50% Emmer

Over the past couple of years I have searched for an emmer recipe that I liked.  This bread will be my go-to for emmer.

The evening before, I mixed the levain, which consisted of 30 g of starter, 80 g of emmer flour, 80 g of bread flour, and 180 g of water.  That sat covered at room temperature for slightly over twelve hours, during which time it expanded and became bubbly.

The next day I mixed all of the final dough ingredients, which were 300 g of emmer flour, 300 g of bread flour, 325 g of the levain, 335 g of water, and 15 g of salt.  Initially I simply mixed to uniformity (i.e., all flour moistened, everything distributed roughly, a shaggy dough) and then left the dough covered for 30 minutes.  The next step involved developing the gluten, which occurred via 300 French folds.  The dough then rested covered for 45 minutes until the first of several stretch-and-folds.

With a kitchen temperature of 72F and dough temperature of 73F (measured after the French fold session), I knew that the bulk fermentation stage would take a while.  Following the first stretch-and-fold, I did three more at roughly fifty minute intervals.  Each gave me a chance to feel the dough as it progressed through the bulk fermentation, which lasted a shade over five hours.  By then the dough was feeling softer and pillowy and certainly not as tightly elastic as just after the French folds.

Opting not to do a bench rest, I immediately shaped the dough and put it into a banneton, which I placed inside a plastic bag.  Proofing took an hour and nineteen minutes.  I use two aluminum pie pans with lava rocks for steam, and I poured water into one of them just before inserting the loaf into the oven and then poured water into the other pan just after.

The bake took 47 minutes at 440F and produced a really nice loaf (weight 1161 g).  Here are photos of the crumb as well as a couple of slices.

Lastly, I should give Tom (aka tpassin) some credit for inspiring this recipe.  He posted a spelt recipe some time ago, and I had played around with that a bit and then substituted emmer flour in place of the spelt for this recipe.  If you are looking for a nice simple recipe to make a really great emmer bread, try this one.