These slow fermented light wheat olive oil loaves are infused with a hint of rosemary and utilize an overnight levain to ferment the dough.

This bread is similar to the prefermented light wheat olive oil rosemary loaves I made a few weeks ago; however, that version benefited from an overnight biga spiked with instant yeast, whereas these are made completely with sourdough.

Sourdough Rosemary Olive Oil Loaves with home-milled Clark’s Cream White Wheat Flour

Why I decided to convert this bread to sourdough

In the middle of my yeasted olive oil batard experiment, and after I had made the bread several times with varying amounts of dried yeast, I watched a Bread Symposium master class with Avery Ruzicka of Manresa Bread on converting recipes made with conventional sifted white flour to freshly milled whole grains. She had some good tips that I decided to incorporate.

Converting recipes to using whole grains and ancient grains, sourdough, etc. is something I’ve been experimenting with for a while, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. Watching Avery’s method, helped me rethink my approach, at least for this bread.

Instead of continuing down the path of reducing the dried yeast and incorporating more whole grains into the dough, I opted to convert the formula to sourdough, and then start incorporating more whole grains. The main reason I did this is to be able to control the fermentation.

I baked this bread numerous times over several weeks. I varied the type of whole wheat grain used but kept the amount the same, 22% whole grain for each batch, including the amount used in the levain.

For the first two batches, I gave the dough a cold ferment in the refrigerator overnight. For the 3rd batch, I baked the loaves the same day the final dough was mixed.

1st Batch – Made with a portion of home-milled white winter wheat flour.

1^st Bake – Proofed in baskets for 3 hours on the counter, in the refrigerator overnight, then proofed at room temperature for a couple more hours before baking. While the oven was preheating, I removed the loaves from the baskets, scored them, and left them on the counter while the oven finished preheating. They flattened a bit before baking but had pretty good over spring. The crumb structure was great. Chewy on the inside. The taste was great! The crumb shot is of the first batch. The other photos below are from the 2nd batch.

2^nd Bake – Using the same levain – 2 days later. Proofed in baskets at room temperature for 3 hours as before. Placed in refrigerator overnight. Waited until after the oven was preheated to remove the baskets from the refrigerator and score the loaves. The shape of the loaves was more even. I didn’t add the rosemary to the second batch so it didn’t have the herby flavor, but the bread still tasted great.

2nd Batch – Made a week or so later using home-milled whole grain spelt as the whole grain flour. Kept the other variables the same.

1st bake – Proofed in baskets for 3 hours on the counter, then placed in the refrigerator overnight. Removed the loaves from the refrigerator after the oven had preheated, scored and baked the loaves. One loaf was scored with a straight blade lame and the other loaf was scored with a curved blade lame.

2nd bake – Using the same levain – 2 days later. Made one round loaf instead of two batards. Proofed in basket at room temperature for 3 hours as before. Placed in refrigerator overnight. Waited until after the oven was preheated to remove the basket from the refrigerator and score the boule.

3rd Batch – Made two weeks later. Using whole wheat flour milled from Clark’s Cream white wheat. These loaves were baked the same day the final dough was prepared instead of giving the shaped loaves a cold ferment (in the bannetons) in the refrigerator overnight.

For this version, I made 3 loaves using all of the levain instead of using half of the preferment for one batch and the other half for a second batch. I shaped two batards and one round boule and scored the loaves with a straight blade lame.

This was my favorite bake! I like the color the Clark’s Cream wheat imparts to the dough.

Notes:

When I made the olive oil loaves with biga, I made two smaller loaves in two different batches. I liked the smaller loaves and having enough biga left over to make another batch in a day or so. However, with the sourdough version (3rd batch), I decided to use all of the levain and make one batch of 3 loaves. Feel free to make these loaves in batches and make two smaller loaves or one large loaf for each batch, depending on your preference.

Call me crazy, but I’ve been enjoying this bread with peanut butter and jelly. It also goes well with the pineapple jam I made earlier in the year. This bread also tastes great toasted.