September 28, 2013 - 11:02am
Spelt Wholemeal Loaf
Hi
I have made a number of Spelt Wholemeal loaves ranging from 100% Spelt Wholemeal flour to 50% Spelt Wholemeal and 50% Canadian Strong White flour.
On a bnumber of occassions the loaf has emerged from the oven with a "flat" or "flattened top crust. Can anybody enlighted me as to what is happening ?
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I'd have to guess it's overproofed. Spelt has some decent gluten but its fragile and likes to stretch more than be elastic. Also wholemeal breads (the higher the percentage the more so) ferment much faster than white doughs. 50% is more than enough to have a significant effect here. When I bake with spelt I generally like to get it in the oven "underproofed" that is to say before it passes the poke test. I want it to still bounce back slightly which will help with getting some spring. It's tricky to work with but has an amazing flavor and texture.
What is your formula and process?
Josh
Hi - thanks for reply.
I suspected overproving but as most of my baking is with sourdoughs and not yeasted bread I am a bit out of tune with the speed of yeasted proving.
I mixed 350gms spelt wholewmeal with 250gms V strong white canadian as i thought this would allow a longer prove and therefore better flavour. 400 gms water /9gms fresh yest and 9gms salt. Mixed and kneaded for 10 mins then into bowl for 1 hour. Knock back and fold and back into bowl. Then deflate with finger tips and fold and then into tin. Proved for 1 hour and then into oven for 40 mins.
Shape ok but top crust had definately collapsed a bit.
I look forward to your comments.
Spelt loaves do best if dough is only allowed to rise 1.5x rather than doubled as you would with a wheat loaf.
Don't know what happened to the text of that last post.
Spelt loaves do best when dough is only allowed to rise 1.5x rather than doubled as you would with a wheat loaf.
Thanks - to the point and helpfull
I wonder what happens to them? I have been forced to got to edit in the browser, hit select all and then copy before hitting the save button for every post.