A song tasting of new wheat

A song of the good green grass!

A song no more of the city streets;

A song of farms - a song of the soil of fields.

A song with the smell of sun-dried hay, where the nimble pitchers handle the pitch fork;

A song tasting of new wheat and of fresh husk'd maize.

A Carol of Harvest, for 1867.  Walt Whitman (1819-1898)

 And so it came to pass that I had an afternoon to prepare more bread and The Husband was nowhere to be seen.  Luxury.  Surveying my cupboard, I spotted some spelt and realised I hadn't used it in a while.  Called "triticum spelta", spelt is one of the ancient wheats - discovered in Neolithic sites which date as far back as 2500-1700 BC.  It is also known as dinkel and, this is nerdy bit, is a hexaploid wheat - eg. it has six chromosomes.  In France, it is known as "épeautre" or wheat of the Gauls!  Hildegard of Bingen couldn't get enough of spelt, particularly recommending a spelt gruel called "Habermus" for which she gave a recipe (spelt, water, apple, lemon juice, galangal, cinnamon, honey, psyllium and almonds….).  According to her, spelt cleans the blood and gives man a joyous spirit.  Worth trying!!  Spelt was also used by the Romans, and for a bit of fun, see the link below to the British Museum site which has a recipe for spelt and whole wheat bread, based on a bread found in Herculaneum. 

http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/past_exhibitions/2013/pompeii_and_herculaneum/pompeii_live/live_event/bread_recipe.aspx

Anyway, the boule below is based on the "Ode to Bourdon" Basic Country Loaf in Tartine, but I wanted to jazz it up so swapped some whole wheat for spelt.  

Whole Wheat & Spelt Boule

Bread Flour                  300                  60%

Whole Wheat               100                  20%

Spelt                            100                  20%

Salt                              10                    2%

Water                           400                  80%

Levain                         125                  25%

The levain was 50BF/50WW at 80% hydration, used at 6hrs.  Kitchen is about 22C/71.6F.

1. Autolyse - all flour and 380g water, left this to autolyse for 1hr.

2. Mix in salt, 20g water and 125g levain.

3. Bulk Ferment - did a total of 5 S&F every 30mins.  Total bulk was 5hrs.

4. Preshape and bench rest - 30min

5. Shape and proof - this went into a banneton and into the fridge for 12hrs.  Went straight from fridge to banneton, scored with scissors.

6. Bake straight out of the fridge at 250C for 25mins, try to turn down the ridiculous antiquity of an oven, give up, have a glass of wine, then take the lid off to bake for another 25mins, watch the oven at some point drop down to 240C (ish). 

I completely forgot to pre-heat my DO but found that the loaf rose quite well anyway.  Decent oven spring and evenly aerated crumb, I prefer it this way than with massive holes.  Taste was mildly tangy and more so this morning, with a warm, almost sweet nutty taste from the spelt.  The top is sprinkled with sunflower, sesame and pumpkin seeds which marry up well with the flavour of the bread.  Am tempted to try this with 25% spelt and 15% WW.  Excellent with spicy olive oil, even better with a thin slice of lardo di colonnata and a drop of balsamic. 

O Earth, that hast no voice, confide to me a voice!

O harvest of my lands!  O boundless summer growths!

O lavish, brown, parturient earth!  O infinite, teeming womb!

A verse to seek, to see, to narrate the.

A Carol of Harvest, for 1867. Walt Whitman (1819-1898)