I’m still trying to hit the sweet spot on this recipe from Maurizio’s The Perfect Loaf. I’ve posted the recipe that I followed two blog posts earlier.
I didn’t extend the bulk fermentation this time as I believed that my starter was more active now than for the first bake which I felt was underproofed. After final shaping I did leave the dough in the banneton on the counter for 30 mins before placing it in my 3ºC refrigerator for its cold retard overnight.
Slap and folds were employed after mixing, and again I did three sets of coil folds and one lamination to build structure. Finally I’m continuing not to use any flour for pre-shaping or shaping instead using water which does seem to be working. I think when I tried water only for shaping months ago and had a really bad experience with it, I probably used too much water. Now I wet my hands and spread water on the countertop lightly and this seems to work.
I think it is an improvement on my first two bakes, the crumb isn’t as dense, could it be more open, probably but I happy with it as it is. The flavour of this still somehow is a bit sweet and I love it, best 50% whole grain bread I’ve made.
Hi Melissa, thanks for the compliment. I find that my skills and techniques are still improving, I’ve only been baking sourdough for less than 1 year and only getting 2-3 bakes per month so I still have a long way to go.
The hydration including the water used to wet my hands for the three coil folds is just over 80%. I tried this recipe at 84% and then over proofed it a bit and didn’t get a good oven spring. So I went back down and aimed for 80% and was able to get this good result.
I don’t mind repeating this recipe because I really like the flavour of it. I had only used spelt in the past for my sourdough pizza recipe because it really adds to the extensibility of the dough. In that recipe there isn’t as high a percentage of spelt as this one so I had no idea what the flavour of spelt was. Apparently I enjoy spelt.
Flavor and a good looking bread too – a keeper. Spelt is quite tasty, I agree. The bread I made was 89% hydration, ap and sprouted whole grain flour mix at 50:50. It was soupy dough but I shaped it into submission and the crumb was very tender. The white-bread contingent in my house devoured it.
Hello @Benito and @Fermentada,
Do you have any update to share? I have both sprouted Spelt and Kamut, as well as non-spouted of these two grains.
I would like to combine the non-sprouted and sprouted of these two grains in the bake. What hydration rate do you recommend? @Benito you mentioned you used 80% hydration, is this home milled, 100%, non-sifted?
I am trying to use heirloom/heritage and ancient grains only.
Thank you in advance,
A
My bake as you see above was not home milled flour but purchased already milled and they were not sprouted either. To the best of my memory I don’t recall them being sifted, I recall that they were whole stoneground. My memory of this bake is fuzzy at best now so I apologize, it was more than a year ago and many breads have been baked since then.
I assume that you’re planning to bake a spelt and Kamut loaf, no white flour? You might want to aim for 78% hydration and then bassinage to a higher hydration if your dough feels very firm or dry, it is easier to add than to remove water.
When using sprouted flours you can expect fermentation to go more quickly because of the activated enzymes in the flour from the sprouting. You can slow things down by using less levain or fermenting a bit cooler than you might be used to.
Thank you @Benito, I used 75% hydration rate with my last bake, the dough felt nice, a bit dry, but the crumb was not as nice as I used to get. I used a combination of sprouted and non-sprouted of these grains and a small percentage of pseudo grains as wells as einkorn. It maybe the added sprouted berries, it took away my nice crust!
Thank you again,
A
There are two hydration options. Go with the dryer one since you’re using large-scale stone-milled flour, which is a tiny bit less thirsty than countertop grain milled flour.
I’ve always had great luck with 100% sprouted wheat flour, so I would probably mix two doughs following the above recipe, one all sprouted and one all not sprouted.
Comparing the fermentation speed could be fun! And flavor too.
Here’s an all sprouted spelt I used to bake often-ish. I’m screenshotting and copying from an instagram post also forgive me if I’ve referred you to this recipe before!
One of my favorite “hundos” aka 100% whole grain breads is this sprouted spelt sourdough. It’s so delicious, and I invariably get a soft open crumb with a manageable 73% hydration.
Sprouted flour seems to ferment more vigorously, so you have to keep an eye on it until you’re familiar with it (even when you’re familiar with it). Case in point, I gave this dough a short 10-minute bench rest because it had blown up while I was frying tortillas last night. Final photo shows the end of the vigorous bulk fermentation.
450g whole grain sprouted spelt flour
330g water
100g starter (vary this based on your timing needs)
9g salt
Mix together all of the ingredients and cover.
Let rest a minimum of 30 minutes, then laminate the dough – an extra stretchy experience with spelt
Performed 2-4 rounds of coil folding throughout the bulk fermentation. (5 hours from mixing to preshape in my 78F+ kitchen.)
Preshape, bench rest and shape the dough.
Final proof. My dough went straight into the refrigerator for 12 hours.
Thank you @Fermentada
I have been pouring over both of these as well as other sites to come up with a good hydration rate, it looks like you used a higher hydration rate for non-sprouted.
I will follow up
Thank you again,
A
Sorry if I was confusing. In my experience, flour that is milled in a large-scale stone mill is a little less thirsty than flour milled in a countertop stone mill e.g. Mockmill.
In the end though, I’d say always trust in the dough feel during mixing over a suggested hydration.
I think the feel of the dough is the way to go.
I can bake rolls with all sprouted with pseudo grains inclusion and have good result. It is the loaf that I have trouble with, the gummy texture.
I am going to try your suggestion.
Thank you again,
A
I thought of another thing to add:
Spelt is so extensible that the more of it you use, the lower you generally want the hydration.
That’s why the Hundo Sprouted Spelt is so low hydration.
When I make it Un-sprouted I actually do the same low hydration.
And if you look at Eric’s Unsprouted Spelt, he’s even lower on the hydration (liquid honey factored in).
Thank you Melissa, I used north of 87% hydration. The dough was wet, it is in the oven. I read that Kamut is a thirsty grain and I have Kamut in the mix, 50/50.
The last bake the bread was too dry.
Thank again,
A
I didn’t get frisbee products, but I have no idea what crumb I will get.
I have had good luck with making the rolls 100% sprouted grains, gummy to slice, but the flavor is amazing.
I hear what you are saying about sprouted grains. I used the low 60s hydration for sprouted. This experience of mine contradicts what P Reinhart said in his Bread Revolution book. I was trying to push for higher hydration with sprouted grains and it wasn’t working, until you recommended to lower the hydration rate. With your suggestion, I got much better products.
However, with un-sprouted, even with 80% hydration, I ended with too dry and too dense products. I think it is the un-sprouted Kamut that demands a higher hydration rate.
I used 1/3 sprouted and 2/3 un-sprouted, the 1/3 sprouted included pseudo grains and the lower hydration such as einkorn for this bake. I will follow up with crumb shots.
Thank you for your help,
A
Here is a crumb shot!
You can see the gummy from the sprouted grains and I have pseudo grains in the mix, as well as other inclusions.
Any feedback is appreciated!
Might be too hydrated. If I was tackling a recipe like this, making adjustments for different flours being used, i’d drop the hydration till it’s too dry then slowly add in more water till it feels tacky but not sticky. Aiming for a tacky dough is a good estimate. Sticky to the touch but doesn’t come off in your hands and the dough holds itself together well. Also don’t forget if you include buckwheat and/or einkorn expect difference results.
