94% Sourdough Spelt Bread

Well I have been working toward this moment- a bread made totally with Spelt flour. I am close this time as my innoculation starter was 3 oz and the rest of the dough is all Spelt, I have a cup of Whole Spelt and the rest of the flour is White Spelt. I didn’t actually know that they made white Spelt, but I asked hubby to bring me home a 25 lb bag of Spelt flour and he brought me home a 25 lb bag of White Spelt and a 10 lb bag of Spelt berries to grind. Spelt flour, whether the whole or the white, feels very fluffy and soft and weighs less in a cup than wheat flour. I started in the morning and mixed 8 oz of water and 5 oz of the white Spelt flour. Then I added 3 oz of one of my sourdough starters. I let this set for six hours and then added another 5 oz of White Spelt and 8 oz of water.

 I let this ferment for another six hours and then poured the mixture into a larger container and added 4.1 oz of Whole Spelt flour(approx 1 cup) , 12.8 oz of White Spelt flour(approx 3 cups) and no more water. I let this ferment overnight. Next morning I poured the mixture into my mixer (by the way I figured out the hydration of the sponge at this point and it was supposed to be 63 %, it looked 80%, so I knew that the regular way of figuring hydration was going to be a problem).

NO way was this 63% hydration! Here the sponge dough is after setting all night at room temperature:

 

Then I added 1 oz of oil(2 Tablespoons), 1 oz of salt(4 teaspoons), and 21.1 oz of White Spelt flour(about 5 cups). I mixed this on low speed for just two minutes or so. I let it autolyse for 20 minutes but after autolysis, I picked up the dough and felt some stiff flour in the dough, so I took out the dough and gently worked in two more ounces of water. The dough felt soft, smooth and silky.

 Before adding the two ounces of water:

 

After adding the water, NO Way was this 40% hydration! I put the dough into a container to bulk ferment, here it is done fermenting after four hours:

 

 My hydration calculator (Thanks Ice !) said that the dough was at 40.4 % after I added the extra two ounces of water!! No way! You cannot figure out the hydration in the regular way. It felt like a 61 -62 % hydration. The dough had a slightly wet feel yet barely needed a dusting of flour to shape. I am gettin ahead of my story! After the dough was mixed up I let it bulk ferment for four hours and then shaped it. Here it is after bulk fermentation, you can see how well the gluten strands were developed:

 

Although the protein level in Spelt is higher than Wheat flour, the gluten in Spelt is supposed to be a weaker gluten than Wheat flour. You need to handle the dough gently, no long or fast mixing, no punching. Slow, short mixing times, and gentle folding or pressing down of the dough is what Spelt needs to keep it’s gluten intact.

Here the dough is ready to shape:

The dough made 4 lbs 10.5 oz. So I shaped three loaves, two weighing 1lb 12 oz and one weighing in at 1 lb 2.5 oz. I let the shaped dough proof in their bannetons for two hours.

 

Here is the small loaf, at the beginning of proofing and at the end of proofing:

 

 I baked them in the way I usually do at 450 degrees F with a cover over the dough for the first half of the baking time (I spray the dough once and cover it with a roasting lid). I then lower the oven temperature to 425 and take off the lid for the last half of the bake which totals 30 minutes. I suspected even before I mixed the dough that the Spelt flour might need diastatic malt as an addition to the formula because in the research I did online, I saw Spelt loaves and they mostly looked pale and too crusty. I looked on the bag of Spelt to see if the mill had added any malt but they did not. In the mills they test wheat flours and usually add malt to the flour, if it is needed, especially bread flours(look at the ingredients on your bread flour bag and see if they have malt as one of the ingredients).The Spelt flour was obviously not corrected for lack of enzymes (hypodiastaticity) I decided to experiment with the dough as it was and see if it did indeed need the addition of malt enzymes. My hunch was right, the flour is hypodiastatic and definately needs diastatic malt! The loaves all came out with thick crusts and were very pale, which are the signs of needing malt.

