November 6, 2012 - 11:33am
[Home Baked - Risgaard] Spelt-Durum Bread Try #2. Bread 2, Me 0
Round one of this fight can be found at this blog post.
The problem I had the first time was insufficient hydration. I certainly solved that problem...
I changed a bunch of things around this time, resulting in a far superior flavor (IMO), but going completely overboard on hydration to the point that it was more like ciabatta than bread. Here's what I did:
- First, instead of the spelt poolish, I mixed 1 ounce of my KA New England sourdough starter at 1:3:3 with whole milled spelt. After that sat overnight, I fed it again roughly 1:1:1 to get the volume for my poolish.
- Second, I made a soaker with water, all of the durum flour, and 100g of the spelt flour that was called for in the final dough. I didn't sift any of it -- though I did sift to 85% the final addition of spelt the next day. The soaker sat on the counter overnight. I did add the yeast called for into the final dough, so it wasn't a 100% sourdough fermentation.
- Third, I added a bunch of extra water to get the hydration up. Too far up, as it turned out. As you'll see below, the dough just spread out after having stuck to the banneton...
The taste came out fantastic. I still have half a loaf of the first round I baked of this, so we could do side-by-side tasting. It's not as sour as something done without any commercial yeast, but the tang is still there. So, for round three, I'll repeat everything except the flood of water and see how it comes out.
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Hi Loyd,
Thanks for the update on this loaf. I have it in my line up of 'to bake' breads so I will note the hydration change and make sure I don't go too far. I plan on making it all sd and doing an overnight bulk ferment so I am really tweaking :-) .
So far I have really liked the results of the breads that I have baked from that HB. I did the 'Pear and Sourdough' and that dough was really nice to work with though my pears got lost in the dough - too ripe....the bread is almost all gone so I know the eaters around here enjoyed the taste :-)
Good to see you baking and posting. I was wondering how you were going to fare when Sandy hit. I assume you did just fine and are probably very relieved.
I note your avatar has changed. Do you really have a cat that fishes or are you foolin with us gullible ones?
Take Care,
Janet
for sure but I think MiniOven once told me that if it isn't supposed to be ciabatta and it gets to 80% hydration it probably belongs in a pan. I'm not sure what your hydration is but spelt and durum aren't very good when it comes to gluten development and water can get out of hand quickly way before 80% if you aren't Michael Wilson in disguise :-) Thankfully, these kinds of breads usually end up tasting great anyway and yours looks pretty tasty.
Bake on to round 3 Loyd and that is a talented cat too!
Loyd....I have to agree with DA that with 80% hydration you would be better off baking in a pan to hold the shape, but there is nothing wrong with a ciabatta either way!
I love your cat photo! My 5 cats are very jealous that your guy/gal gets a whole fish to themselves!
It's not my cat, just a picture I liked :) I should change it to one of my cat though.
Janet - We were very fortunate during Sandy. We had the power blink a couple of times, but that was it. I spent all on that Monday watching my power lines whip around like double dutch ropes, I couldn't believe they stayed up.