Buttermilk-Spelt Sourdough Bread
I have been baking often but have settled on a handful of breads that I most enjoy eating. I have posted on all of them here over the years, in some cases multiple times documenting minor variations. But this week I saw a bread on another online forum that grabbed my attention and instantly went to the top of my ridiculously long "To Bake" list. It turns out that my intuition was spot on. This turned out to be an extraordinarily delicious bread.
Buttermilk-Spelt Sourdough Bread
from Cecilia Agni Hadiyanto on Facebook
Total Dough
Ingredient | Wt (g) | Bakers % |
Hi-gluten flour | 38.5 | 7 |
Whole Wheat flour | 11 | 2 |
Whole Rye flour | 5.5 | 1 |
All Purpose (AP) flour | 300 | 54 |
Whole Spelt flour | 200 | 36 |
Water | 55 | 10 |
Buttermilk | 425 | 76 |
Salt | 10 | 2 |
Total | 1045 | 188 |
Levain
Ingredient | Wt (g) | Bakers % |
Hi-gluten flour | 38.5 | 70 |
Whole Wheat flour | 11 | 20 |
Whole Rye Flour | 5.5 | 10 |
Water | 55 | 100 |
Active starter | 22 | 40 |
Total | 132 | 240 |
- Dissolve the active starter in the water.
- Add the flours and mix thoroughly.
- Place in a clean container with a tight lid and ferment at room temperature until doubled in volume.
- If not ready to mix the final dough, you can refrigerate the levain for up to 3 days.
Final Dough
Ingredient | Wt (g) |
Whole grain Spelt flour | 200 |
AP flour | 300 |
Buttermilk | 425 |
Active liquid levain | 110 |
Salt | 10 |
Total | 1045 |
Procedure
- Mix all of the ingredients except the salt to a shaggy mass in a medium bowl and cover.
- Autolyse for 30-120 minutes.
- Sprinkle the salt over the dough and incorporate completely. (I use the pinch and fold method described by Forkish in “Flour Water Salt Yeast.”)
- Bulk ferment at 76-80ºF until double in volume (about 4-8 hours, depending on temperature) with Stretch & Fold in the bowl at 30 and 60 minutes and a lamination fold on the board at 120 minutes).
- Pre-shape round and cover. Let rest for 20 minutes or so.
- Shape as boule or bâtard and place in a floured banneton. Cover with a towel or place in a food grade plastic bag.
- Proof for 1-2 hours at room temperature, then cold retard for 12-18 hours.
- Bake in a Dutch oven at 460ºF covered for 20 minutes. Uncover. Continue baking at 420ºF for 30 minutes. (The falling temperature approach is because this bread tends to darken very quickly due to the buttermilk. So keep an eye on it and adjust your oven temperature accordingly.)
- Cool on a rack thoroughly before slicing.
This bread has an extraordinary flavor. It is a bit nutty and earthy and very sour. (Remember its hydration is basically all buttermilk.) My wife says it smells like rye, and, in fact, it tastes like rye. It must be the spelt. I like it a lot.
Happy baking!
David
Comments
Beautiful David (as usual), and lovely scoring. This is now on my “to do” list!
Hi David, what a great looking bread! Love the cute scoring. Shiao-Ping
That looks wonderful David. What effect, other than browning more rapidly, does the buttermilk have on the crust?
It sounds delicious, I haven’t made any sourdough that uses anything else other than water for hydration so far.
Benny
Thanks, Benny.
I can't say that the buttermilk effected the crust that much. For dinner, maybe 5 hours after it was out of the oven, the crust was still nice and crunchy. The big effect was on the bread's flavor. It was quite sour but had a delicious flavor. How much was due to the milk and how much to the spelt, I can't really say.
I hadn't ever used milk in SD before either, but I sure will again.
David
Well now you have me intrigued, I will bookmark your formula for a near future bake. Thanks for posting this David.
Benny
Hi David
Compliments to you on a beautiful loaf of bread. I currently don't have a levian but am a big buttermilk fan. Do you think buttermilk would work in
a poolish or biga?
Thanks much.
Owen
It would be a different bread, but there are certainly good yeasted breads that use buttermilk.
David
Glad you had a chance to try adding some buttermilk to one of your bakes. I have made many formulas using it and love the extra tang it adds.
I just posed some rolls I made using a little heavy cream. I urge you to give adding heavy cream to a future bake and let me know what you think.
Happy Baking!
Ian
Thank you for posting this David. Having read your enthusiastic comments on the flavour of this bread it went straight on my "bake" list too and by an extraordinary coincidence my wife had already bought a carton of buttermilk to bake some scones. There was enough left over for this bake so I was able to start preparing the starter and milling the spelt and rye straight away. We sampled this bread yesterday and I can confirm that this is a really delicious bread with a lovely soft crumb and crackly crust. A bonus was the pleasant almost fruity aroma that came from the dough throughout the bulk ferment.
This will be my next bake too.
By the way, the scones were delicious too!
Alan
I'm happy you enjoyed it. I need to make this again myself.
Happy baking!
David
David,
Your pictures and posts of bread inspire me--- hope that someday I can attain breads as beautiful as yours! Thank you!
Also, how did you get the nice scoring on the wheat stalk to stay closed and not be as open as the square around it?
Thanks for your kind words!
I am still very much a learner of decorative scoring, but the cuts need to be much shallower than the ones you want to open more fully.
Remember: What scoring does is creates a weak spot in the crust to direct loaf expansion during oven spring. So, the weaker you make the cut location, the more of the loaf expansion with occur there. Usually, "weak" translates to "deep." If you create just a slight weakness, the crust will open just slightly at that spot.
Hope this helps.
Happy baking!
David
Thanks for the explanation- I will try that tonight on one of my loaves!
Thanks for posting this, David. I love buttermilk and it's sourness as well as the combination of flours used, and had to make this bread. It's fantastic, and one that I will make often.
for truth in advertising: 'this bread has extraordinary flavor.'
I used homemade buttermilk (whole milk soured with lemon juice) and, since I don't have a dutch oven, baked it on a cookie sheet with a pan for steam in the oven. I was afraid it would be dense, but it is light.
Here's my only question: how can I stop eating it.
I'm glad you enjoyed this bread. It seems several others have now made it agree with us that it's really, really good. I have now made in a couple more times since posting the formula here.
My method to stop eating it was to run out of spelt berries! I fear this is only a temporary solution, however.
Happy baking!
David
Thanks for your kind words. You are the reason I post here.
Happy baking!
David
Hi
Thanks for your help.
Owen