100% Spelt bread

This is my first attempt to bake a 100% spelt loaf, consisting of 80% flour and 20% wholegrain. I quite like it already both taste and the looks, but since this is my first attempt I reckon it can become even better. I based this recipe on the the ‘Imsil bread‘, basically all I did was adjusting the hydration and it needed less kneading. These breads were baked in a ‘normal’ oven without a stone.

Recipe

Overall formula (for 4 breads of ~ 350gr)

Hydration: 65%
Pre-fermented flour: 17,5%
Total time: 24 – 28hrs

Ingredient	Weight	Percentage
Spelt flour	673 gr	79,2%
Whole grain spelt flour	170 gr	20%
Whole grain rye flour (from mature SD culture)	7gr	0,8%
Water	550ml	64.7%
Salt	15 gr	1,8%
Total	1415 gr	166,5%

Because I usually keep only a single sourdough culture (made of 100% rye), I always end up with a tiny bit of rye in my bread. If your sourdough culture is from wheat or spelt, your obviously do not have to add 7gr rye to the dough.

Pre-ferment

• Make the following pre-ferment with 100% hydration and let it ferment for 8 hours at ~ 24°C/76F) or overnight at room temperature (~ 20°C/68F). Make sure to cover it so it doesn’t lose any water by evaporation.

Ingredient	Weight	Percentage
Wheat flour	150 gr	100%
Water	150 gr	100%
Mature sourdough culture (Rye basis, 100%)	15gr	10%
Total	315 gr	210%

• The pre-ferment is rather liquid. It does the job, but I like to experiment with a lower hydration (for example 60%) pre-ferment.

Making the final dough and baking

• Aim for a temperature of the final dough of ~ 24°C. Mix the following ingredients and knead by hand for 5-10mins.

Ingredient	Weight
Wheat flour	530 gr
While grain wheat flour	170gr
Water	400ml
Salt	15gr
Pre-ferment	300gr
Total	1415gr

• The next step is the bulk fermentation. For this bread it takes about 2½ hours and benefits from 3 stretch and folds (at 40 min intervals).
• After the bulk fermentation divide in the dough in 4 pieces of ~ 350gr and pre-shape them for a round loaf.
• After a 10 min bench rest, shape them as a round loaf and give them a tiny bit of a rectangular shape. The latter you can accomplish by instead of pulling and rotating 90°, rotating 180°. But only in the very last seconds of the shaping.
• Place the shaped dough in well floured bakers linen and let rest for the final fermentation for about 2,5hr at 25°C.
• Transfer to baking sheets and score them with a single stroke.
• Bake at 220°C/432F for about 30 mins with steam. Let the steam escape after 20 mins.

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