11/24/13 - Poor Man’s 100% Spelt Brioche
Hello fellow fresh loafers. Hope you are all doing well, and I wanted to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving in advance if you are in the States! Anyway, sorry for the long absence from TFL. I have been busy with changes in my life and have not had much time to bake or blog about it until about now. I have been pondering some things about bread baking which I will not reveal as of yet, but in my absence my wife and I had done the Fast Metabolism Diet, which basically says that you cannot eat the following foods for 28 days: alcohol, caffeine, sugar, dairy, wheat, soy, corn… If you want to read up on it, be my guest… It’s actually not a bad diet, but the food list and eating schedule is a pain to follow… Anyway, that got me thinking… What if I start baking breads without wheat… The non-wheat flours that are available to me easily are rye and spelt… Anyway, the story of this bread is that a few weeks ago, I baked a 100% spelt bread that I absolutely hated… Sour, dense, dry, yuk! I’ll spare you the details. Now on to the fun stuff… Here is my formula below:
11/24/13 - Poor Man’s 100% Spelt Brioche
Spelt Sourdough - 1
50g - Organic spelt flour (Arrowhead Mills)
100g - Water
5g - Rye sourdough starter (100% hydration)
155g - Total starter weight
Spelt Sourdough - 2
155g - Spelt SD - 1
100g - Organic spelt flour
255g - Total starter weight
Final Dough
350g - Organic spelt flour
100g - Eggs (2)
75g - Plain almond milk
25g - Succanat
12g - Salt
2g - IDY (instant dry yeast-1/2 tsp)
112g - Unsalted butter
255g - Spelt SD - 2
929g - Total dough weight
Instructions
11/22/13
8:50am: Mix spelt SD, cover and let rest.
9:25pm: Add 100g spelt flour to spelt SD - 1 to make SD - 2, mix, cover, let rest.
12:30am - Refrigerate spelt SD - 2
11/23/13
10:45am - Weigh out all ingredients for final dough, placing wet ingredients (not including butter) in large mixing bowl first, then dry ingredients. Mix will with wooden spoon, then plastic scraper for a few minutes into shaggy dough, cover and let rest.
11:15am - Take stick of butter from fridge, pound with rolling pin to make more pliable, mix butter into dough by hand. Dough will shred and look like a mess. When butter is incorporated, pick dough up and throw down into mixing bowl for a few minutes. Form into ball, place in lightly oiled container with cover, cover and let rest. Do not add any extra flour when working with dough…
11:45am - Stretch and fold (turn dough) in container, cover and let rest.
12:05pm - Stretch and fold (turn dough) in container, cover and let rest.
12:30pm - Stretch and fold (turn dough) in container, cover and refrigerate.
6:00pm - Stretch and fold (turn dough) in container, cover and refrigerate.
9:00pm - Shape dough, place into greased tin, cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate overnight.
11/24/13
10:10am - Take dough out of refrigerator, place on counter. Place rack on middle rack with baking stone. Preheat oven to 380F - 400F.
10:50am - Bake for 1 hr in tin, then the final 15 minutes out of tin on baking sheet. Bread is done when internal temperature reaches 190F. Cool completely before cutting and eating… At least 4 hours if you are impatient…
Notes: I baked this in a 4.5” x 4.5” x 4.5” pullman pan available from browncookie.com
Small Pain de Mie Pullman Bread Pan with Lid, 4.5”.
http://browncookie.com/products/small-pain-de-mie-pullman-bread-pan-with-lid
This bread turned out much better than I had expected and had an amazing amount of oven spring. When I put the dough in the tin, it filled up about 2/3 of the way. The dough reached the top of the pan during the overnight proof and rest out on the counter before baking…
The next time I bake this, which will probably be soon, I will increase the hydration slightly, and add more butter, maybe twice as much…
Enjoy!
Tim
Here are the gratuitous bread shots... All 360 degrees of it!
1 slice in
2 slices in... Yum!
Comments
spelt is wheat. Nice brioche though, haven't seen many spelt brioche at all :)
Spelt is an ancient wheat so it carries most of the common attributes (makeup wise) of wheat. None the less. That is a wonderful looking loaf of bread. And some have said those with wheat issues should try eating spelt. I believe this is hit and miss as some still have issues and others not. Is it soft and fluffy like a white brioche or a bit heavier???
Regardless I bet it's quite yummy and especially on your diet its gotta be a treat
Josh
Yes, spelt is a type of wheat, but is has not been GMO'ed to suit industrial bread manufacturing. It has much less gluten than the wheat used in bread flour and whole wheat flour commonly found in the supermarket. Anyway, the working properties of spelt are a little different than wheat flour as there is less gluten, and the gluten that is present is more fragile, and cannot take as much liquid and kneading.
The bread is a little heavier than a white brioche but when it is toasted, it has a wonderful light texture probably due to the butter... It is especially yummy with peanut butter and grape jelly, or butter and jelly, or probably pate, but I don't have any of that around right now...
For now, I am happy with it. Until the next loaf...
Tim
Didn't even know it was possible. Looks like it came out great. I want that pan. Thanks for the link. -Varda
Thanks Varda! I didn't know it was possible either... The pan is great. I can recommend them, and they ship pretty quick. I may get another pair before the weekend is over... I'll make a posting of what I will call a spelt cake when I have a moment. I tried making pandoro with 100% whole spelt flour with lots of butter, sugar and eggs... Stay tuned...
Tim
What a great idea, but sadly spelt is wheat, just an old variety. Wheat has not been GMO'ed for human consumption - at least in the USA. Wheat has been hybridized for centuries using traditional genetic techniques - like every other food plant on earth. I believe Monsanto (and possibly some others) have genetically engineered, using gene splicing, some wheat varieties and planted them in test plots about 10 years ago though.... so who knows we might have to live with them someday - but no worries today. But, it also seems some of this 10 year old wheat did get planted again last year somehow.... if news reports can be believed.
Your spelt brioche is awful nice! Happy Baking.
.
Nice loaf, Tim! very healthy too. It is an excellent example of how good a whole spelt bread can be.
-Khalid