Blue Emmer & Spelt SD with 30% Sprouted Spelt
It has been quite a while since I last baked with spelt. Spelt and emmer are similar in terms of their characteristic in dough. Working with them is always a pleasant experience for they produce a silky (read: not gluing to your hands like rye…) and extensible dough.
Temperature has been hitting 33°C these days, so it wasn’t at all surprising that the levain (1:5.5:5.5) got aerated within 3.5 hours. I didn’t plan very well so it had to go into the fridge for 3 hours before use.
Blue Emmer & Spelt SD with 30% Sprouted Spelt
Dough flour | Final Dough | Levain | Total Dough | |||||
g | % | g | % | g | % | g | % | |
Flour (All Freshly Milled) | 300 | 100 | 267 | 100 | 33 | 100 | 303 | 100 |
Sprouted Spelt Flour | 90 | 30 | 90 | 29.70 | ||||
Whole Spelt Flour | 60 | 20 | 60 | 19.80 | ||||
Whole Blue Emmer Flour | 150 | 50 | 150 | 49.50 | ||||
White Whole Wheat Flour (Starter) | 3 | 0.99 | ||||||
Whole Rye Flour (Starter) | 3 | 0.99 | ||||||
Hydration | 36 | 100 | 243 | 80.20 | ||||
Water | 207 | 77.53 | 33 | 100 | 243 | 80.20 | ||
Vital Wheat Gluten | 7 | 2.33 | 7 | 2.62 | 7 | 2.31 | ||
Salt | 4 | 1.33 | 4 | 1.50 | 4 | 1.32 | ||
Starter (100% Hydration) | 6 | 18.18 | ||||||
Levain | 72 | 26.97 | ||||||
Total | 550 | 205.99 | 72 | 218.18 | 550 | 181.52 | ||
Sift out the bran from dough flour, reserve 33 g for the leaven. Soak the rest, if any, in equal amount of water taken from dough ingredients.
Combine all leaven ingredients and let sit until ready, about 3.5 hours (28.5°C).
Roughly combine all dough ingredients except for the walnuts. Ferment for a total of 3 hours. Mix on low for 2 minutes at the 30 and 40 minute mark. After the bulk, shape the dough then put in into a banneton. As the temperature was high, I put it in the freezer for 1 hour before retarding in the fridge for 10 hours.
Preheat the oven at 250°C/482°F. Score and spritz the dough. Remove the dough from the fridge and bake straight at 250°C/482°F with steam for 20 minutes then without steam for 25 minutes more or until the internal temperature reaches a minimum of 208°F. Let it cool for a minimum of 2 hours before slicing.
This bread was just slightly sour, perhaps because the starter had been recently refreshed. The levain and final dough were only fermented briefly at room temperature as well. With the mild acidity, the maltiness of the bread really comes through. It has a nice sweet aroma that resembles malted drinks like Milo, Ovaltine and Horlicks :)
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Lotus leaf (sorry no bamboo leaves) wrapped Zongzi. Skinned mung bean, long-grain glutinous rice, and… marinated beef tendon lol
Happy Dragon Boat Festival!
Comments
Love the crumb you're able to achieve in this loaf. I cannot seem to get emmer around here but I do like spelt.
The tiny fish bring me back to my childhood, I literally haven't had those in several decades. Of course I love the lotus leaf wrapped glutinous rice, one of my favourites.
Benny
if you've got the chance. Although it wasn't the case with this bread, emmer usually produces a tart loaf. Its taste reminds me of rye, yet it behaves like spelt in dough. This is a major plus for me since I like the aroma of rye bread but ain't as interested in its stickiness... Blatantly, emmer isn't the most accessible grain for us all, let alone blue emmer. I ordered emmer together with other grains in bulk from Breadtopia.
You have to bring tiny fish back into your life! It's seriously additive however cooked. I can't get enough of the sticky fish we have in Korean BBQ all-you-can-eat. The salty fried fish and peanut snack served in where we go for dim sum is always demolished in minutes. Baby anchovies are my favourite among all species. The aroma of lotus leaves pairs so well with rice. Every now and then, I find myself craving lo mai gai and steamed lotus leaf rice. No, I ain't telling anyone that I'm keeping a catty of dried lotus leaves at home, ahem.
Thanks for the comment, Benny.
I wish it would warm up here, I'm ready for a little summer. Today it's raining (again) and about 17 degrees :-( Your bread looks amazing, as well as your food. I can't find Emmer around here either, but have some spelt - I don't use it often because I don't have a good understanding of how it works. You mentioned that you use sprouted spelt flour, what does this do for the bread?
Also, do you have somewhere you share your other recipes? They look amazing.
which isn't necessarily a bad thing. I like variety, it's what that gives rise to bread of multiple characters. One tip for working with spelt is that hold off from adding more water at first. Somewhat like einkorn, it might seem that spelt can take up quite some water. Not so fast, the dough slackens up as the flour becomes fully hydrated. Don't ask me how I learnt about that :) It's best to use it in company with "stronger" grains like wheat, kamut and durum in my opinion.
Sprouting does similar things to all grains. It boosts their enzymatic activities, contributing to enhanced sweetness but weakened dough structure. Amylase is activated so that sugars are hydrolyzed from starch. It's not all about sweetness though. Sprouted grains smells and tastes much more complex because of who-knows-what compounds generated in the process. Their flavor is distinctive from non-sprouted grains. Proteases degrades gluten on the other hand, so there would be a looser gluten matrix. The use of sprouted grains poses a trade-off between flavor and dough structure. I tend to keep their percentage within 50% of total flour for this reason.
Thanks for the compliment. I ain't sharing my food recipes anywhere at present. After all, they are often put together randomly, depending on my mood and what I have lying in the fridge. That said, you are more than welcome to ask for any recipes you want. I'd be happy to share them here :)
Not sure if you'd enjoy our weather here... I can barely breath behind the mask during this hot and humid summer!
Your crumb looks perfect for this style of bread and I can almost taste the nuttiness from this combo.
Your cooking is inspiring as always. Would love to see a formula for that Naan hybrid!
Happy Baking.
Ian
This is a purely IDY-leavened 70% hydration dough. I first mixed together briefly AP flour, water, 1% salt and 0.2% IDY. An hour later, the dough was mixed by hand for 3 minutes or so. Then, it was left overnight to double, around 10 hours at 27°C. Then, I shaped it loosely on a flour surface and immediately stretched it into a 0.5 cm thick disk. The dough was transferred to a preheated, dry pan on medium heat. It was cooked covered for a minute, flipped, then covered again for another minute. After the first 2 minutes, I pressed its edge gently to the ensure even browning. It was flipped for once or twice more til colored and lightly puffed up. I recommend wrapping the naan in a towel for a few minutes before serving. This let it soften a bit in its own steam for a spongier texture. Not sure if this qualifies as a formula. The dough was, again, casually mixed up :)
Glad you like the bread and food, Ian. Happy to see you popping up more often lately!