty and should taste pleasantly sour.When you drop a small portion of bubbly starter in water it should float, as it has lot of air inside it.

Now incorporate the starter into the dough so that we will get a homogenous dough.

Now we prepared the dough. Cover the bowl and let the dough ferment.

Bulk Ferment The Dough

The sourdough fermentation in the first half is slow.So during this time, we will try to strengthen the gluten network.

For that either we can knead the dough by hand or using stand mixer.But what I found as more easy and effective is to do some stretch and folds and then coil folds.

What is the purpose of this stretching and folding

The stretch and fold method serves two main purposes:

it layers the gluten to build structure in the dough,
it redistributes the heat within the dough

How to do the stretch and fold kneading

The dough will bulk ferment for about 5-9 hours depending on the temperature.

During the first half of this; that is first 2-3 hours, we can build the strength of our dough.

Here in this healthy sourdough bread recipe with 2 rounds of brief stretch and folds between each 30 minutes.

To stretch and fold, lightly damp your fingers (this will help the dough not to stick) and pull up on the side of the dough and fold it back down on itself. Turn the bowl 90 degrees and repeat. Do this until you have stretched and folded all 4 sides of the dough. Turn the dough over, cover, and allow it to ferment for 30 more minutes until the next round.

stretch and fold method for stregthening gluten

Once you are done with the second round of stretch and fold, keep the dough covered for 1 hour.

After one hour, let’s flatten the dough and then fold it so that it will create multiple layers.

Spray the work surface with water(so that the dough will not stick to the surface) and then spread the dough evenly as possible to form a thin sheet.

Then fold the dough from both sides and then lengthwise as in the video.

Keep this dough in a greased glass container.

Cover and then wait for one hour.

After one hour do one round of coil fold. Coil folds are just like “stretch and folds” but done in a more gentle manner.Here we try to keep the topside smooth.

Now cover and let the dough sit for until it gets 50% rise in volume. It may take 2-3 hours (a total of 5-6 hours of fermentation). Throughout the bulk fermentation, try to keep the temperature of the dough around 70-74 F.

Shaping the Seeded Sourdough Bread

After the fermentation, our dough is now ready for shaping.

Transfer the dough onto a floured work surface. Fold the dough from each side and then from top to bottom.

Now let’s top the surface with some seeds.

Spread a plate with a thick, even layer of seeds(sesame, sunflower etc)

I sprayed the surface with some water and then place the moistened portion of the dough onto the seed layer, make sure to fully coat the surface of loaf with the seeds.

Now place the loaf on to the Banneton with the seam side up.

high protein sourdough bread in banetton

Let the dough sit and rise at room temperature for about one hour.

Then keep it inside the refrigerator for cold proofing.

Cold Fermentation

You can keep it in fridge for 8-16 hours for better flavor.

Cold Fermentation or cold retard, slows down the fermentation in our sourdough, this longer fermentation time allows for improved development of both crumb and taste.

Scoring and Baking Healthy Sourdough Bread

After the cold retard, take it out from fridge.

Flip the dough on to a parchment paper.

Before baking the bread, score the loaf with a sharp blade or with a lame.

Place this into the preheated oven dish or dutch oven.(We can use any oven proof dish with a proper lid.)

Close the oven dish with it’s preheated lid.

What is scoring a sourdough bread means

Scoring is slashing the shaped bread dough with a sharp knife or razor blade to allow it to expand during baking.

Why do we need to score the sourdough bread

The purpose of scoring is primarly to control the direction in which the bread will expand during “oven spring”

Bake the bread

So Transfer the dough on to a well preheated dutch oven or similar one ( I recommend an oven thermometer to make sure your oven is hot enough) and close the pot with an oven safe lid.

Take care not to burn yourself during this step as the dutch oven is very hot.

Baking temperature and duration

Bake the bread inside the hot dutch oven(480F or 250 C) for 25 minutes with the lid on.

After 25 minutes of baking, remove the lid and Reduce the oven temperature to 400F.

And then bake for another 12-15 minutes without the lid (400F or 200 C) ,until the top of

the bread is nice and golden brown.

The more you bake at this point,the more crispy the crust become.

This extra baking will give that outer crust of the bread to get a more crisp and caramelized golden brown color and a nutty flavor.

You will be rewarded with a Bread, with a thin, crunchy brown crust and airy, soft and tender crumb inside. The bread is slightly chewy, flavorful and perfect texture.

This seeded sourdough bread is best when eaten fresh, when they are cooled but still slightly warm.

It is chewy,so flavorful and has the perfect airy, soft texture.