My Best Sprouted (or malted?) Spelt Sourdough with a touch of Rye

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SabineGrandma on 5 Jun 2022 at 17:26

I had gotten some spelt berries at our local health food store (or Bioladen if you're from Germany) and wanted to sprout them, then turn them into flour. I've sprouted berries before, and usually I just add them wet to my dough. When I googled "sprouting" vs. "malting" though, I learned that when you dehydrate the sprouted grains, you actually "malt" them. I didn't really roast them, I set the dehydrator to its lowest temperature, which was 95F and by the next morning they were ready to be milled in my Mockmill. 

The dough was really fluffy and spongy and acted quite differently than my usual dough. I assume that the enzymes in the malted grain had something to do with it, but that's just a guess. 

Here's what I did:

Levain, fed twice

70g

Beer:  Hefeweizen

278g

Bread Flour

250g

Milled flour:  sprouted/malted Spelt 75g, rye 25g

100g

Teff seeds for crust

15g

Brotgewürz: 2 taps mahahlep, ¼ tsp fennel seed, ¼ tsp caraway, ¼ tsp anise, ½ tsp coriander

1 ¼ tsp

Salt - lite

6g

 

 

Total Flour

Hydration

350g

79.4%

3 days before Dough-Day, soak 75g of spelt in Water overnight and place in proofer @75F. The next morning, drain water, rinse and put back in proofer. By evening, small tails grew out of each berry. I stopped the sprouting at that time and rinsed the grains one more time. Then they went into my dehydrator @ 95F for about 9-10 hours.

I usually double-feed my levain, so we can go for a short hike in the morning. ;) So: In pm, feed 10g starter with 15/15 water.

In am, feed 40g of levain with 20/20 water/flour & ½ tsp Beer grain (for homebrewing, but I use it for dusting and giving the levain an extra "umpf". I use Vienna Lager) Place in proofer @ 78F for about 2-3 hours

Autolyze:  two hours after the morning refreshment, I milled the spelt & rye together with the spices (Brotgewuerz) added it to my bread flour and added the beer. I mixed that up and let it sit on the table at room temp, with was about 70F.

The Levain was doming 45 minutes later, so I added it, did 5 min of Rubaud mixing, and let the dough rest on the table for 15 min. Then I added the salt and did another 5 min Rubaud mixing.  (It's more fun with some fast music)

Rest 30 min, do first coil.

Rest 30 min, do lamination 

Rest 30 min, do coil 2.

Rest 30 min, do coil 3

Rest 2.5 – 3 hours  in bulk container

Plop on Board for Benchrest 30-45 min

Paint with oil or beer or other liquid & dip in teff seeds, then

Banneton & fridge until morning.

I've been using a towel as a liner, that I sprinkle with rice flour, Vienna Lager flour & teff seeds. After shaping the dough, I paint it with liquid (usually olive oil) and then plop it seam-side up on the floured towel, wrap it up and put it in the banneton. This works really well; and the dough has not stuck to anything.

This was a fun adventure, and I think I'll do it again! What can I sprout and malt next???

 

 

I enjoyed reading your formula and process. I've never sprouted grain before, but this has got my attention. I have plenty of spelt to give it a try. The finished loaf looks delicious.

Well done.

Cheers,

Gavin

Interesting bake and method!  I've not ventured into sprouting my own grains yet but your post has got me itching to try it.  What kind of flavor(s) does the beer impart to the final loaf?  I haven't baked with beer either and was curious to read about your 'towel method' ;-). I usually just use the banneton without any liner and don't actually have any of the linen liners anymore, but happy to learn about your successful method with the towel, flour and seeds.

Thanks for posting such an interesting bake.  Lovely crumb and scoring.  I'm sure it was delicious and it looks amazing!

The flavor of the beer will give the bread a stronger malty taste--as long as you don't use IPAs. I personally can't stand those. A malty ale, an amber, a Hefeweizen, or even a mild porter will take your bread into a different dimension! :) That is if you have a vivid imagination and like beer!! Haha!  IPAs are hop-forward, so they can be really bitter. I love the smell of hops, but the bitterness is off-putting to me--and I like beer!  I got into this sourdough adventure because of beer; my husband brews 2-3 times a year and I wanted to use up the spent grain. It was a rough start with lots of UFO loaves; but limiting the amount of spent grain to 100g per loaf gives each loaf a special malty kick.  

Of course, you can make the sprouted/malted bread with water as well. I put beer in every bread since we always have some. ;)Donn Sabine Walter (@donnsabine) • Instagram photos and videos

Have you seen Reinhart's "Bread Revolution" book? 

I have a hardcover edition that I bought used and cheap, pre-pandemic.

The Kindle edition is currently $7.99 US, but it regularly goes on sale for $4.99 if you can wait.

It has recipes for sprouted flour, and sprouted pulp. His "sprouted pulp" is sprouted grain that is run through a meat grinder (moist) instead of being dried and ground.

--

Another great book that fits your interests, if you don't already have it, is Reinhart's "Whole Grain Breads".  It  has recipes for flour mash, grain mash, unground sprouted kernals, and spent grain.

One of your above comments is spot on, as he uses only 4 oz of spent grain to 16 ounces of flour.

--

 

 

Wow, that's interesting! No, I don't have either yet. I'll go check Amazon for the kindle version. I came up with my breads mostly by trial and error and a very long learning curve it seems! I make a "beer" smoothie when I use my spent grain wet. I usually freeze our spent grain in 100g baggies and use as needed. I don't use books much, unless the recipes are in grams. I've got the Bread Baker's Apprentice when I first started this journey in 2009 and was really confused by it. But I grew up in Germany learning grams and not ounces!! Once I figured THAT out, I just converted everything into grams and now I'm not quite as confused anymore! I just get most bread inspiration from Instagram & YouTube and folks' recipes there. Finally grasping the "bakers' math" concept helped a lot! I don't bake large volumes of bread; all my loaves use only 350g of total flour. Each bread lasts us 3 days and then I get to bake another one. I'm retired - and baking is my entertainment (and exercise! Especially the Rubaud mixing method! haha )

The crumb looks just about perfect to my eye. Thanks for sharing this. How did you find the flavor compared to loaves that contained sprouted but unmalted grains?

–AG

..and maybe a bit more maltier than just sprouted. Also, the texture is different when I add the moist sprouted kernels to the dough, but either is very satisfying. I have made a "sprouted grain smoothie" before too (similar to when I add my spent grain to the dough -- liquid with sprouted grain in blender) or added the sprouts whole during lamination. Either works, but I do like the extra bit of malt in the flavor that this dehydrated method gives me. 

Thanks or the compliment!  Have you done any sprouting or malting experiments?  I know yours would be a lot more scientifically explained!  I love reading your processes! Mine are just trial & error...with the error still tasting good! :)

Trial and error is often the case with me too Sabine.  I don’t have a mill so have not tried sprouting and malting.  I may get a mill in the future if we ever move into a place with a larger kitchen but for now no mill.

Benny

:) You know -- as a substitute for a mill you can use a plain ole coffee grinder - at least for small amounts. It's not feasible for a 100% whole grain loaf, but small amounts work just fine in there. I did that before I bought mine; I actually used Granny's old hand-crank coffee mill from Germany. :) Then I purchased the KitchenAid Mockmill attachment; it's not quite as expensive and works fine for the 25-30% whole grain I add to my loaves.