Buttermilk-Spelt Sourdough Bread with Rye Sour

Buttermilk-Spelt Bread with Rye Sour

David Snyder

December, 2020

I had a quart of buttermilk in the fridge. I only needed a cup for pancakes. I hated to waste any. And I had some really nice rye sour left over from the rye breads I baked last week. And there was a newly-arrived bag of spelt berries in the pantry. So, I made Cecilia Agni Hadiyanto’s Buttermilk-Spelt Sourdough Bread using a rye sour for leavening.

Total Dough
Ingredient	Wt (g)	Bakers' %
Medium rye flour	55	10
Whole spelt flour	200	36
All Purpose flour	300	54
Buttermilk	425	77
Water	55	10
Salt	10	1.8
Total	1045	188.8

Levain
Ingredient	Wt (g)	Bakers' %
Medium rye flour	55	100
Water	55	100
Ripe rye sour	22	22
Total	132	222

Dissolve the rye sour in the water.
Add the flours and mix thoroughly.
Place in a clean container with a tight lid and ferment at room temperature until ripe.
If not ready to mix the final dough, you can refrigerate the rye sour for up to 3 days.

Final Dough
Ingredient	Wt (g)
Whole spelt flour	200
All Purpose flour	300
Ripe rye sour	110
Buttermilk	425
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.”)
Transfer the dough to a clean, lightly oiled bowl with a cover.
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 stretch and 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.) Alternatively, bake at 460ºF on a pre-heated baking stone for 15 minutes with steam then for 30 minutes at 44ºF for 25-30 minutes.
Cool on a rack thoroughly before slicing.

I baked this loaf on a baking stone, and failed to heed my own advice, finishing the bake at 450ºF rather than 440ºF. It was dark even for my taste. However, the flavor did not suffer. In fact, the crust was delightfully crunchy and very tasty. The crumb was moderately chewy and moderately sour. The taste was quite complex with some sweetness and nuttiness. There was nothing that suggested rye's contribution to the taste, but I have found from other breads that the effect of 10% rye is subtle but definitely a positive contribution to flavor.

This is a delicious bread I expect to make again.

David

dmsnyder's Blog
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Nice David. We need a tutorial on that beautiful leaf scoring. There are very artistic.

I'm still learning this kind of decorative scoring myself. There is a lot to be seen on IG and FB. I'm very much still a novice.

David

Very nice looking scoring David you’re doing great as a scoring artist. The bread is very good sounding as well, I haven’t tried buttermilk in any bread yet, only in sweet baked goods but I’ll bookmark this recipe especially now that my starter is a rye sour.

Benny

drooling as i read through the bread formula... deep rich nutty sour & creamy

thanks for sharing. definitely a keeper..

evon

I loved your buttermilk spelt sourdough from 7/17/20 as the buttermilk made it delightfully sour, and I'm eager to bake this one. However, I'll never be able to match that beautiful scoring.

Richard

I don't think I'd call this "a tutorial," but it portray's how I made the leaves on this loaf:

I hope this helps.

David

I hope to give this a try some day, when I have a dough that looks right for the task.

Thanks for the instructions, David.

Richard

I go through a lot of buttermilk. I especially like Bulgarian which is both a buttermilk and a yogurt culture product but no one carries it anymore around here.

I looked at the Facebook page you refer to and she has delightful pictures but I didn’t see any formulas for the breads. How did you get the formulas?

As usual your bakes are extraordinary. Thank you c

As I recall, she just gave some sketchy information, and I extrapolated/made up the rest.

David

perhaps she removed the details. I read her posts and enjoyed her pictures but didn't see any reference to the making of the bread or products used. Glad you were able to get the info though. I have copied it down. Thank you c

My compliments on a delicious bread that is also beautiful to look at! I'm pretty sure I'd overproof the dough trying to execute those cuts! Kudos.

#goals

...with a scissors, aha! I have fot to stop reading TFL late at night, I get so hungry! Especially your blog, David.

And I happen to have buttermilk in the fridge! This looks great and as usual is expertly made. You're a real craftsman.

FYI, here's a link to the "original" formula: Buttermilk-Spelt Sourdough Bread

I'm very fond of buttermilk pancakes, but I can't seem to get buttermilk in pint cartons, only quarts. So, this was originally attractive to me as a way of not wasting buttermilk. But then it turned out to be such a delicious bread, it became reason enough to buy buttermilk. And there's enough left to make pancakes!

Let us know how you like it!

Happy baking!

David

Hi David - I keep thinking about this bread. I think the flavour would be great. I'm going to give it - the buttermilk spelt rye sour recipe - a go with weekend.

I want to confirm what you mean by left over 'rye sour' - do you mean left over rye starter? If you do did you make your starter only with whole rye or also some bread flour? I made a fresh batch of NFNM rye starter on the weekend. What would you recommend?

Also, I only have whole rye flour right now. I was thinking I'd run 1/2 of the rye flour called for through a strainer to sift out the bran. That way I'd maybe approximate a medium rye flour. Thoughts?

Thanks in advance - will let you know how it comes out!

Sorry for the delayed reply.

I had recently made rye bread and had some sour left over. That's what I used.

Whole rye would work fine, but you can just use whatever ripe starter is convenient.

David

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/66949/wholespelt-buttermilk-sourdough-using-rye-sour