The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Spelt biga and AYW

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

Spelt biga and AYW

Juergan was my inspiration when he mentioned I should try spelt in the starter on the 40/60 loaf. I thought about it and made a biga with 2 feedings using 50g spelt/50 g apple yeast water for a total of 200g, no  commercial yeast .I let it rise all night in the oven with the light on. Wow...it really grew and smelled lovely..faint apples   I subtracted that from the total liquid/flour in the  Norwich formula that I use as a base. I also subbed spelt for 1/2 the rye called for. I fed my regular white starter with AP as usual and used 1/2 whey and 1/2 AYW for remaining liquid.. Mixed all but salt and let autolyse for 3 hrs as I had errands to run.

Came back and did 3 sets of  30 folds in the bowl at 30 min intervals. Turned out on a wet counter and did 2 sets of s&f's at 30 min. intervals on the countertop. Divided into 3 boules at 750g approx. each. Let proof 30 min. in the cloth lined  baskets and then into the fridge overnight.

This AM I heated my iron pots for 30 min at 500. Remove loaves from fridge and slashed one  and into hot pots and turn down temp to 460 for 20 min  lid on and 10 min without lid.  You can see that I slashed one and let the other two burst as David has been doing. I much prefer the burst !  Huge ears and lovely crust and blisters and glistening crumb. Went out a few hours came  back  and cut one so I could have a taste and make pics :)  Fantastic YW crust that tastes like caramel  and smells like it too. Soft crumb and lovely structure . This bread is a delight . I am so pleased to have the "touch of spelt" without the headaches . I think I do better without commercial yeast. This from a baker that has used it for all breads for 40 years until I discovered wild yeast ! I don't need the extra bit of push it gives and I  like the way this reacts  much better. It has been an interesting journey toward more spelt. I shall cont, the exploration and keep finding ways to increase it reliably. There are a lot of formulas on TFL using  spelt and I want to cont. to try them. 

just out of fridge

 

 

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one slashed

 

 

 

 

 

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slashed loaf

 

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bursting forth

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crumb:

 

 

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dinner last night with the last of one loaf of the 40/60 loaf grilled....homemade fettucini and shrimp with grape tomatoes , capers , preserved lemon, white wine and fresh basil

 

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Comments

wassisname's picture
wassisname

Beautiful crust, beautiful crumb and I bet it tastes amazing, trailrunner.  I think you and the wild yeast are going to get along famously! 

Marcus

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

Since I first joined TFL a few years ago and used the  gaaarp tutorial on here to get my first starter going I haven't looked back :) I love wild yeast but now I am really really loving my fruit yeast water...that stuff is just amazing. If you haven't tried it Marcus you should give it a shot !  Thank you for the nice comments. It is indeed a very tasty loaf. c

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

Can't decide if I like slashed loaf better than the 'burst forth' loaf but, the slashing imparted like me, need to go with what brought them to the party... so I'm going with you and the natural escape!  Lucy likes the shrimp pasta but  I have to warn you she will steal frozen shrimp off the table and eat them raw - no worries!  Now, if those fantastic homemade noodles were made with a YW / SD levain, then Lucy said she would only steal the noodles:-)

Beautiful blistered crust and a fine open crumb - has to taste great too.  Just lovely with the shrimp kicker!

happy baking

 

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

You and your lucy ! she is an adventurous gal ....these were sd noodles but not YW ( an ah ha moment...will have him do that next !! )  ...those are the only ones my husband will make now...try them you too will be a convert !  It is a great bread. I am convinced the YW  and the biga with spelt are the reason. More experiments necessary...:) c

dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

fine pair.  Lucy said she won't ever eat another pasta dish unless the noodles are YW & SD so tell hubby a real pasta thief is on her over and I should warn you - she doesn't take disappointment well.  If she makes it there you have to keep her too but she will pumpernickel every one of those noodles.

 

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

Remember our 20# Meatball !!  :0 

Janetcook's picture
Janetcook

Beautiful loaf!  Juergen does wonders with spelt.  His 100% Spelt loaf is a BIG hit around here.  So glad yours worked well with the YW too.

I used to bake with IY and , like you, when I discovered how easy sd is to bake with I haven't turned back.  Occasionally I will make an IY loaf but boy are my times off now.  I just can't get it right with IY and my loaves are usually over proofed…..

Thanks for the post and photo!

Take Care,

Janet

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

He is a master at spelt . I will get to that loaf as well as others when I get back home in Nov. We will be on the road for weeks so no baking. I don't have any trouble with ADY...have  never used IY...but just don't care for it added to SD. It messes up the dough action as far as I can tell when  added to an SD formula. So from now on I shall keep them far apart :) Thank you for looking and also for your assistance with info. c

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

The crust and crumb is lovely and sounds like a very tasty loaf especially with the added YW.  A fine bread to enjoy with the delicious pasta dinner you have prepared.

I hear a lot about your sd pasta but I don't believe I've ever seen your recipe..would you care to share how you make your sd pasta.  It looks so lovely and perfectly sliced.  Do you slice free hand or let the machine do it?  I remember a post where your husband had a wonderful table full of fresh beautifully made pasta.

Sylvia

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

The bread with the pasta is the last of one of the loaves from the 40/60% spelt/rye that I  made the other day. The crumb is much smaller and the  loaf was a "low " profile"...:) aka pancake !  

