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Still working my way through my 2 kg bag of stoneground organic spelt and hoping that I’ll figure this ancient grain out eventually.  I wanted to try again at using only spelt for a Hokkaido milk bread.  My first attempt was tasty but a bit squat for my liking.  Thinking that the gluten net just wasn’t strong enough to retain the pressure of the expanding gases during baking I though that I could improve the bake by increasing the VWG in this recipe.  I also increased the tangzhong to 5% and increased the milk.  

I’ve not made a porridge yet to add to any 100% whole grain bread so thought it was high time to try.  I have a bag of the new Harvest Flakes from Anita’s Organic Mill that they sent me to try out.

German Pumpernickel HALF-SIZE

Adapted from: https://www.thebreadshebakes.com/2014/08/baking-traditional-real-german-pumpernickel-bread/

SPOILER: didn't work for me

NOTE: consider sprouting rye kernels

NOTE: for all mentions of cracked rye, use your judgement about using medium to fine milling based on the consistency you desire

INGREDIENTS

Preferment

No these aren’t 100% whole spelt baguettes. Although I’ve been on a 100% whole grain baking spree I still prefer my baguettes mostly white flour but wanted to try some spelt in a baguette since I realized that I haven’t yet. So this formula is similar to the kamut baguettes I’ve posted before with spelt instead. As well, I changed the levain to a stiff 60% hydration levain.

Yesterday I baked a Borodinsky loaf using the 1940 formula in the video by Rus Brot (thanks, Ilya, for posting that link in your blog).  In the final dough, I combined 100 grams of all-purpose flour with 50 grams of whole wheat flour (a substitution mentioned by Rus Brot) and otherwise pretty much followed the approach in the video.

Although there are some large time gaps in the process, I was kept busy at times cleaning up from the preceding step and preparing for the next step.  I wonder how they made this bread in the old country?

 with prosciutto.

Having source some very coarse rye schrot, I wanted to bake the Frisian Rye bread by hanseata (http://hanseata.blogspot.com/2016/06/friesisches-schwarzbrot-hearty-rye-from.html) that was highly recommended here by someone a few months ago. I still don't have my bread pans, so bought a cheap cake pan. I was aiming for half of the recipe since I just had one pan.

David Snyder has previously posted a magnificent recipe for a Buttermilk-Spelt sourdough bread (originally by Cecilia Agni Hadiyanto). This is a tweak of David's recipe to accommodate a large preferment, mostly because I've lately been wanting shorter bulk and proof times on my breads. Since my sourdough starter hadn't been fed for a week in the fridge when I did this one, I also added in a yeast water preferment as an insurance that the bread would rise.

We have experienced some extreme  hot weather over here in Perth Western Australia for the Christmas / New Year  break  record temperatures  with 42 degrees and sustained high 30's for a couple of weeks the only baking was the poor plants in the garden that got well and truely frizzled