Abstract: Whole wheat steamed bread is made from whole wheat flour. It is popular among consumers because of its rich dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins and other nutrients. To improve the nutritional quality of whole wheat steamed bread, traditional sourdough was used as the leavening agent and retarded sponge-dough method was adopted to make whole wheat steamed bread in this study. Effects of percentage of sour, sponge ratio and retarding time of sponge on specific volume and sensory score of steamed bread were investigated through a single factor experiment. The results showed that the three factors had significant effects on the specific volume and sensory score of steamed bread. To further verify the effects of the three factors on the quality of whole wheat steamed bread, response surface optimization test was carried out by designing Box-Behnken and the sensory score of sourdough whole wheat steamed bread was chosen as the response. The results showed that the order of influencing factors on the quality of whole wheat steamed bread was as follows:sponge ratio > sponge retarding time > percentage of sour, and optimal parameters were obtained as follows:percentage of sour of 40%, sponge ratio of 70% and sponge retarding time of 27 h. Under the optimum parameters, the experimental sensory score of sourdough whole wheat steamed bread was 86.22, which approached to the predicted value of 86.50. There was no significant difference between the result obtained from the validation test and the predicted value. Compared with yeast-fermented whole wheat steamed bread, sourdough whole wheat steamed bread was characterized with higher sensory score, larger specific volume, finer/uniform crumb structure and softer taste. Furthermore, it harbored unique flavor of steamed bread prepared by traditional starters.