The Fresh Loaf

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Using up Starter

Anonymous baker's picture
Anonymous baker (not verified)

Using up Starter

Last week a made a starter from scratch. This means I built up some discard and didn't use my other starter either. Needed to use some up. What to do? Last minute off the cuff decision was to use some up in a yeasted bread and chose Emmanuel Hadjiandreou's recipe for a yeasted Whole Spelt or Whole Khorasan bread (the recipe is interchangeable with just some minor adjustments to the hydration). So I put together a khorasan dough swapping 50g each of the flour and water for starter like so...

 

Recipe:

300g 250g khorasan flour
*200g 150g water 
6g salt
2g dried yeast

* 100g unfed starter (100% hydration with a bread flour and whole wheat mix) 

 

That was Plan A. Then I decided that it only makes a small loaf so turned it into a biga of sorts. Kneaded the dough for 10 minutes then let it ferment for 4 hours. It more than doubled and had a nice smell to it. To this i added the same recipe, minus the yeast, used up the khorasan, added whole spelt and upped the hydration. Like so...

 

Recipe Adjusted:

  • 300g flour (80g khorasan, 220g whole spelt)
  • 230g water
  • 6g salt
  • All of the biga above

Formed the dough, kneaded for 10 minutes then went straight into the pre-shape. I did this because of the very high percentage of biga and it suited me for timing as well. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes, shaped into the banneton and refrigerated overnight. The next morning it had risen just perfectly. Baked it straight from the fridge. 

It's now cooling and I'll post crumb shots later. 

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

look forward to crumb shot.  love the scoring.

Leslie

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Been out all day and just cut into it. It's best that way as I'm always too tempted. A typical Spelt/Khorasan crumb which might have benefitted from some bulk ferment after the final dough was made. We do have a lovely/interesting flavour with the sweet from the khorasan, nuttiness from the spelt and a very slight tang. Sometimes I think a sourdough is too harsh for khorasan not always bringing out its best qualities when it comes to taste as it can get bitter but non of that here. 

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

so haven't ever used it. is the crumb normally a little tighter than wheat?  it looks good though - such a shame we can only look such yummy bakes!

Leslie

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

It really is a lovely grain. The crumb is more cakelike closer to spelt. It has a lovely golden colour and it's slightly sweet. I believe it is a cross between durum wheat and some other grain.

Where do you live? It's a shame you can't get hold of some.

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

so a long way away.  I am in a small town as well so that reduces my options a bit.  It might be available online so I will check it out.

Danni3ll3's picture
Danni3ll3

I like how you adapted on the fly. I love Khorasan/Kamut. It gives a lovely colour to the crumb and such a nice taste. The kernels are huge compared to regular wheat. 

 

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

Often I love not really following anything, or following a recipe but changing on a whim until it's my own. Khorasan is a lovely grain and has such great flavour. Never worked with the whole grain, just the flour. 

Lazy Loafer's picture
Lazy Loafer

It certainly turned out nice for a Khorason/Spelt loaf. I like the idea of a biga with unfed starter and some yeast. I bet that added to the nice flavour too.

I've been looking at Hadjiandreou's spelt and khorason loaves, thinking I should try making a starter with the latter. I've got about half of a 20 kg sack of khorason (branded Kamut; Leslie, you should look for that name in NZ). I like the flavour of it but milling it is a real pain. It's like trying to grind gravel into sand. Which makes sense, as it is an ancient strain of durum wheat with very large, hard grains (not a cross; were you thinking of triticale?). The resulting flour from my hand-mill is grainy like semolina. Perhaps pre-fermenting it would soften it up a bit?

I baked my KOGA levain again today (about 25% Kamut flour, grated Orange zest, chopped crystallized Ginger and dried Apricots). The flavour is lovely and the crumb is also fairly close, like yours, but moist.

leslieruf's picture
leslieruf

I bet they taste great! I have looked on line and did find some Bobs Red Mill kamut flour listed, but out of stock, and very expensive.  At some point I will get some to try but I can't see it being a regular at the listed price of NZ $7.95 for 567 gm! :( 

Leslie

Lechem's picture
Lechem (not verified)

I'm going to need this recipe. And so many! Don't know how you do it. I put all my time into one loaf and just hope it turns out ok. You've got every single for one perfect. 

I used the kamut variety. It's such a lovely flour. Like golden sand. Needs careful treatment I think when it comes to sourdough though. It can be harsh for a delicate sweet grain. I'm thinking for a full sourdough a young Levain? 

Never tried milling it myself as I don't have a mill. All the hard work is done for me :) 

Thank you. The flavour is lovely and doing the biga/sourdough mix worked well. Not too strong to spoil the khorasan, the biga brought out the best for that and the sourdough gives a nice tang as an afterthought.