August 19, 2021 - 4:49am
Help my spelt muffins stay fresh!
I bake naturally-fermented 100% spelt almost exclusively. Early on, I found my spelt loaves went stale quickly. I solved this by including a portion of scalded flour - it works great, transforming the crumb.
I'm currently experimenting with some yeast-water leavened spelt muffins. I need them to be dairy-free. I've used olive oil to good effect to soften the crumb, but they are going stale more quickly than I want them to.
I don't want to include a scald in the muffins. It's too much of a faff. Does anyone know something else I could add to the dough that is dairy-free that would help lengthen the viability of the crumb?
Thank you!
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Nothing to do with the dough, but have ya tried wrapping in plastic, like a plastic bag? Enjoy!
might help. Such as white table sugar, brown/muscovado/demerara/jaggery sugar, molasses, ground psyllium husk, guar gum, xanthan gum, ground flaxseed, ground chia seeds.
Adding those would also require adding a tad more water.
Tips that i've learned:
- pre-soak the flax and chia. They will tend to clump if not hydrated enough. And they may still require a little extra smearing around and mixing to fully incorporate. You can leave the chia whole if you want, it will still absorb well, but I think it best to grind the flax seed - I use a whirly-blade coffee grinder.
- for psyllium, guar gum and xanthan gum, be sure they are completely dispersed as thoroughly as possible among the dry ingredients before wet ingredients are added, or they will definitley clump to the point that they cannot be un-clumped, no matter how hard you mix. Look up some ratios to use, and don't eyeball it. Guar gum, and even more so xanthan gum bind an enormous amount of water compared to their weight. As a starting point, see: https://www.culturesforhealth.com/learn/gf-sourdough/guide-binders-gluten-free-sourdough-baking/
Buona fortuna.
I will try flax first and will pre-soak!
Go easy on the gums and psyllium. In many people, they don't get digested, but when they arrive in the large intestine, they... uh.... "ferment."