  

 

 

 

The flavor of the crust was interesting, almost like a buttery popcorn. The crumb was okay,(although it seemed a bit dry and leathery) but the flavor is blandish, just like others said online about their 100% Spelt loaves.  The Spelt dough had an interesting feel to it too. It was soft and silky but yet felt wettish and it was sort of rubbery, like it had low extensibility compared to regular wheat doughs. I felt that this experiment was very informative. I now know that the Spelt flours need diastatic malt, I have read that VitaSpelt is the only distributor of Spelt flours in the US. So that means virtually everyone in the US probably needs the addition of diastatic malt to make the dough work well. I think that a sponge would work well and then add the diastatic malt with the final mixing of the dough. The other interesting thing to note is that the Spelt flour alone was a completely different thing than when adding it to wheat flours. The breads that I have made with the Spelt as an addition to the wheat flours has the most wonderful aroma and taste. I would have to say that I expected more of the taste and aroma with the use of all Spelt flour … and it just wasn’t there. I wouldn’t even consider buying Spelt if I had used this experiment as my reason to buy more Spelt flour. Here is a few pictures of an experiment I made about a week ago using Spelt as an additon to wheat flour. It was a Spelt preferment with Spelt flour being about 1/4 of the total weight of the flour. I also added malt to the recipe so there wasn’t a problem with the hypodiastaticity of the flour (which there might have been because I also used motherdough in the recipe and there can be a problem with that in long cool fermented doughs also). Here are the pictures of the Sponge Spelt, which is what I called the recipe: 

Sponge Spelt (25 % Spelt flour)

 

 

You can see by the thin crust and great color that diastatic enzymes weren’t a problem with this bread. To sum up, I think that there are some things to keep in mind when working with Spelt Flours. You need to use less water for your dough, on the bag of Spelt, it says to reduce water by 10 - 15 % they also say not to mix Spelt doughs for more than four minutes total. I think that is an excellent suggestion. Add some Diastatic Malt (available at brewer’s supply stores or online) Diastatic Malt is a very powerful ingredient so use it sparingly, like not more than 1%? of your dough total by weight. Treat dough gently with slow, short mixing times. Don’t rely on hydration calculations that are used for regular wheat breads.  Try starting out with just substituting some Spelt flour in your favorite bread recipes and see how you like it that way. I still need to redo this experiement and add the malt, but so far, I like Spelt best when added to other flours. It exels in that.

Killer Sourdough Sourcream Waffles

I was going to make up some sourdough waffles using the recipe available on my website http://www.northwestsourdough.com/recipes.html , but my son asked me to add more eggs to the batter. So I decided to not only add an extra egg, but to add some sourcream as well. When I baked (waffled, griddled?) up the waffles, my son was really happy (how can you NOT make a 16 year old boy happy with waffles?) but my daughter said, “These are KILLER waffles, mom!” So I will pass on the changes to the recipe to you and see what you think.

First bowl - whisk together:

• 2 cups vigorous sourdough starter at 166% hydration
• 1.5 cups warm water (80-90 degrees)

Second bowl - add each following ingredient and then beat with whisk after each addition:

• A stick of melted butter (4 oz) (real butter, no substitutes)
• 2 Tablespoons Malt Syrup (I did not level off the Tablespoon)
• 5 large eggs
• 1/2  cup of sour cream (no low fat or no fat stuff!)

Third bowl - Add following ingredients and mix thoroughly:

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 Tablespoon baking powder

Now add the contents of  bowl one and bowl two together and using your whisk, mix thoroughly. Then add the contents of bowl three to the bowl of wet ingredients and whisk all together until blended. Let the mixture set for ten minutes while your waffle iron is heating to a high heat. The batter is a bit thin, but if it is too thick the waffles will be heavy, not light and crispy with a fluffy, soft interior. I spray my waffle iron when it is heated, with pan spray, and then I use one ladle of batter for my waffle iron and cook on high until it is as brown as I like. These waffles are so good that the taste of smooth, rich butter continues as you swallow each bite. The outside is crisp, but not crunchy, the interior like I mentioned, is soft, rich, smooth and really awesome. Try some and see if you don’t think so as well! This recipe makes enough for my large family, I think it made 12 - 15 eight inch waffles. So cut down on the amounts if you want less, don’t be afraid to put in three eggs if you are halving the recipe. Enjoy!

