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question to a recipe

Barbarat's picture
Barbarat

question to a recipe

A friend of mine has a challenge with the following recipe. she said the bread tasted good but started to crumble and was kind of gritty. I wondered if the spelt experts here have some advise for her.

Spelt bread

1/2 c. warm water
3/4 c. rice milk
1/2 c. olive oil
1 egg
1/4 c. splenda
1 tsp salt
4 1/2 c. spelt flour
2 1/2 tsp yeast
 
Let rise and bake for 30 min @ 350

Like always thanks of your input.

Barbara
 

hanseata's picture
hanseata

I have no experience with the properties of splenda in dough, so I can't say anything about the ingredients, only recommend a better method to prepare the bread.

A 100% whole grain bread, whether spelt or whole wheat, will always taste gritty when it is made with such short fermentation time. I would advise her to work with pre-ferments, a soaker and a biga, à la Peter Reinhart's "Whole Grain Breads".

Soaker:  mix 2 cups of the whole spelt with a 1/4 tsp. of the salt und half of the liquid, and leave at room temperature overnight.

Biga: knead together 2 cups of the whole spelt with 1/4 tsp. of the instant yeast and half of the liquid, and refrigerate overnight.

Final dough: mix soaker, biga and all other ingredients until all comes together. Knead for 4 minutes, let rest for 5 minutes, and continue kneading for another minute. (No long kneading time necessary, because of the pre-doughs.)

This technique helps developing an optimal taste and all grittiness will be gone.

Karin

 

Barbarat's picture
Barbarat

Thanks Karin, yes I thought so too. Too short a fermentation time and too much yeast. Why not use honey or molasses instead of horrible stuff (Splenda)! I talked to her about your way of baking spelt (I use it all the time and I love it!) but I was wondering whats all out there. I also use spelt the breadtopia way with SD which also works very well for me but thats too advanced for her. Let's see if I can convince her to do it the Karin way :). thanks again

Barbara

Fatmat's picture
Fatmat

Hi, I'm no expert on this but spelt is quite low in gluten so will not provide the elastic strength to hold the bread together. Try using 50/50 spelt and strong (high gluten) bread flour mixed.

Also, I don't use cups so I can't really judge, but possibly your fat content is a little high - this will also tenderise your bread. I use 3% oil per 100% flour. Also bear in mind that there is also fat in the egg yolk which will also add to the overall fat content. 

I hope that this helps,

Mat

Barbarat's picture
Barbarat

Thanks Mat, your thought about the fat content is interesting. I will let my friend know. Thanks again

Barbara

hanseata's picture
hanseata

of fat, I agree. And your friend should certainly invest in a scale, if she wants to achieve consistant results.

But spelt has enough gluten to give a good rise, even, if it's not as high as in a whole wheat bread. This is a 100% spelt walnut bread I bake. No problems with the rise (no extra vital wheat gluten added).