crust like it emerged from a caveman's campfire, taste/aroma that makes you feel like you're picking fresh produce, and look at that glowing solar-flare-crumb: 
Staring at this boule for too long can give you a sunburn! Better to eat it.
from Sarah Owens' book Sourdough.
The bread is 18 percent whole spelt (I ran out of whole wheat), 7 percent whole rye, the rest bread flour. The beets (36 percent of total flour weight after roasting) are blended with water and mixed straight into the dough.
It'll be great with goat cheese & avocado or a light tomato salad (bruschetta, anyone) or many other things!
Rob
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Bloody beautiful! Well done, Rob!
Jay
Excellent creation, beautifully done!
-Jon
Love that!
dw
Stunning and delicious I am sure Rob, awesome bake.
Benny
Nicely done Rob, I've been thinking of baking this bread and I might give it a go in the near future.
Tony
thanks to all of you for the encouragement. Honestly, I would not be baking at all without the great openness of all of you here at TFL.
Rob
That's a lovely loaf, including the color.
Paul
Great bake Rob. Was there some citric acid in the mix to hold the beets color?
thanks, Ian. No added acid...though I did let the levain go for 14 hours or so. The cold proof was also extra-long ... about 20 hours. Despite all that, the bread is not sour at all ... though, interestingly, it is slowly losing its hue over time.
I like it! It reminds me somehow of Solaris (the sci-fi book) 😉 I'm pretty sure, I'll give it a try on the next occasion.
Stunning colour! But not sour at all despite the long fermentation of the levain and cold proof! What was the starter inoculation of your levain, and the % of levain to total flour weight? (Roughly that is; I know you don't like to think)
Also, is your starter doing better now with the new rye?
thx Lin.
the levain was 1:2:2 and the amount of prefermented flour was 10%.
But I did make this loaf after two starter feeds that were probably 1:10:10 or so, after which the starter went into the fridge for a day.
I haven't yet gotten to my (relatively) local Polish store for Euro flour. But I will soon. I wonder how expensive it will be with the crazy new tariffs.
Rob
Though yes, that might come at a price. Or try freshly milled US rye?
I know you're not necessarily aiming to get a sour bread, but if ever you are, I wonder if using even more 1:2:2 levain (30%? 40%?) from a slightly older starter (mine had probably been refrigerated for three days by then?) in the final dough would make a difference. I never got much sourness from just high % PFF alone, or a same-day 1:2:2 levain bake, but combining the both with a cold retard seemed to create some unexpectedly super sour bread (which I want to avoid!!!).
thx again, Lin, for the thoughts. To build flavor, I tend towards smaller inoculations & larger amounts of prefermented flour. But I followed the recipe here & my partner really liked the bread. And the radiation-level color was striking. So an all-around success.
Rob