Honeyed Spelt and Oat 

This is a loaf that came out of Sourdough from Sarah Owens. The recipe is available via pdf file (http://scottsbreads.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/5/3/10536109/honeyed_spelt___oat-08-40-s.pdf) on the web. I followed the recipe fairly closely but scaled up for 3 loaves and I sifted out the bran from the Spelt and used that to feed my starter. My starter is mostly bran these days so the final recipe has a bit more bran than just the bran that came from the Spelt. The dough was super stiff so I added a fair bit of water at different stages. I also used French slaps and folds instead of stretches and folds for the first 3 sets. And of course, I added a bit of yogurt. =)

Makes 3 loaves

Levain

70g Water (cool water)

53g Mature Starter (100% hydration starter)

70g Spelt bran and high extraction flour

Oat Soaker

245g Rolled Oats

481g Boiling Water

Dough

Total Flour 963g 

• 779g Unbleached Flour 
• 184g High extraction Spelt Flour 

429g Water (82°F) plus 65 g plus 25 g

726g Soaker

79g  Honey

20g Salt 

30 g Yogurt

193g Levain

Be sure to feed your starter a day or two before making the levain to make sure it is active. 

The night before:

1. Mill 255 g of spelt berries and sift out the bran. Place 184 g of the high extraction/sifted flour in a tub and reserve the remaining flour and bran for the levain.
2. Prepare the levain by adding 70g cool water and the reserved bran/flour to 53 g of sourdough starter. Place the levain in a cool spot for the night. I placed mine in the basement where it is around 68-70 F. 
3. Mix the oats with the boiling water and cover. Leave to cool overnight on the counter.

Dough making day:

1. In the tub with the high extraction flour, add the unbleached flour, the oat soaker, the honey and 429 g of 82F water. It was impossible to get all of the flour wet so I added the extra 65 g at this point. I guess my flour was extra thirsty. Let autolyse for at least one hour. I believe I let this particular dough go about 90 minutes.
2. Add the salt, yogurt and levain. Once again, the dough felt really stiff so I added 25 g of water to loosen things up. Mix well and let rest 30 minutes.
3. Do three sets of French slaps and folds at 30 minutes intervals. The first set was 75 slaps, the second set was 40 slaps and the last set was 10 slaps. Continuing on 30 minute intervals, do gentle stretches and folds until the dough feels billowy, has bubbles on the surface, bubbles can be seen through the walls of the container and it giggles when shaken. The dough will also release nicely from the walls of the container when doing the folds. My dough was almost at this stage after 2 sets of folds so I let it rest 45 minutes until I deemed it ready for dividing. The dough rose barely 20%. (I am slowly figuring out that I have been chronically overfermenting my dough. I used to let it double and it stuck to everything when it came to dividing. What a difference when reducing the bulk fermentation time.)
4. Pour the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of 842 g. Round out the portions into fairly tight rounds with a dough scraper and let rest one hour on the counter. 
5. Do a final shape using Sarah Owen’s method: “Lightly flour the top surface of the dough rounds and, using the bench knife, maintain round shape & flip each over so floured side is on work surface. Create a neat package. Fold the third of the dough closest to you up & over the middle third of the round. Stretch out the dough horizontally to your right & fold the right third over the center. Stretch the dough to your left & fold this third over the previous fold. Stretch out the third of the dough furthest from you & fold this flap toward you over the previous folds, and anchor it in place with your fingers. Roll the package over so that the smooth underside of the loaf is now on top and all seams are on the bottom. Cup hands around the dough & pull towards you, rounding it against the work surface to tighten the tension.”
6. Place the dough seam side down in rice floured bannetons, cover, let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge for 12 hours. (I was going to sprinkle some oat flakes in the bannetons before placing the dough in there but I forgot. The loaves look very nice with a sprinkling of oats on them.)

Baking Day:

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Mine ended up being over 2 hours as I slept through my alarm. ?While the oven is heating, take the loaves out of the refrigerator and let rest on the counter at room temperature for about 30 minutes. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Score the dough if you wish. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully place the dough seam side up inside.

2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, drop the temperature to 425F, and bake for another 22 minutes. Internal temperature should be 208F or more.   

I am certainly getting much better oven spring since not letting dough go too long during bulk fermentation. I am also trying to limit the time in the fridge between 10 and 12 hours. These loaves were a bit more than that but I am still quite happy on how they turned out.