Baked: October 17, 2025
As mentioned in the previous post about whole wheat, I continue on my quest to find the perfect ratio. I planned to take this bread on a climbing trip, so I added flax seeds to make it a little more robust!
Basic formula:
- 50g flax seeds + 200g water – soaked overnight
- 21g salt
- 750g water + remaining water from flax seed soak
- 200g levain
- 600g whole wheat flour
- 200g bread flour
- 200g all purpose flour
I’ve found it’s generally recommended to soak seeds before adding them to dough, I suppose so that they don’t steal water. I soaked a mix of regular and golden flax seeds (25g each) in 200g of water overnight while the levain fermented. I noticed something interesting in the morning: the seed/water mixture had little bubbles in it – it too was transforming (sprouting, I guess)! I stirred it around and many more bubbles appeared.
Meanwhile, I proceeded with the dough. I did the normal autolyse with the flour, water, and levain. I was feeling lazy about separating the flax seeds from the soaking water, so I just added the salt to the flax seed soak, and then I added the entire bowl of flax+water+salt to the dough after the autolyse.
I’m trying to be more thorough, so here are some photos of the dough through the mixing and folding process.
I made one traditional boule. It had a very nice oven spring, even with the high amount of whole wheat.
Since I planned to take the bread climbing, I wanted something easier to cut than a boule. Likely influenced by monkey bread on the Great British Baking Show, I decided to experiment with forming the other half of the dough into four bun shapes and proofing them together. I proofed them in a springform pan lined with parchment paper.
When it was time to bake, I lifted the proofed dough out of the pan using the parchment paper, and I put it in my cloche to bake. The resulting shape was super fun!
This shape was easy to split into smaller loaves for packing into a backpack. The oil from the flax seeds contributed to a super soft crumb, and the seeds added depth and texture.
What did I learn? Probably if I wanted even smaller portions to break off I could experiment with dividing it into even smaller balls. I would not change the formula one bit!
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