Reattempting the Half Sprouted 100% Whole Spelt SD
I decided to offer the formula of my last bake another chance as the bread tasted too good to abandon. To solve the spreading issue, the hydration is dropped from 88% to 83%. This produced a much more manageable dough. In the hope of preserving the fragile gluten, I also added a 15 minutes autolyse and reduced the round of stretch and fold from two to one only.
100% Whole Spelt Sourdough with 50% sprouted flour
Dough flour:
150g 50% Whole spelt flour
150g 50% Freshly milled sprouted spelt flour
For leaven:
10g 3.3% Starter
20g 6.7% Bran shifted out from dough flour
20g 6.7% Water
For dough:
280g 93.3% Dough flour excluding bran for leaven
182g 60.7% Water
46g 15.3% Whey
50g 16.7% Leaven
13g 4.3% Alt Altus, powdered
9g 3% Vital Wheat Gluten
5g 1.7% Salt
3g 1% Dark barley malt powder
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305g 100% Whole grain
253g 83% Total hydration
Sift out the coarse bran from the dough flour, reserve 20g for leaven. Soak the rest in equal amount of whey taken from dough ingredients for a minimum of 4 hours.
Combine all leaven ingredients and let sit until doubled, about 3 hours.
Roughly combine all dough ingredients except for the soaked bran, leaven and salt. Autolyse for 15 minutes. Mix in the reserved ingredients and let the dough ferment for 7 hours.
Stretch and fold the dough for a few times then let the dough rest for 15 minutes.Shape the dough and put in into a banneton. Leave it on the counter for 7 minutes before retarding for 12 hours.
Preheat the oven at 250°C/480°F and pre-steam at the last ten minutes.
Remove the dough from the fridge and score it. Bake straight from the fridge at 250°C/480°F with steam for 15 minutes then without steam for 25 minutes more or until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 205°F. Let cool for at least 2 hours before slicing.
I still struggle with the double score
The bread tastes just as nice as the last time. It didn't spread this time thanks to the adoption of a more appropriate hydration level. The crust was slightly better developed with many tiny blisters that's gone invisible in the picture:)
However, the crumb is not as open as the last loaf. It might be attributed to the lower hydration and slight under-proofing. Anyway, I think a 100% spelt sourdough is worth paying the extra effort to master. Especially with the sprouted flour, it has to be one of the best tasting bread.
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Lunch today: Spaghetti Carbonara with Pecorino Romano, Parmigiano-Reggiano, porcini mushroom (I'm not Italian so I don't have to follow the rules, right?), egg yolks, bacon, black peppers and whole wheat pasta (so that there needn't be any guilt at all)
Comments
Look how dark the crust and crumb are compared to white bread. This crumb looks at least as good as the last loaf and maybe a bit loftier? It has to taste great too. Well done. That pasta is killer too! Now Lucy wants some!
For a whole grain sprouted spelt bread like this one with 15% pre-fermented flour, it would go from mix to oven in 6 hours or be way over proofed. I bet 80% hydration would even be better too. This bread needs to go in the oven at 85% proof to get that explosive bloom and spring.
You will soon be taking Michael Wilson's 100% white spelt at 100% hydration challenge:-)
Happy baking
It's just 16.7% leaven. So there's only about 8.4% prefermented flour in the mix. By looking at how much it had risen, the bread was probably 65-70% proofed after retard. I can't be certain though as the resulting bread isn't showing obvious sign of under-proofing.
This one tastes amazing for sure (so is the pasta: spaghetti carbonara is my go-to pasta dish along with fettuccine alfredo) or else it won't get a repeated bake. Remember? Repeated bakes happen very rarely in my kitchen so it's a true honour to this bread to receive that :) This might actually become one of my routine formula (but of course I have to include some add-ins to change things up!). That's how good it is! The darkness of the crust and crumb is largely attributed to the dark malt powder and alt altus. They added so much flavour to this bread.
I don't see the taking-Michael-Wilson's-challenge thing coming. But who knows? I didn't believe I'll be making my own sourdough bread 1 years ago! (Or milling my own flour very soon) My mill is on the way! Can't wait for another day for its arrival!
Your loaf looks delicious! Keep at it, you're doing great :)
Happy baking
Ru
It's indeed delicious and that's exactly what keeps me motivated in the bread-baking journey. I'd continue to explore and see where life(bread) takes me.
Happy Baking!
50% sprouted flour in a spelt bread is not an easy task to master. As you have found out sprouted flour can react differently than standard flour and the timing can be critical with such a high percentage. I think your crumb is plenty open. You don't want all your fillings to fall out of the large holes do you?
Happy Baking.
Ian
It does take a bit of experiment to understand how sprouted flour works yet of course it's totally worth it for its addictive aroma :) I'm sure you'd agree as well.
The openness of this bread's crumb is not the best I have achieved but it's acceptable to me. You're right. I'm making smoked salmon arugula sandwiches out of it so it certainly cannot have holes too large. After all, like you and what dabrownman say: you can't taste the holes:)
Happy baking!