Oops, forgot the photos
Thanks Geoffrey! Is this emmer or barley? I’ve seen pictures of Greek barley bread before, they looked just about the same. I’m sure the taste makes up for the flat shape - will give it a try soon!
It is 100% whole grain kamut. I have done whole grain barely and whole grain emmer goth, and they works about the same but have different feeling dough and of course different flavors when finished. I love all 3 but the kamut yields the easiest to work with dough. All 3 require a steep walled container to prevent spreading but given that they will rise a bit and give pretty good oven spring; I generally use a loaf pan for them or actually a couple “mini-loaf” pans because I so love the crust and that way there is more surface area 
This might be a good place to mention my super secret, awesome, incredible crust technique.
When you place your loaf inside pre-heated Dutch Oven, there is always a bit of space between it and the wall of the oven. Right before I put the lid on, I pour into that space 1/2 to 2/3 cup of water. (Careful as it spits super heated steam back at you immediately!) Quickly clap the lid on and go on as usual. The weight of the lid ( I think mine is several pounds at least) means that you will even have super heated steam under pressure like a steam injection oven! After 15 minutes I remove the lid and bake uncovered for another 35 minutes (450 degrees F). That much time is more than enough to blow off any remaining water/moisture and solidify the bottom part of the loaf. You end up with a very very crunchy, crusty, almost bagel like crust of supreme deliciousness. Just be careful not to crack a tooth 
Yours must be a very different experience, probably because of the coarseness of your flour as it looks like I can see its coarse grain in your pictures. I have a 100% Kamut loaf featured in just this post, looks very different at 80% hydration. Rises reasonably well, but not quite as well as Turkey Red. Your crust may also be one of a kind, with this procedure. Thanks a lot for sharing!!!
Definitely a bit of a coarse grind but also ground caraway seeds. But yes, I think what you see in the photo is bits of bran etc that do not get powdered or sifted out.
Wow! I had sort of forgotten that a flat loaf of same total volume has a LOT more surface area so that much more crust. 
I was a chewing fool for breakfast today. 1/2 the loaf (started w/ 400 grams flour) w/ a couple ounces of wild caught salmon and a bit of spicy mustard on top, just like one thick slice, not cut up in any way at all. A very happy re-discovery.
Hi Dean,
So I tried my first spelt loaf at 66% hydration following your suggestions. It was pretty flat before going in the oven, but the oven spring was quite good as you can see. Crumb was nice too, but the taste was the one that left me totally addicted. Maybe it helped that I had some older stiff starter in the fridge; reminded me of butter croissants. Totally addictive! Thanks again for your advice.
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Looks good, Dan! Yes, the flavor is in a class of it’s own. I get a lot of requests for spelt bread when I give samples to my customers. I’ve also been working with whole grain hard amber durum and it makes a pretty tasty loaf…sweeter and smoother than spelt. The grain is harder and the bran grinds much finer. A little bit more gluten in it, also. In addition, the bread is a much lighter color. It’s a rather thirsty flour and needs 75-80% hydration at a minimum. One thing about durum is that the starch matrix is different that other types of wheat flour which results in a lower G.I. Will post a photo when I get the process down more.
I’m trying an Emmer loaf right now. It’s supposed to be the ancestor of Durum wheat, so it may be similar to what you get from your Durum (in my opinion it has a little more of a grassy smell, somewhat close to Einkorn but not quite that pronounced). The spelt loaf was wonderful, but I still love rye more.
Dean, you seem to sell some of your bread too. Is there any way I can learn something about that from you? I have so much fun baking I’m thinking I’d like to get into it, but am not sure about how best to proceed. This may not be appropriate here in this forum (or at all); but if that’s ok with you I can ask Eric to give you my email.
Hello Dan…sorry for the delay in responding. I haven’t worked with emmer yet, but do plan on it at some point. I’ve also been experimenting with rye more lately and have come up with some pretty tasty loaves. I make it with 50% rye, and about 10% other whole grains…whatever I happen to be using in my starter. The balance is King Arthur Bread Flour (which has the best gluten development of any flour I’ve tried) I also add 1% caraway and 0.4% cardamom. I come up with a very flavorful loaf, slightly chewy crumb with a wonderfully chewy crust. It’s great with brined anchovies & cultured cream cheese.
I’d be happy to share what I’m doing with my business aspects, but would rather do it via private messages. I’ll send you one with my email address so we can talk outside the forum.
Thanks Dean, I look forward to talking to you. Also, I wanted to ask you about the stiff 2-month old starter you said you were using out of the fridge. Is that made with whole-milled spelt flour or otherwise? It is my experience that whole flours tend to a less structurally stable starter. I’m not sure in my case I could keep such a starter longer than three-four weeks.
Dan, did you get my PM here on the site? Sent you one yesterday.
Sorry…unless I have no idea how to find that, I didn’t get anything yet. I supposed it should also come to my email, but anyway I looked into my forum inbox and there seems to be nothing there yet.
Hi Dean,
I read your exchanges with Dan.
May I reach out to you for some tips?
I also don’t know how to PM from this site, can you help?
Thank you,
a
