More Overnight Country Brown Variations

I was very pleased with last week's experiment so I decided to try using a single variety of whole grain flour with the same type of flake or grain. I also made an extra 2 loaves to give away to friends (posting on Facebook earns you people begging for bread. Ha ha!)

So I made two using Spelt flour, a bit of sprouted spelt flour and spelt flakes, two more using Kamut flour, a bit of sprouted wheat flour and Kamut flakes, and last but not least, white wholewheat with a bit of sprouted wheat flour and bulgur. I am rather surprised at how consistent the loaves turned out in spite of using different flours. 

I am posting the recipe for the Spelt with the ingredients for the other two in brackets since the quantities were the same for all. 

Levain. Took 3 grams of my NFNM starter from the fridge and built it up to 25 grams over two feedings. I then added 100 g unbleached flour, 25 g wholewheat flour and 100 g warm water for an 80% levain. I let that rise for 7 hours ( I got up at 5 am to feed the silly thing). 

Soakers. I mixed 100 g of spelt (Kamut, bulgur) flakes with 100 g very warm water and let sit overnight. 

Autolyse. I mixed all of the soaker with 684 g warm water, 604 g unbleached flour, 226 g Spelt (Kamut, White wholewheat) flour and 50g of sprouted Spelt (sprouted wholewheat-couldn't get sprouted Kamut, sprouted wholewheat) flour. I then let sit for one hour. 

Mix. I then added 22 g of salt and 216 g of the 80% levain. By pinching and folding, I was able to get everything incorporated. I did have to add a bit of water to the white wholewheat/bulgur dough because it felt much stiffer than the other two. 

Ferment. I let ferment for a total of 11 hours in my kitchen that is at 72F. I did 4 sets of folds an hour or so apart at the beginning of fermentation. The dough ended up rising between 2 1/2 and 3 times in volume. 

Divide and shape. I cut each dough into two on a floured counter and did a quick preshape using the envelope fold method. After resting 5-10 minutes, I did a final shape and put into floured baskets, seam side down. 

Proof. I then popped the baskets into the fridge for the night. 

Bake. The next morning, I heated up my oven to 500F and baked the Spelt loaves first in hot Dutch ovens. They had proofed 10 hours by then. I scored the loaves even though I was baking the seam side up to be able to tell them apart. Twenty minutes at 500, then 10 minutes at 450 and another 25 with the lid off. I baked the Kamut loaves next (11 hours proof) and the White Wholewheat with bulgur last (12hour proof). 

This method worked well for my schedule this weekend. It is basically the same as outlined by Forkish except for the overnight retard in the fridge. He proofs in the counter but I needed to get some sleep and I wondered how they would turn out with proofing in the fridge and baking cold.

I was surprised that the loaves weren't huge in the baskets as my experience with Spelt is that it sure speeds things up when it comes to proofing. The one thing I was very pleased with was the oven spring. Hopefully the crumb is nice too as well as the flavour.