Spelt and Multigrain Loaf
I bought a boatload of spelt berries and have been using them bit by bit in all of my bakes, but I decided to try a loaf that was 45%+ whole grain using 25% spelt, hard red winter wheat (Redeemer) and rye. I tried the Full Proof Baking method of making two separate doughs, one whole grain and one white, and then laminating them together. I also divided the dough into 2 loaves during the lamination stage, which Full Proof Baking recommends. I've always divided during the shaping stage.
For the whole grain dough, I did 95% hydration with 4 hour autolyse and for the BF I did 80% hydration and 1 hour autolyse. It was only 69 degrees in my kitchen so I let the bulk ferment go for 6 hours. Maybe the crumb could be a bit more open, but the flavor combo of the flours is really outstanding!
I have two questions I am hoping my TFL friends can help answer:
1) As in the loaf on the left, I get a nice ear and rise, but then my loaf will also split on the top of the loaf. Is this a result of poor shaping?
2) I recently bought a Mock Mill and when I mill the spelt, the flour feels pretty fine but I still get some big pieces of bran. Can this be avoided or am I going to need to sift them out?
Thank you!
T85 15%
Redeemer Red Winter Wheat 5%
Spelt 25%
Rye 5%
Bread flour 50%
Comments
The crumb looks gorgeous, pass the butter please!
My loaves always get cracks when I use a high percentage of rye. but you used a low percentage of rye?Maybe it's the scoring method? Maybe there wasn't enough space for the top of the loaf to grow so it cracks opened?
I'll try making a additional score next time and see what happens! This is a recent phenomenon for me and tends to happen with higher hydration doughs. Not sure if it is a coincidence or not! The mysteries of baking bread...
is that the cracking issue is a shaping issue and that you'll have to sift the flour out. And, did you use coil folds during bulk? If not that would help build structure. Great looking bread!
I did lamination and then 4 coil folds. The coil folds were definitely needed given the high hydration, but the dough felt like it had good strength by the end.
Big cracks just mean you needed more scoring. You made a nice circumferential score, which allowed the bread to expand up, but the top crack shows that the upper part of the loaf needed to expand side to side.
i'm of the school that says random cracks are just fine. But if you're of the school that wants all bursts/cracks to be on score lines, then just add a shallow and/or short X type score across the top in addition to the one around the circumference. Shallow/short on top will still mean most of the expansion will happen on the deeper score around the edge, but gives a breaking point if that part of the loaf demands more expansion.
IMO, oven spring is always a good thing, unless it was just one big bubble that needed popped.
I will try adding additional scores next time. When I've scored a cross on the top of the bread recently I didn't have this issue so I'll try that again. As you say, it doesn't affect taste so it doesn't reallllllly matter.
"recently bought a Mock Mill and when I mill the spelt, the flour feels pretty fine but I still get some big pieces of bran. Can this be avoided or am I going to need to sift them out?"
After all the softening done to the bran pieces, due to the autolyse, the bulk ferment, and the final proof, and with the high hydration, can you still detect the bran pieces in the final baked product?
If they are not detectable, great. If they are detectable, you say the loaf is "rustic" and call the pieces a "cracked wheat" add-in. ;-)
Not detectible. I'm debating getting a seive, but I have no room for more gadgets!