No Oven Spring with 100% Spelt Sourdough
Hi folks,
I’ve been embarking on the journey of making pure spelt sourdough bread. I started making the starter exactly one month ago, fed it with spelt bread flour daily for two weeks, then started baking.
The results so far taste good, but there is no oven spring. Sometimes the bread is so flat, it can’t bake through fully because it’s too dense. Yesterday's bread baked through, which is an improvement, and the taste is great, but it’s still very flat, no more than 2 or 2.5 inches tall. I've done quite a lot of research and read spelt does proof quicker and also doesn't like to be handled as much. I aim for a rise of 1.5 times, not doubling in size. I've reduced hydration from 75% to 70% with slightly better luck with the dough holding its shape. I read mixed things about adding salt right away but with spelt people seemed to say it was a good idea. My hunch is I am maybe over proofing? Or could my starter still be too weak to create oven spring?
Here’s my method:
100 grams active spelt sourdough starter
300 grams organic whole wheat spelt flour
100 grams organic all purpose, white spelt flour
9g sea salt
280 ml room temperature water
1 tsp honey (apparently this helps spelt rise?)
Integrate honey into water, add levain and stir. Then add flour and salt. Gently mixed dough with hands until completely incorporated. Covered bowl with tea towel and let sit at room temp (about 21-22ºC) to autolyse for 30 mins.
First stretch and fold (4 S&F per time, from 4 sides of the dough), followed by 30 min rest. Repeat S&F followed by 30 min rest 3 more times, making total time of 2 hours. Then I continued to let the dough rest at room temp for 2 hours after final S&F.
Then I preshaped the dough, followed by 30 mins bench rest. Then I did the final shaping and transferred to a floured banneton seam side up. I let it rest in the banneton 5-10 mins before transferring to the fridge in a plastic bag for 20 hours at 5ºC (41ºF).
After 20 hours, I removed it from fridge and placed at room temp for final rise for 2 hours 45 mins. I preheated the oven and dutch oven at 250°C for 60 mins, placed the dough on parchment paper and scored and put in the oven with lid, turned down to 230°C and baked for 30 mins, then removed lid and baked for another 15 minutes. Pic attached.
Any insight or advice would be much appreciate! I've scoured the internet and keep adjusting my method but just can't seem to get any of that beautiful spring. Thanks all!
Hannah
Spelt's gluten development is not as strong so you will never get the same rise of a white flour bread.
You can tell when you mix and kneed, you just dont get the same stretch. Everything is tighter.
You also dont need as much water with spelt. Id drop the hydration even down to 65%, as the gluten strength is not as strong and as the hydration is high your dough wont be able to keep enough tension so it will spread more even after pre shaping and final shaping etc.
I always add spelt to my breads, even a 100g to my normal yeasted loaf I dont get the same rise.
Try adding 50/50 with strong white bread flour if you can, that way you will get more shape and rise but still keep the taste.
Great tip, thanks!
If you want to check the forum thoroughly for Spelt click THIS LINK. I have baked Spelt bread, but not enough experience to share any real insight.
Good luck. Wishing you great success.
Danny
thanks!
Hi Hannah,
Don't give up. Spelt is lovely to work with when the gluten is developed and the dough is properly proofed.
I have been baking a 100% wholemeal spelt loaf for a while now. I started it as a conventional yeast, because that is in the original recipe, but I've also baked it as a sourdough (with some yeast water added to quicken the rise.) Here is a link to one of my sourdough/yeast water spelt bakes: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/63999/1-dough-2-ways-100-percent-wholemeal-spelt-yeast-water-and-sourdough
It is based on this recipe and video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3qDLrpQh10
The most important thing I learned from the video of Patrick Ryan's original recipe is the letter fold technique, which I now use for all my spelt breads. Spelt is very very extensible, so it's difficult to get any tension in the dough. By doing the letter folds you soak up all that extensibility and you end up with a loaf that you can tension (you must be gentle and not tear the gluten cloak by over-tightening at this point).
The other thing I learned is what the dough should look like when it is properly prooved. It should be light and marshmallowy and full of air.
Your bread looks to me like there's something wrong with the proof. I'm not experienced enough to be able to tell from looking at it if it is overproofed or underproofed, but it definitely should be rising enough that it can bake through, and not be gummy like that.
One idea would be to bake Patrick Ryan's Wholemeal Spelt & Black Treacle recipe once (you can use honey instead of treacle) as a conventional yeast loaf, so that you get a feel for how the spelt dough should be looking, feeling, and handling. This will give you confidence going forward to judge the development of the dough when you're making it as a sourdough.
I hope this helps! -Jess
Hi Jess,
thank you so much for your insight and tips! I think the stretch and folds might be too intense for the spelt, so I'll definitely try the letter fold technique. I've made yeasted spelt breads in the past which had a better rise so I'm trying to achieve the same with my sourdough starter. If you work with spelt sourdough, do you have rough proofing times you'd recommend?
thanks again!
Hannah
TLDR: it will proof at about the same speed as your regular wheat sourdough, assuming the same whole-grain content in the flour.
Sourdough spelt proofing times are dependent on:
Notice this is not different from any other kind of sourdough!
Recipes that tell you how long to proof sourdough are only helpful if your particular starter and your particular dough temperature are the same as in the recipe. Unfortunately, too often the only variable specified in the recipe is the flour, leaving a lot of other variables unaccounted for!