If you are looking for a recipe that will elevate your sourdough bread, this Multigrain French Sourdough Bread might just be for you!

I have been making sourdough bread for a couple of years now and in that time I have tried several different mixes of flours, different additions and so on. I can honestly say that, of all the recipes I have tried, this one is my favourite. The extra flavour the seeds bring to the bread is amazing, and the fact that they are roasted before being added to the bread, brings out that flavour even further.
If, like me, you are from the UK, maybe you remember Tiger Bread? It is a loaf of white bread that is brushed with sesame seed oil before baking. This gives the loaf an interesting finish that obviously must look a little bit like a tiger! I always loved the taste of that bread with the sesame flavour and I think that is why I love this recipe so much too. The sesame seeds just add that extra ‘je ne sais quoi’ 🙂

What is Sourdough Bread?
If you are wondering what sourdough bread is, this is probably not the best recipe to start with. I suggest that you check out my Simple Wholewheat French Flour Sourdough Bread, which is great for beginners and goes through all of the the different steps in detail.
Sourdough is a method of making bread where the flour and water are fermented by an active starter, thereby creating air bubbles that allow the bread to rise. This fermentation makes the bread more digestible, some people with gluten sensitivity find that they can eat sourdough bread but not yeast risen bread. It also drastically enhances the taste. Believe me, once you have tasted homemade sourdough bread, you won’t want to eat any other kind!
Equipment Needed to Make Multigrain French Sourdough Bread
- 1 large, heavy bowl
- 1 stand mixer with dough hook (optional)
- 1 danish dough hook (optional)
- Digital scales
- 1 heavy bottomed pan
- 1 banneton, lined (round or oval)
- 1 baker’s lame
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- 1 shallow saucepan

Ingredients Needed to Make Multigrain French Sourdough Bread
- 500g wholewheat French flour (T110)
- 350g warm water
- 120g active starter
- 10g salt
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp flax seeds
- 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
Wholewheat French Flour
I discussed the difference between French flour and British or American bread flour extensively in this article. What you need to remember is that french flour can handle less water than British or American flour so it is important to adapt your recipe accordingly. For this Multigrain French Sourdough Bread, I have used my Simple Wholewheat Sourdough recipe as the basis, which calls for T110 flour.
T110 flour is not 100% wholewheat, so the taste remains light, as does the colour. If you decide to use a different kind of flour, you will have to adjust the water content accordingly. This amount of water works for this particular flour with a protein content of 11%.
Warm Water
Nothing special here, I just use tap water 😉
Active Starter
To make any kind of sourdough bread, you will need an active starter. I will hopefully have a tutorial on here soon to show you how to make one, but in the meantime, I suggest you use this article.
I usually feed my starter 1:2:2 (100g starter, 200g flour, 200g water) the night before so that it is ready to make bread in the morning.
Salt
This is an essential ingredient, without it your bread will be tasteless. It does seem like a lot but, believe me, every gram is necessary. Use good quality sea salt if you can get it.
Seeds
I like to use chia seeds, flax seeds, sesame seeds and sunflower seeds for their different flavour profiles and their added nutritional value. I think any kind of seed would work, but this mixture is especially delicious.

