Rouge de Bordeaux is a hard red winter wheat that dates back several hundred years to the Bordeaux region of France. This wheat makes an excellent bread with a rich brown color, mellow flavor, and baking spice aroma.

I used whole grain rouge de bordeaux flour in these sourdough breads at 100% and 50% of the total flour, and both formulas were delicious and had a wonderful texture. I especially enjoyed eating the 100% whole grain version toasted, buttered and covered in thin slices of Stilton blue cheese. The wheat flavor pairs really well with dairy, and also with a vegan vegetable soup that uses nutritional yeast as the “cheese.”

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The process I outline below is quite fast, partly due to summer heat (my kitchen temp is in the high 70s) and perhaps also due to the liveliness of dough made with fresh-milled flour. As a result of this speed and perhaps also the flavor profile of the rouge de bordeaux wheat, these breads have virtually no sourness. If you’re seeking a more sour bread, you’ll want to modify the timing to be longer by using less starter, cold water, and cooler ambient temperatures/more refrigeration.

End of a relatively short final proof

I also made this recipe very easy with as few steps as possible, but you might achieve a more open crumb if you choose to either autolyse the flour for 1-3 hours; or sift out the bran in the whole grain flour, soak it in boiling-hot water, and then add it back to the dough. Here are experiments and instructions for these steps if you’d like to learn more: Sift-Soak and Autolyse.

Lovely interior on both breads

In both rounds of test baking, I was surprised that the 50% whole grain doughs fermented faster than the 100% whole grain doughs, and the resulting loaves had less opening to the score. I had expected the doughs with bread flour to have more oven spring and slower fermentation. But in retrospect, I believe I mixed the 50% doughs to a wetter feel, which made them ferment faster, and go slightly too far in the fermentation. It’s also possible that the loaves of 100% rouge de bordeaux flour benefited in structure from that wheat’s very high protein level of 15%.

50% rouge de bordeaux on left; 100% rouge de bordeaux on right

I actually let both doughs over-proof in my first round of baking with these bread formulas. Even though my levain was old rye starter that I’d pulled from the refrigerator and simply let warm up, the doughs were (over)done bulk fermenting in 4 hours. After a short bench rest and quick shaping, I immediately put the proofing baskets in my refrigerator. Nonetheless, by the next morning (12 hours) they’d blown up. The baked loaves were somewhat flat, but absolutely delicious and wonderful still.

For my second bake of these formulas, I used ripe starter in case the discard I’d used in the first two doughs had been too acidic and caused gluten breakdown. I did a 1:10:10 starter build the night before. 8g rye starter mixed with 80g water and 80g whole grain rouge de bordeaux flour to have a little more than 150g ripe starter for two doughs the next morning. This feeding ratio was to ensure that the starter didn’t ripen in the summer heat while I was sleeping.

After 3 hours of bulk fermentation at room temperature, I refrigerated the doughs for 2 hours to slow down the fermentation. They warmed up on the bench for about 30 minutes, and then I shaped the loaves. I left the baskets at room temperature for 45 minutes and then put them in the refrigerator. I was still wary of over-proofing though, so I checked on the doughs and decided to bake them only 2 hours into the refrigeration. I was pleased with the results, though possibly they would have been okay in the refrigerator for longer.

Rouge de Bordeaux Sourdough Breads

Rouge de Bordeaux wheat is delicious, aromatic, and high in protein. This fresh-milled flour makes wonderful sourdough breads that pair well with cheese, soup, and more. I've outlined formulas here for a 50% rouge de bordeaux bread and a 100% rouge de bordeaux bread. The timing of the recipe is given in ranges; the short end for summer ambient temperatures and the long end for winter ambient  temperatures. You can also read the blog post above for ideas on how to change the fermentation times and how to pre-soften the bran in the whole grain flour if desired.   

Prep Time

1 hour

Baking Time

35 minutes

Total Time

1 hour, 35 minutes

Ingredients

100% Rouge de Bordeaux Bread

• 460g fine-milled rouge de bordeaux wheat berries (3 ½ cups flour)
• 380g water (1 ½ cups + 1 ½ Tbsp)
• 75g sourdough starter (¼ cup)
• 9g salt (1 ½ tsp)

50% Rouge de Bordeaux Bread

• 230g fine-milled rouge de bordeaux wheat berries (1 ¾ cups)
• 230g bread flour (1 ¾ cups)
• 365g water (1 ½ cups + 2 tsp)
• 75g sourdough starter (¼ cup)
• 9g salt (1 ½ tsp)

Instructions

• Tips on building an overnight levain in summertime are in the blog post above.
• Combine all the ingredients in a medium size bowl and mix until well incorporated. (If you're making both formulas, use two different bowls.)
• Cover the bowl or transfer the dough to a straight-walled bucket and let the dough rest for about 30 minutes. Then do four rounds of gluten development with half-hour rests in between.
• Let the dough continue to rise until it's about 40% larger than its original size. Depending on the room temperature and your starter strength, the dough may need a total of about 4-8 hours for this bulk fermentation.
• My dough fermented three hours in my kitchen at ~79F, followed by 2 hours in the refrigerator to cool down.
• Scrape your dough out onto a floured countertop and shape it into a boule, batard, or oblong loaf, depending on your proofing basket and baking vessel shape. I pre-shaped and bench-rested the dough to let it warm up a little from the refrigerator, but if your dough is warm or tending toward over fermentation, you might skip the bench rest altogether.
• Transfer the dough to a well-floured proofing basket and cover it.
• Let the dough proof 30-60 minutes at room temperature (possibly longer in a cold kitchen) and then refrigerate it for several hours to overnight. Or do the entire final proof at room temperature for 1-2 hours, again depending on your kitchen temperature and the dough's appearance. See the photo gallery above for target dough expansion in the basket.
• Preheat your oven and baking vessel for 30 minutes at 500°F.
• Flip your dough out of the proofing basket onto parchment paper and score it.
• Transfer the dough to your baking vessel, cover, and bake for:
• 20 minutes at 500F with the lid on
• 15-20 minutes at 450F with the lid off
• When the bread is done, the internal temperature should be over 205°F and the bread should sound hollow when you knock on the bottom of the loaf with your fist.
• Let the bread cool at least 2 hours before slicing.