Axten Farms Whole Grain Sourdough Guide

Hi. Reet here.

Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of naturally leavened bread.

The flour you’ve got is from Axten Farms in Saskatchewan — grown using regenerative farming practices and stone milled into beautiful lightly sifted whole grain flour. We’ve mixed a little rye into it for you too, because rye is brilliant and bread likes friends.

This flour is alive compared to supermarket flour. It absorbs loads of water, ferments quickly, and can feel a little wild at first.

Sticky hands are normal.
Flour on your shirt is normal.
Questioning your life choices at 11pm while staring at dough is also normal.

Good bread isn’t about perfection. It’s about paying attention.

Rehydrating Your Starter

Inside your bag is dried sourdough starter.

Think of it as sleeping rather than dead.

Day 1

Put the dried starter into a jar or container and add:

  • 20–30g warm water

Mix it up and leave it loosely covered at room temperature overnight.

Nothing dramatic may happen yet. That’s fine.

Day 2

Add:

  • 20g flour

  • 20g water

Mix well and leave somewhere reasonably warm.

Now we wait.

Day 3

You should hopefully start seeing some bubbles or movement.

Now:

  • discard about half

  • then feed again with:

    • 50g flour

    • 50g water

Why discard?

Because otherwise your starter becomes the size of a small child after a few days and eats all your flour.

Discarding keeps the starter healthy, active, and manageable.

From here, continue feeding daily if needed until it becomes bubbly, active, and rises well after feeding.

When Is It Ready?

Your starter is ready to bake with when:

  • it becomes bubbly and active

  • smells pleasantly tangy and yoghurty

  • rises after feeding

  • roughly doubles in size within several hours

Usually this happens around 8–12 hours after feeding, depending on temperature.

Sourdough works on its own schedule. Warmer kitchens move faster. Cold kitchens move slower.

Simple Whole Grain Sourdough Loaf

Ingredients

  • 500g Axten Farms flour

  • 425g water

  • 10g salt

  • 100g active starter

If the dough feels terrifyingly wet, reduce the water slightly next time. Whole grain flour drinks a shocking amount of water.

Method

1. Mix & Autolyse

Mix the flour and water together until there’s no dry flour left.

At this stage it’ll look rough, shaggy, and slightly unimpressive.

Perfect.

Now leave it alone for 30 minutes.

This rest is called an autolyse. During this time the flour hydrates properly and gluten starts forming naturally without much effort from you.

Basically:

The dough starts learning how to become bread.

After 30 minutes:

  • add your starter

  • add your salt

  • squish and fold everything together until fully combined

Wet hands help a lot here.

2. Stretch & Folds

Over the next 2–3 hours:

  • perform 3–4 stretch and folds

  • roughly every 30–45 minutes

To do this:

  • wet your hand

  • grab one side of the dough

  • stretch it upward gently

  • fold it back over itself

  • rotate the bowl and repeat

Each fold strengthens the dough and helps trap gas created during fermentation.

The dough should slowly become smoother, puffier, and more elastic over time.

Feel free to search:
“stretch and fold sourdough”
on YouTube if you’re new to this. Watching it once makes way more sense than reading about it.

3. Bulk Fermentation

Leave the dough at room temperature until it rises roughly 40–50%.

Signs it’s ready:

  • smoother texture

  • puffiness

  • bubbles forming

  • slight wobble when the bowl moves

  • feels lighter and airy

Whole grain dough usually won’t triple in size like white supermarket dough. Don’t chase massive volume.

Once it’s risen nicely:

  • gently turn the dough onto the counter

  • using a scraper, fold and roll the dough onto itself a few times to build tension

  • shape it into a rough round or log

Then leave it to rest for 10 minutes.

This is called a bench rest.

The dough relaxes during this stage, making final shaping easier and helping stop it fighting you like an angry pillow.

Feel free to YouTube:
“bench rest and shaping sourdough”
if you’re new to bread making.

4. Final Shape & Overnight Proof

After the bench rest:

  • shape the dough a final time

  • place into a loaf tin, banneton, or bowl lined with a floured towel

Leave it out until you see the dough just starting to rise again and feel slightly puffy.

Then place it into the fridge overnight.

The fridge slows fermentation down and helps develop flavour while you sleep.

Magic, really.

5. Bake

The next day:
Preheat your oven as hot as it’ll reasonably go.

Ideally:

  • 250°C / 475°F

To create steam:

  • place a metal tray or oven-safe dish in the bottom of the oven while preheating with water in it

Steam helps the crust stay soft during the first part of baking, allowing the loaf to expand properly.

Bake:

  • roughly 20 minutes with steam

  • then remove the steam tray or let the steam escape

  • bake another 20–25 minutes until deeply browned

Don’t be afraid of colour. Flavour lives there.

The loaf should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Then comes the hardest part:

Letting it cool before slicing it open immediately like a feral animal.

Final Thoughts

Your first loaf might not be perfect.

Neither were ours.

Bread has a funny way of teaching patience, attention, and humility — usually all at once.

Make a mess. Learn by feel. Try again.

And if your loaf comes out looking a little wonky?

That probably means you made real bread.