The Sourdough School

BALM – Proven as one of the healthiest approaches to bread in the world.

Based in the walled gardens of Dr. Vanessa Kimbell's beautiful Victorian home in rural Northamptonshire, UK, we tutor individuals and train bakers and healthcare professionals in Baking as Lifestyle Medicine (BALM). Personalising bread to your lifestyle, gut microbiome, and unique genetics for optimal health—tailoring fermentation, fibre, and diversity so that your daily bread becomes the foundation of your health.

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Sourdough Batard Bread With 20% Greek Botanical Blend

Recipe By:Hermione Prousaef
Recipe Status:Untested
Kind of Bake:Retarded overnight – San Francisco Style – mixed in the morning, retarded in the fridge overnight, baked at any point the next day
Makes:2
Created Over:3 days
Recommended For:
  • anyone can eat this
Diversity Score:19
Increase Fibre:I increase the fiber by using spelt, common wheat, durum wheat ,rye, maize ,barley, oat ,carob ,buckwheat, flaxseeds, black lentils, poppy seeds and amaranth.
Probiotic Serving Suggestion:I like to toast it and top it with feta cheese and sprinkle it with honey!
Antioxidants:By using oregano,mountain tea,olive leafs,spelt, common and durum wheat,amaranth,flaxseeds,buckwheat,feta cheese,honey.
Suggested Botanical Blend:I created my own Botanical Blend

Ingredients

IngredientsQuantity
White strong bread flour 14% protein800gr
Greek botanical blend200gr
Water820gr
Salt20gr
Levain200gr

Botanical Blend by Hermione Prousaef

IngredientsQuantity
Spelt650gr
Common wheat80gr
Durum wheat80gr
Rye30gr
Maize25gr
Barley 25gr
Oat20gr
Carob10gr
Amarath15gr
Buckwheat15gr
Poppy seeds15gr
Flaxseeds yellow15gr
Black lentils15gr
Wild oregano , Olive leafs , Mountain Tea (Sideritis) ,Rose petals, Mallow,Nettle5gr

Recipe Introduction

This recipe and specifically my Greek botanical blend took me a while to finish it and to add all the research.
My though is to show you and celebrate with you the Greek heritage and of course follow the core principles of creating a nourishing bread. But also help to nourish my mum and support her gut heath as she has asthma.
This is the main reson why i add amaranth ,oregano and mountain tea in my blend.
The first thing i did, it was to ask my self: What we cultivate in Greece? So i take a walk at our fields and flora,and the first thing i saw everywhere was : common wheat, durum wheat, maize,poppy flowers, wild oregano,olive trees,mountain tea ,mallows and nettles so i thought: Thats it! Thats my blend! But also other ingredients that we have in Greece like carob where it grows in Crete.

In Greece bread is very important and you can find it in every house!We enjoy this bread almost everywhere. From breakfast to lunch to dinner. One of our favourite thing to do as Greeks when we are on the table together, we like to cut a piece of bread with our hands and dip it in the oil of the Greek salad, which contains tomatoes, cucumbers, feta cheese, oregano and olives.But we basically do this with all of our foods that you can dip the bread and soak up the flavours. This is our tradition!

My dad is a farmer. I know how hard is that work. I know that weather conditions are often not on the farmer's side. I have learned from very young to appreciate his job.One of my favourite things was when me and my sister where younger my dad he used to put us in the cart of the farm car and take us for a drive in his fields. I was always impressed by the power of my dad and the land,their cooperation and union, how much the wheat changed. It always start with a seed, then it became a green plant ( that's how it looked to my eyes) and later it turned yellow and ready for harvesting.

We as people need to appreciate the farmers and land. I learned to approche the flour and bread making diffrently. Whenever i touch the flour all these memories came back.I touch the flour and feel calm and peacfull.

I guess that for me bread and grains are a memory, a childhood memory so as my blend.