Raisin Walnut Cranberry Sourdough Bread

On the Sourdough Forum, Ice, the Co Administrator, converted a Craisin Walnut Sourdough bread from a recipe, Raisin, Walnut and Honey, that Aussie Bill came up with. Ice used metric, so I converted the recipe into standard US measurements and made a few tweaks of my own.So now here is Raisin Walnut Cranberry Sourdough :

• 2 cups starter at 166% hydration - 18 oz
• 1 & 1/4  cup water - 10 oz
• 1 cup milk (scalded, cooled) - 8 oz
• 2 large eggs - 3.4 oz
• 3 Tablespoons oil - 1.5 oz
• 3 Tablespoons honey 2.1 oz
• 1 Tablespoon salt - .7 oz
• 2 cups Whole Wheat flour - 8.4 oz
• 4 cups Bread flour - 18 oz
• 4 cups All Purpose flour - 16.8 oz
• 1 -1/2 Tablespoons Cinnamon or Mixed Pumpkin Pie spice

I put all of these ingredients together in my mixer and mixed just until incorporated(adjust water/flour if too dry or wet). Then I let the dough rest for 15 minutes (autolyse). I then mixed the dough for one more minute and let it bulk ferment for seven hours, the dough was very sluggish because of the spice in it, which tends to slow down the yeast. I then put the dough into the refrigerator overnight. Next morning I took out the dough and let it warm up for four hours. I shaped the dough by dividing it into three pieces, and then rolling out each piece into a 20 x 8 inch rectangle. After I rolled out the dough , I spread evaporated milk over the surface and sprinkled a cinnamon sugar mixture over the whole surface ( I like the cinnamon mixture heavy on the cinnamon and light on the sugar). I then sprinkled walnuts and raisins on the first dough, I used only raisins on the second one,

and on the third one I put raisins, walnuts and chopped, frozen cranberries.

Then, roll up the dough…

Here are the three loaves ready to proof. They took two hours to proof. When ready, bake at 375 degrees  for about 40 - 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean(I baked all three together and did not use a baking stone). I had to put aluminum foil over them towards the end of the bake to keep them from getting too dark.

 This recipe makes 5 lbs 7 oz of dough.Here are some pictures of the finished bread:

A lady named Kris was one of the winners on the recent forum contest. She very kindly sent me a beautiful Linen Proofing Cloth embellished with her own artwork. I am very pleased! Thankyou Kris! Here is a picture of my bread with her cloth and business card. If you are interested in buying some of these cloths for a gift, give her a call, her number is on the card below (707-839-8379) or email her at : still_kris2004″at”yahoo.com.  A better picture of her cloth is at the beginning of this blog entry.

This bread is so delicious, my daughter described it as “Killer Good”. However, you haven’t tasted it until you toast a thick slice and slather it with real butter…..MMMMMMM! All three loaves were almost gone the first day. I hid two pieces for myself and hubby to have with coffee this morning. Weren’t we the lucky ones!

Sourdough Millet Loaf

I decided to use some Millet grain that I had bought for experimenting with. I ground up a cup of Millet into a meal type consistancy, which I used in the dough and outside of the crust when making this bread. The texture of the crumb was really great, I had wondered if a whole cup of ground Millet would affect the crumb and how, but it turned out nice and the smell was terrific. The crust was crunchy, crispy and making toast out of this bread was a treat. For the first two loaves I brushed the crust with egg glaze and sprinkled the ground Millet on the outside. For the third loaf, I also brushed on the egg glaze but I sprinkled whole Millet seed on the outside. Here are some pictures of the loaves:

Here are the loaves proofing in their couche:

Here are the first two loaves:

Here is a closeup of the crust with the ground Millet on it:

Here is the loaf with the whole Millet seed on the crust:

Here is the crumb:

Millet is an interesting addition to sourdough bread. The grain baked on the outside of the crust was not crunchy hard like cracked wheat, but was softer and more biteable, yet still crunchy.

From the site  http://chetday.com/millet.html , I found the following information about Millet:

Millet is highly nutritious, non-glutinous and like buckwheat and quinoa, is not an acid forming food so is soothing and easy to digest. In fact, it is considered to be one of the least allergenic and most digestible grains available and it is a warming grain so will help to heat the body in cold or rainy seasons and climates.

Millet is tasty, with a mildly sweet, nut-like flavor and contains a myriad of beneficial nutrients. It is nearly 15% protein, contains high amounts of fiber, B-complex vitamins including niacin, thiamin, and riboflavin, the essential amino acid methionine, lecithin, and some vitamin E. It is particularly high in the minerals iron, magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium

MIllet seems to go really well with sourdough baking, so you might want to pick up some Millet next time you are in town, and try it out.