Cracked Spelt Levain

• 62g bread flour (11%)
• 196g all purpose flour (35%)
• 96g fresh milled spelt (17%)
• 146g fresh milled hard red (26%)
• 120g 100% hydration, rye levain (11% rye 11% water)
• 415g warm water (74%)
• 280g strained, fermented, cracked spelt berries

1/2 hr autolyse 

mix in levain and salt

slap and fold for fifteen minutes

after a brief rest fold in the cracked spelt (strained/drained)

3 sets of stretch and folds at 1/4 hour intervals

an additional 2 sets of stretch and folds at hour intervals

preshape

15-30 minutes later shape and proof at room temp for 4 hours

retard for 15 hours

bake @ 500 for half and hour then an additional 45 minutes or so at 460.

If using a dutch oven these baking times may very dramatically.

If you have a warm house the fermentation times will very, dramatically. If you have a nice room temp I would suggest knocking down the amount of preferment.

Also you all may notice that my percentages sometimes have some fractional wiggle room, my scale goes in one gram increments and I want to keep my percentages free of decimal points so there ya go.

I have been having a heck of a time getting good results this winter due to a 60ish degree house, so this time around I bumped the preferment % up a lot more then I would of otherwise enjoyed. Also I gave it a much longer room temp proof then I would of if my house was ten degrees warmer.

This bread turned out real nice tasting, sort of nutty from the fermented cracked spelt but probably a touch more acetic then I shoot for due in part to the long cool/cold fermentation.