How to Make Multigrain Sourdough Bread
Again, I am going to refer you back to my Simple Wholewheat French Flour Sourdough Bread recipe which goes into more detail about each step of the process. Here I will just mention the steps so don’t hesitate to click over to that recipe for more information.
You might also want to take a look at this video which shows the whole process of making wholewheat sourdough bread, although it does not include the seeds.
The Night Before: Feed Your Starter
Feed your starter 1:2:2 (for example 30g starter, 60g flour, 60g warm water). Leave to rise in a warm spot until you are ready to bake the next morning.
Mix the Ingredients Together
The first step is to mix all of the ingredients together, except for the seeds. Put the starter, water, flour and salt all in a bowl and either use your hands or a danish dough hook to mix them until they form a shaggy dough.
Alternatively, and this is actually what I do most often, you can put the ingredients in a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment and mix on low speed for around 8 minutes. I like doing it this way as I find it really helps to develop the gluten.
Roast the seeds
Take a heavy bottomed pan, add all of the seeds (chia, flax, sunflower and sesame) and leave to roast on a medium heat until you start to smell the seeds (it smells amazing!). Stir occasionally and be careful not to burn the seeds. Once they start to brown, they will burn very quickly.
Take them off the heat and leave them to cool until you are ready to add them to your bread.
Stretch and Fold
After mixing the bread ingredients together, let the bowl sit, covered, on the work surface for around 30 mins.
Then do one set of stretch and fold. This helps to further develop the gluten and is easier to do than coil folds at this stage when the dough is still very sticky.
Laminating and Adding the Seeds
This is the point when I add the seeds to the dough. I use a particular technique call laminating, which serves two purposes: evenly distributing the seeds throughout the dough and further strengthening the dough.
To do this, you should remove your dough from the bowl and place it on a clean, slightly damp, surface. You should then stretch out your dough on the surface into a large rectangular shape, being careful not to make holes. If you would like to see the process, check out this video.
Sprinkle your cooled, roasted seeds evenly over the rectangle of dough and then, with the help of a bench scraper, fold over the top third of the dough to the middle. Repeat the process with the bottom third. You should now have a long, thin rectangle. Now, fold the left third of the rectangle to the middle, followed by the right third. You should have a coil of dough in the middle of the worksurface which you can now place in a clean bowl, ready for the coil folds.
I like making the additions at this point because they will become evenly distributed throughout the bread during the process of the coil folds.
Coil Folds
After your dough has rested for 30 minutes, do the first set of coil folds. Do this by lifting the dough in the middle and stretching it up. Repeat this until all of the dough has come away from the side of the bowl. Turn the bowl 180° and repeat. Next, turn the bowl 90° and repeat, and lastly, 180° and repeat. Your dough should be in a nice coil in the middle of the bowl.
These coil folds should be repeat twice more at 30 minute intervals.
Bulk Fermentation
Now, leave the bowl, covered, in a warm spot for 4-6 hours or until it has risen by 2/3. This is not an exact science, it may take more or less time depending on the temperature and humidity, and you will need to learn how your dough looks and feels when it is properly fermented. As with so much of the process of sourdough, there is a lot of trial and error involved and learning from experience. It is, however, extremely rare to end up with bread that is inedible! If it is fermented for too long, or not for long enough, it will not rise properly but you will still be able to eat it, even if it is for french toast or bread and butter pudding!
Shaping
According to which shape of banneton basket you have chosen, shape your bread either into a boule or an oval (batard) using your preferred method. Click here and here to see some different shaping methods. Place the dough in a lined and floured banneton, ‘stitch’ the seams if desired.
Cold Fermentation
Place the banneton in the fridge and leave to cold ferment for at least 8 hours, overnight, or until you are ready to bake.
Bake
Turn your oven on to 240°/250°C Fan. Place an empty, shallow saucepan in the bottom of the oven to heat up. Boil a kettle full of water.
When the oven is up to temperature, remove the dough from the fridge and turn out onto a lined baking sheet.
Score as desired, at least one deep score, slightly off centre, to help the bread release steam and keep its shape. You can also do decorative scoring if you wish.
Turn the oven down to 230°C and put the bread in the oven. Pour boiling water into the shallow pan to create steam.
Bake for 20 mins. Remove the pan of water and bake for a further 10 mins.
Remove the bread from the oven and leave to cool for at least 45 mins before slicing.

How to Serve Multigrain French Sourdough Bread
I think my absolute favourite way to eat this bread is with salted butter (butter with crystallised salt is THE BEST!) and, my favourite French cheese, Comté. I actually regularly eat this for breakfast and it always puts a smile on my face 🙂
This Multigrain French Sourdough Bread would also be amazing for sandwiches, to accompany soups or salads… The possibilities are endless!
Pin it for later!

