50% Emmer

For anyone looking for a recipe involving a nice amount of emmer flour (and for anyone who already likes the flavor of emmer), this has become my go-to recipe.  The levain consists of 30 g of starter, 80 g of emmer flour, 80 g of bread flour, and 180 g of water.

Mixed the night before, the levain sits at room temperature overnight until risen and somewhat bubbly.  All of the final dough ingredients are then mixed.  Those are 300 g of emmer flour, 300 g of bread flour, 325 g of the levain, 335 g of water, and 15 g of salt.  There is no effort at this point to create gluten, and the aim is simply to mix the ingredients to uniformity.  With the dryness of winter air, I opted to add about 15 g of water at this stage to get everything into one mass.

Cover the mix and let it sit for 30 minutes.  Then knead or otherwise work the dough until you feel the strength beginning to build.  I really like slap-and-folds (aka French folds) with this dough and did 300 for the pictured loaf.  Cover and wait 45 minutes and then give the dough a stretch-and-fold (S&F).  This dough has a lot of strength (due mainly to the bread flour and the kneading), and perhaps only one or two more S&F will be warranted.  Let the dough sit a while during the bulk fermentation and be patient.  I used my Brod & Taylor proofing box given the chilliness of our kitchen, and even then several hours passed.

There seems to be no need for a bench rest, and I went straight from dumping the dough onto the counter to a final shaping.  Let the final proofing go at a slow pace and again be patient.  Even with the B&T proofing box this loaf sat for an hour and a half proofing.

The bake occurred at 450F and lasted 46 minutes.  The crust is nicely chewy and the crumb is very soft.

Here is a side view of the loaf.

Here is the crumb.

Definitely consider making this bread if you want to explore emmer flour.