If you look here http://sourdoughsurprises.blogspot.com/2013/04/sourdough-pasta.html you will see a big variety of sourdough pasta recipes as well as all the other uses I have talked about for starter.

This is what my husband does:

3 eggs ( 141 grams)

starter ( 90 g)

"00" flour ( 300 g) 

salt ( 4 g)

EVOO ( 15 g)

Mix eggs and oil ,starter and salt. Have flour in a hill on table. Pour over the wet and begin stirring with fork. Mix and knead . Should be a quite firm but not dry dough...like a firm playdough. Place in fridge in a bag for 30 min. Take out and run through pasta machine as usual using each successive setting to knead the dough. Let uncut dough sheets rest on counter ( we like the wood counter as it absorbs some of the moisture in the dough and makes cutting even easier) about 30- 45 min....no longer. You need to feel the dough and make sure it is dry enough but not too dry. Cut with machine or by hand...we do both. For fettucine  we use the machine . Cook exactly 3 min.  in  "sea water" saltiness. If using sheets in lasagna simply dip in boiling water to soften and then layer in pan. This pasta keeps very well in the fridge wrapped well for several days. It also freezes beautifully...you won't be able to tell the difference from the fresh. I hope you enjoy !  Carolline

SylviaH's picture
SylviaH

Sylvia

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Those are beautifully colored boules, caroline! So, is yeast water starter fed fruits, or flour? is it easy to maintain?

Lovely crumb, too.

-Khalid

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

I will link to the biggest of the discussions on TFL about YW. But here is the easiest and least confusing way to do it. You will see what I mean when you read all or some of the posts....if goes on and on....I digress :)

Take an unpeeled organic apple rinse only lightly. Chop up 100 g of apple with peel ( I take out the core but you don't have to ) . Sterilize a qt jar and lid. Place the apple pieces in the warm jar and add 20% granulated sugar- 20g. Add enough filtered water to cover the apples and they are freely floating...about 200g. This is NOT something that has to be scientifically measured . Tighten lid and shake very well. Apples will be floating. Now loosen lid slightly and set in a quite warm place....80 -85 degrees F. Whenever you walk by for  the next couple days take out the jar and tighten lid....shake very hard.... remove lid and stir the mixture to get air in the jar.....loosely place lid back on and put back in its very warm nest. By third day you will have lots of bubbles come up on the surface when you shake and the jar will give a vigorous ppphhhtt.... when you open it. Always stir the contents well and place lid back on loosely . When you see good bubbles take out 50g water and add 50 g AP flour...stir well , cover with plastic wrap and place in the very warm place with jar. In a couple hours you should see bubbles starting and by the next day it will have tripled at least so use a pint cup to be sure . If for some reason you don't see bubbles in the YW by this time and if your biga didn't bubble up and triple then you need to start over with another organic apple . ( it has to be organic to have the yeasts on it) . So far I have had no problem getting it started.

 Your apple water will be smelling very sweet...the apples will be floating and lots of bubbles on 4th day. Place in fridge at this point. Apples should always be floating.you can use out of the apple water and add more to the mix and place back in the fridge...it doesn't need to be kept warm to keep the growth going. Once a week -10 days drain out the apples and toss them away...I tried to eat them but they are tasteless and I don't care for them at all ! I know others in the discussion say otherwise and dabrownman likes them..but so far I don't like them and I know Janet doesn't like her "old raisins" from her YW. 

You can use the YW in several ways....you will see a lot of different ideas. First is make the biga like you did as a test...by the way add that to you next loaf or back into one of your starters...don't throw away...it smells so yummy. Second you can substitute it for all or part of the water in any SD formula. Third is feed your starters with it. So you see you can use it to rise the bread alone or as an adjunct to your usual SD starter. 

Here is the link to the big discussions  : here 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/20693/culturing-growing-and-baking-range-wild-yeasts

 

Please ask me any questions you want. Once you have the YW growing for the first time you can maintain it with non-organic fruit. Also you can use from it and add back more water and only add  more fruit as I said every 10 days or so. Fruit should always be floating and it should never smell like alcohol...that means it is starving for air and food !  If you want to convert to a raisin or dried apricot water...they are the 2 strongest all you have to do it take about 50g of the AYW and put it in a new sterile jar and add 100 g chopped raisins or 100 g sliced dried apricots ( no need for sugar) and shake well and leave in warm place overnight. Will be bubbly by next day. It is magic !   You will love it...very little that can harm it and requires less maintenance than the flour/water starter. 

Please ask anything you want to know...so far all I can determine is that every single person does it differently and it works for everyone...what does THAT tell you LOL ! caroline

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Thanks for the elaborate reply, Carloline! I will hunt for some organic apples/raisins/apricots. I'll let you know how it goes.

-Khalid

 

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

You message me if you have any questions. The apple is the quickest way to get started. The convert to dried apricot for the very strongest, or raisin for 2nd strongest or just keep apple...or do all three !   c

 

 

The apple is the fastest way to get started. Then convert to dried apricot as the strongest, or to raisin as the next strongest...or keep all 3 ! c

 

 

 

bakingbadly's picture
bakingbadly

That's a beauty! Both the crust and crumb are tantalizing.

Zita

trailrunner's picture
trailrunner

Have you started  a YW yet ? I  wrote it out for Khalid just now above it you want an easy and synthesized version. I am so glad you looked and liked my bread. c