July 8, 2018 - 2:13pm
50% whole-grain spelt bread
This is a 50% whole-grain spelt bread, the rest of flour is T500 (strong white flour).
The dough was hand mixed with 4 hour long autolyse, then starter was mixed in and the gluten was developed with scoop & stretch method. Salt added after about 30 minutes and a bit of additional scoop & stretch for about two minutes and then stretch & folds every 45 minutes for first 3 hours of BF.
About 73% overall hydration, 30 hour long cold retardation at about 10 degrees Celsius, then direct bake in iron-cast skillet starting at 240 dC for 10 minutes, 220 dC for 20 minutes and continuing uncovered for 10 minutes at 220 dC.
I am very pleased with the texture of this loaf.
Happy baking, Joze
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Joze, this is a nice bake with a spectacular crumb. If I retard for that long at 10 degrees Celsius, I always overproof the dough. What was the pre-fermented flour in % for this bake?
peter
The preferment was about 8%, Unfortunately I didn't weight it, but the amount was not very big.
Happy baking pul!
Joze
custardy crumb and blistered crust, it's no wonder why you're satisfied with this bake! For 50% whole spelt, this seems to be a relatively low hydration bread (whole spelt can take around 80%, right)?
It should taste deliciously sweet and tangy with the spelt and long cold retard. I wish I can have a slice :)
Thank you Elsie_iu!
The whole-grain spelt flour I can get here in Slovenia is not that thirsty as you think. Most of people are baking whole-grain spelt bread only with about 65% hydration, so 70% is the upper limit for this flour. So that is the reason why the hydration is lower.
Happy baking!
Joze
Who wouldn't be satisfied with this? Very lovely bake!
Thank you Palwithnooven!
Happy bakink!
Joze
delicious...I love spelt and it is a tricky one to bake with....looks amazing... Kat
Thanks Kat!
I agree, it is tricky to bake with as the spelt properties are quite different from those of wheat. The spelt flour I can buy in my country Slovenia is very tasty but the maximum amount of hydration it supports is about 70%. When one agrees with this somehow lower degree of water he can make a very delicious bread. Spelt is becoming more and more popular in Slovenia.
Happy baking, Joze
great to see a post from you again. The whole loaf looks great
happy baking Joze
Leslie
Thank you Leslie!
I was too busy to do some posts on TFL recently. I have to manage a Facebook baking group with 1300 members where I have organised also free on-line baking course. I am baking quite a lot. I hope that I will have more time to post here more frequently.
Happy baking!
Joze
From you again. Was wondering and tripped upon this post. Lovely! I think you should give it a special name if it doesn't have one already.
Ciabatta hasn't been around very long (Italy's answer to French bread with holes). :)
Thanks Mini Oven!
I must admit that I somehow hate baking with spelt flour as the quality of the flour varies so much. On the other side I accept it as a kind of a challenge. I will think about naming it, but this is definitely not a ciabatta, although it has a very airy crumb.
Happy baking Mini Oven, Joze
and has to taste great. What a nice bread to feast on!
Happy baking Joc
It is a very tasty one I must admit. As I wrote in the answer to Mini Oven, the spelt flour, especially the whole-grain flour is a very challenging one to bake with. The whole-grain spelt flour which I can get in Slovenia does not like a lot of water - 70% hydration is the upper limit. The ratio of gliadin versus glutenin in the spelt flour is much more favorable for gliadin, hence the dough has pronounced extensibility while the tenacity is not as one would like to have. And that is a good challenge for baking!
Happy baking Dab!
Joze
I've only every used spelt a couple of times, and find it quite difficult to work with!
Your loaf is so inspirational.
Happy baking
Ru
Agree with you 100% that spelt is not a pleasant flour to bake with but it is very tasty so this compensates the negative side. I found that white spelt flour is much nicer and is not so different from wheat flour. I frequently use both, especially whole-grain spelt flour in combination with whole-grain rye. Usually I use equal parts of both, however the total amount of both does not exceed 40% of flour.
Happy baking Ru!
Joze
Wonderful crumb, lovely bread.
But I am a little confused: in your previous post with spelt you opted not to autolyse since spelt is already a very extensible flour. However this turned out very well. What would your advice be for using spelt since I want try it.
happy baking,
Sadiye
According to my experience with different flours, not just spelt, but also wheat, kamut, ... there could be a huge difference in baking properties of those flours. My reasoning about autolyse is like this: The autolyse is on one side strengthening the dough through strengthening gluten bonds, but on the other side the enzymatic activity during autolyse (protease) which "attacks" gluten bonds we get more extensible dough. Some flours don't contain a lot of enzyme protease so I would say this is very much flour dependent. If I mix spelt flour which is due to the gliadin/glutenin ratio more favorable to gliadin and thus more extensible, with some other flour like strong bread flour, I have to decide if I need to weaken the dough during autolyse or just the added spelt flour will give that required extensibility. In this case due to 50% of relatively strong wheat flour I decided to use autolyse with the idea to get additional extensibility and also to fully hydrate and soften the spelt bran what will help me to get more open crumb structure.
I hope I was clear enough in my answer. My approach is that I am using autolyse according to the baking properties of the flours I have. So first time baking with unknown flour might be quite off and then in subsequent bakes I just try to adjust the process after analyzing the result from previous bake(s).
I have tested several whole-grain spelt flours which I can buy in Slovenia and I must say that the baking properties vary so much that you can't get same results using same recipe with another whole-grain spelt flour.
Happy baking Sadiye!
Joze
for the very clear explanations. I will try with a shorter autolyse I think. The bread flour I am getting in Turkey is around 11% protein, not exceptionally strong. The spelt is stone ground so is the bread flour. I do a yeast water 40% spelt with 1 hr autolyse and it works well. I will try yıours with levain next.
happy baking
Sadiye
With sourdough levain your hydration can be slightly higher due to the acidity of the levain what strengthens the gluten. I would run several tests with longer or shorter autolyse to find the optimum.
Happy baking Sadiye!
Joze
Nice to see you again, it's been a while!
The price of spelt here has gone up a lot since I last used it a few years ago. How's its price compared to regular wheat flour in Slovenia?
Yippee
.
Happy to hear from you and sorry for late response!
Spelt in Slovenia is quite expensive, so comparing with the prices of white wheat flour I would say that the price 4-6 times higher.
Happy baking Yippee!
Joze