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! Let me know in the comments if you make it, I love to hear from you 🙂

Multigrain French Sourdough Bread
Equipment
- 1 Large, heavy bowl
- Stand mixer with dough hook optional
- 1 danish dough hook optional
- digital scales
- 1 heavy bottomed pan
- 1 banneton lined
- 1 baking sheet
- Baking parchment
- 1 baker's lame
- 1 shallow saucepan
Ingredients
- 500 g wholewheat French flour T110
- 350 g warm water
- 120 g active starter
- 10 g salt
- 1 tbsp chia seeds
- 1 tbsp sesame seeds
- 1 tbsp flax seeds
- 1 tbsp sunflower seeds
Instructions
The Night Before: Feed Your Starter
- Feed your starter 1:2:2 (for example 30g starter, 60g flour, 60g warm water). Leave to rise in a warm spot until you are ready to bake the next morning.
Mix the Ingredients Together
- Mix all of the ingredients together, except for the seeds. Put the starter, water, flour and salt all in a bowl and either use your hands or a danish dough hook to mix them until they form a shaggy dough.
- Alternatively, you can put the ingredients in a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment and mix on low speed for around 8 minutes.
- After mixing the bread ingredients together, let the bowl sit, covered, on the work surface for around 30 mins.
Roast the seeds
- Take a heavy bottomed pan, add all of the seeds (chia, flax, sunflower and sesame) and leave to roast on a medium heat until you start to smell the seeds.
- Stir occasionally and be careful not to burn the seeds. Once they start to brown, they will burn very quickly.
- Take them off the heat and leave them to cool until you are ready to add them to your bread.
Stretch and Fold
- Do one set of stretch and fold. This helps to further develop the gluten and is easier to do than coil folds at this stage when the dough is still very sticky.
- Leave to rest for 30 mins.
Laminating and Adding the Seeds
- Remove your dough from the bowl and place it on a clean, slightly damp, surface. Then stretch out your dough on the surface into a large, rectangular shape, being careful not to make holes.
- Sprinkle your cooled, roasted seeds evenly over the rectangle of dough and then, with the help of a bench scraper, fold over the top third of the dough to the middle. Repeat the process with the bottom third. You should now have a long, thin rectangle. Now, fold the left third of the rectangle to the middle, followed by the right third. You should have a coil of dough in the middle of the worksurface which you can now place in a clean bowl, ready for the coil folds.
- Leave to rest for 30 mins.
Coil Folds
- After your dough has rested, do the first set of coil folds. Do this by lifting the dough in the middle and stretching it up. Repeat this until all of the dough has come away from the side of the bowl.
- Turn the bowl 180° and repeat. Next, turn the bowl 90° and repeat, and lastly, 180° and repeat. Your dough should be in a nice coil in the middle of the bowl.
- These coil folds should be repeat twice more at 30 minute intervals.
Bulk Fermentation
- Now, leave the bowl, covered, in a warm spot for 4-6 hours or until it has risen by 2/3. This is not an exact science, it may take more or less time depending on the temperature and humidity, and you will need to learn how your dough looks and feels when it is properly fermented.
Shaping
- According to which shape of banneton basket you have chosen, shape your bread either into a boule or an oval (batard) using your preferred method.
- ‘Stitch’ the seams if desired.
Cold Fermentation
- Place the banneton in the fridge and leave to cold ferment for at least 8 hours, overnight, or until you are ready to bake.
Bake
- Turn your oven on to 240°/250°C Fan. Place an empty, shallow saucepan in the bottom of the oven to heat up. Boil a kettle full of water.
- When the oven is up to temperature, remove the dough from the fridge and turn out onto a lined baking sheet.
- Score as desired, at least one deep score, slightly off centre, to help the bread release steam and keep its shape. You can also do decorative scoring if you wish.
- Turn the oven down to 230°C and put the bread in the oven. Pour boiling water into the shallow pan to create steam.
- Bake for 20 mins.
- Remove the pan of water and bake for a further 10 mins.
- Remove the bread from the oven and leave to cool for at least 45 mins before slicing.
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