The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Experimental spelt & rye sourdough

Alchemist Aotearoa's picture
Alchemist Aotearoa

Experimental spelt & rye sourdough

Greetings again. I've really enjoyed finding this community of bakers with its interchange of recipes, ideas and suggestions - especially the considered and thoughtful responses to so many people's questions. 

We had a friend coming round for brunch this morning who is wheat intolerant, so I thought I'd buy some spelt flour to try. Lucky I checked first - she has never tried spelt and didn't want to risk it - so I made something else for her, but I decided to try baking with the spelt anyway. I had a quick look at a few posts on here and then charged ahead with the recipe below. It wasn't a total disaster!

Any suggestions for improvement? I'd like the crumb to be a bit more regular - I could probably have degassed a bit more vigorously, but having read about the fragility of the gluten in spelt doughs I was trying to handle it gently. There were a few small solid gummy areas in the centre of the loaf. Of course, I should have paid more attention to what I was reading and put the dough into a tin straight away, instead of trying to prove it in a banneton and bake it free-form.

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

if you brought the whey up to boiling and dumped it over the rye flour as a scald.