Studies

StudyHow this study has been applied
Characteristics of spelt wheat products and nutritional value of spelt wheat-based breadIncrease fiber , antioxidant,help with anxiety,source of vitamin E,B,source of iron.
A hypocaloric diet rich in high fiber rye foods causes greater reduction in body weight and body fat than a diet rich in refined wheat: A parallel randomized controlled trial in adults with overweight and obesity (the RyeWeight study)Fiber,Wholegrain,Inflammation,Weight managment
Prebiotic effect of soluble fibres from modern and old durum-type wheat varieties on Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium strainsProbiotic ,Fiber
Maize—A potential source of human nutrition and health: A reviewPolyphenols ,Nutrition compounds , Antioxidants
Effect of barley supplementation on the fecal microbiota, caecal biochemistry, and key biomarkers of obesity and inflammation in obese db/db miceDiabetes, Gut Microbiome ,Weight Management,Inflammation
Use of sourdough lactobacilli and oat fibre to decrease the glycaemic index of white wheat breadFiber, Resistant starch
Effect of whole amaranth flour on bread properties and nutritive valueDietary fiber,Increase protein
The proximate composition and some minor constituents of poppy seedsMinerals,Water-soluble vitamins
Flaxseed Lignans: Source, Biosynthesis, Metabolism, Antioxidant Activity, Bio-Active Components, and Health BenefitsAntioxidants
Polyphenol-Rich Lentils and Their Health Promoting EffectsFiber,Protein,Polyphenols
A Study of Antioxidant Activity of AmaranthusHelps asthma, Antioxidant
In vitro and in vivo antioxidant properties of Tunisian carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.)Antioxidant properties
Anti-inflammatory, gastroprotective, and cytotoxic effects of Sideritis scardica extractsAnti-inflammatory
The Anti-Asthmatic Effect of the Combined Yerba Buena (Mentha arvensis Linn.) and Oregano (Coleus amboinicus Lour.) Leaves in BALB/c Mice Model of Allergic AsthmaAnti-asthma, Anti-inflammation
Assessment of phenolics-enriched extract and fractions of olive leaves and their antioxidant activitiesAntioxidant

Equipment

  • mixing bowl
  • wooden spoon
  • dough scraper
  • banneton basket
  • Duch oven or Spun Iron Cloche
  • braed lame

Tin Size cm (HxWxD)

8cm x 25cm x 8cm

Starter Quantity

I use 40gr starter to built my levain.

Status of Starter

bubbly, lively second-build starter

DDT

25°C (77°F)


Flours

  • These are my ingredients listed form the blend above which I blended with White strong bread flour (Antonopoulos Farm)
  • Spelt (Green Family)
  • Common wheat (Antonopoulos Farm)
  • Durum wheat (Antonopoulos Farm)
  • Rye (Antonopoulos Farm)
  • Maize (Antonopoulos Farm)
  • Barley (Antonopoulos Farm)
  • Oat (Antonopoulos Farm)
  • Amaranth (Bioagros)
  • Buckwhat (Bioagros)
  • Poppy seeds ( Greek local store)
  • Flaxseeds yellow (Bioagros)
  • Black lentils ( Greek local store)
  • Oregano wild (From our mountains in my village)
  • Mountain Tea (From our mountains in my village)
  • Olive leafs ( From my tree)
  • Rose petals (From my grandpas garden)

Baking Temperature

220°C/200°C fan/425°F/gas mark 7

Baking Time

I baked with the lid for 30min at 220°C , then remove the lid , reduce to 200°C and bake for further 30min. Total bake time 1hour.


Timings

StepDayTimings (hh:mm)
Refresh starter (1st built)Day 122:00 p.m
Refresh starter (2nd built)Day 28:00 a.m
Make levainDay 211:00 a.m
Mix flour , levain, 790gr waterDay 213:00 p.m
Add salt and 30 extra waterDay 213:30 p.m
1st Coil foldDay 214:00 p.m
2nd Coil foldDay 214:30 p.m
3rd Coil foldDay 215:00 p.m
4rth Coil foldDay 215:30 p.m
Pre-shapeDay 216:00 p.m
Final shapeDay 216:30 p.m
In the fridgeDay 216:45 p.m
BakeDay 3From 7:00 a.m

How to Store

You can store this bread Summer or Winter in a bread case for 3 days as long as the bread case is dry and not moist.

Top Tips

I created this recipe with hand mixing just because i love touching the dough and have connection with the flours and water temperatures.

I want to start by saying that my DDT and Bulk fermentation is colder and less than the usual because when i tested that recipe it was summer and very hot with my kitchains room temperature at 30°C so this is also the reason why my starter builed in very short time and why i use a fast levain (You can also use less levain). If where you live the weather is colder you just need to increase the temperature of the water and bulk fermentation but also change the timing. When i say that i mean that your starter may need to built longer until it peeks and be ready to be used and do a longer bulk fermentation.

Except from my Greek blend i also use a white flour with 14% protin so i can play with the hydration.

This recipe is 82% hydration and it is based on the 20% WHOLEMEAL CLASSIC SOURDOUGH BOULE – RETARDED but i used my own blend and increase the hydration.If you want you can add less hydration.

Of course if you can find Mountain tea or olive leafs you can just skip them or use an other green tea.

For a good probiotic finish you need to serve with unpasteurised cheese or cultured butter.

All reasonable care is taken when advising about health aspects of bread, but the information that we share is not intended to take the place of treatment by a qualified medical practitioner. You must seek professional advice if you are in any doubt about any medical condition. Any application of the ideas and information contained on this website is at the reader's sole discretion and risk.

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