Name: Sourdough Whole Wheat Bread With Sunflower Seeds
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1500 min
Ingredients: 3/4 cup [sourdough starter]; 3/4 cup bread flour; 1/8 cup water; All of Firm Starter; 9 ounces water; 1 1/2 + 1/3 cups bread flour; 1/2 cup whole wheat flour; 1/2 teaspoon barley malt or honey (optional); 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt; 1/4 cup roasted and salted sunflower seeds

Jump to Recipe

This no knead Sourdough Whole Wheat Bread With Sunflower Seeds is so much easier to make than you might think. Crunchy on the outside, super soft on the inside, and a little extra flavor and crunch from salty, roasted sunflower seeds. Truly the most delicious bread for your breakfast or dinner table. It’s easy, but impressive, and best served warm right out of the oven with a little bit of butter spread on top. You will LOVE this bread! The best part, this bread is not only so easy to make, but it’s pretty difficult to mess up! Any baker at any skill level can always turn out this delicious bread. Serve alongside your favorite breakfasts, dinners, or simply on its own fresh out of the oven. You seriously can’t go wrong!

Sourdough Whole Wheat Bread With Sunflower Seeds on a wood cutting board with a black background and a slice taken out of it

About The Recipe

If you’ve been around for the last few weeks, then you know how we’re trying to post all things sourdough. Well, as much as possible anyways. The in-between days of waiting for bread to rise is when we get other things done.

Making this bread was no exception to trying to figure out the best ways to use up sourdough starter. It almost was almost an accident that we discovered this.

Let me back track and explain. We have two active sourdough starters. One is fifteen years old and has been revived more times than I can count, the other is brand new and has whole wheat flour.

Now, we have been cooking up a serious sourdough storm and we already uploaded a sourdough bread recipe… So, what else can we do that’s another super simple bread that everyone can make? In comes this Sourdough Whole Wheat Bread With Sunflower Seeds.

But, how did we come up with sunflower seeds? We had toasted pepitas in the cabinet that desperately needed to be used up. Hm…

Well, dump in the pepitas into the whole wheat dough and we baked it! It tasted SO good, but something still wasn’t quite right. My mom came up with sunflower seeds and, a not too well known secret about me, I adore sunflower seeds. So, next grocery order, we tacked on some roasted sunflower seeds.

The difference that made is unbelievable. It’s nutty, slightly salty, almost sweet, and SO GOOD. My favorite way to enjoy this bread was with butter and just a little bit of honey on top. Sweet and salty? One of my favorite combos!

You could easily enjoy this bread as a substitution for your morning toast, as a quick bite with a little olive oil, with butter like us, or just by itself! There’s really no wrong way. It’s all SO good.

Equipment Needed

Ingredients

For The Firm Starter:

Sourdough Starter
Bread Flour
Water

ingredients for a firm starter on a marble board

For The Bread:

Firm Starter
Water
Bread Flour
Wheat Flour
Barley Malt
Salt
Roasted Sunflower Seeds

ingredients for sourdough whole wheat bread with sunflower seeds on a marble counter

Instructions

First, we need to make the firm starter! Combine all ingredients into a large mixing bowl and knead until smooth. This will take about 5 minutes. Place in an airtight container and set aside until doubled in bulk. It should take about 4 hours. Place in the refrigerator and let sit overnight.

flour, sourdough starter, and water in a glass bowl

Next morning, take the firm starter out of the fridge and let sit on the counter for about an hour so, just to take the chill off.

Now, gather all the ingredients for the bread dough.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the firm starter and water. Mix until smooth and there are no more chunks.

Stir in barely malt or honey, if you’re using.

barley malt added to firm starter and water mixture in a glass bowl

Mix in the flour and whole wheat flour. Cover with plastic wrap for half an hour.

flour and whole wheat flour added to firm starter mixture

Uncover and add salt. Work in until you can’t feel any large lumps of salt. This should take about 2-3 minutes.

Knead in the sunflower seeds until evenly distributed. Transfer dough to an airtight container and set side for thirty minutes.

After the dough has rested, fold over in half like an envelope, fold in half towards the left, fold upwards in half, and then fold to the right. Let sit for 30 minutes. Repeat these steps 5 more times. Afterwards, let dough rest for an hour.

Turn the dough out onto the counter. Using a bench knife, pull the dough under and into a circle until the dough becomes smooth and tight on top.

Cover with a damp cloth and leave covered for half an hour.

Uncover and fold using an envelope fold. Like before, using the bend knife, pull the dough under and into a circle until the dough becomes smooth and tight on top.

Using the bench knife, scoop up the dough and place into floured banneton. Cover with plastic wrap or a plastic shower cap and let rise for one hour. Set in the refrigerator overnight.

dough in a banneton covered with a plastic shower cap

The next morning, place a dutch oven into the lower third of your oven and preheat to 500 degrees.

When you are ready to bake, remove the bread from the refrigerator and remove the covering.

Be very careful with this next step. Set the dutch oven on the oven door, remove the lid, and quickly flip the bread into the pan.

dough being dumped into a white dutch oven

Using a bread lame or a very sharp knife, make cuts onto the bread. You can do a simple slash or something more artistic. You just need to work very quickly and remember not to deflate the dough!

dough in a white dutch oven with cuts in it

Cover and put back into the oven. Immediately reduce the heat to 450 degrees and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the lid and bake an additional 10-20 minutes, until dark brown. Take bread out of the dutch oven and let cool.

bread in a white dutch oven on a marble board

Enjoy with butter, olive oil, or just on it’s own!

Storing/Reheating

Like so many of our other bread recipes, you can actually freeze this! Simply wrap the loaf in foil and place in the freezer. Just pop it back into the oven whenever you want a homemade loaf of bread!

You can also keep this in the fridge for a few days if there isn’t enough left to freeze.

Expert Tips

The barley malt/honey is an optional addition.
You can use a new or mature starter for this recipe.
Rice flour is the best when flouring the banneton.
This bread freezes really well!
Bread is best if you let it cool at least 30 minutes before cutting into it.
You can find links to all the tools you need to make this in the recipe card!
If you don’t have a dutch oven or a combo cooker, you can use a pizza stone to bake the bread!
If the dough splits, or something else goes wrong, set the dough aside, cover it back up, and let it rest again.
It takes a lot of time working with a bench knife to get used to using it to shape the bread. Don’t be upset if it doesn’t always come out perfectly in the beginning. Just keep practicing!

When you make this Sourdough Whole Wheat Bread With Sunflower Seeds, leave a comment down below! We love hearing from you and answering any questions you might have! Also, be sure to tag us on social media and hashtag it #BakersTable.