Honeyed Spelt, Kamut and Bulgur Sourdough 

I’ve been making quite a few porridge breads lately so for a change, I used a soaker. This made for a much wetter dough. I’m happy that I decided to hold back 50 g of water and see how the dough was before adding it in. It wasn’t needed so I left it out of the recipe. If you include the soaker ingredients as part of the flour, the hydration is close to 85%. My dough would have been soup with that extra 50 grams! 

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves 

Soaker 

60 g Spelt flakes

60 g Kamut flakes

60 g bulgur

60 g honey

300 g boiling water

Dough

700 g unbleached flour

150 g freshly milled Spelt flour

150 g freshly milled Kamut flour 

650 g filtered water

30g local yogurt

22 g salt

250 g 100% hydration levain (3 stage)

Two mornings before:

1. Take 18 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 18 g of filtered water and 18 g of wholegrain flour. Let sit at cool room temperature for the day. 

The two nights before:

1. Feed the levain 36 g of water and 36 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature for the night. 

The morning before:

1. Feed the levain 72 g of filtered water and 72 g of strong baker’s flour and let rise until doubled (about 6 hours). 

2. Place into fridge until the next morning. 

The night before:

1. I use homemilled flour so if you are doing the same, measure out the stated amount for each type of flour in berries or grain, and mill it on the finest setting of your home mill. If buying flour, get the freshest that you can and try to ensure that it is wholegrain. 

2. Place the required amounts of the wholegrain flours in a tub and add the unbleached flour to it. 

3. Cover and set aside.

4. Combine all of the soaker ingredients together in a heat proof bowl and cover. Let soak overnight.

Dough making day:

1. In the morning, take the levain out of the fridge to warm up before being used in the dough.

2. Using a stand mixer, mix the water with the flour, and mix on speed 1 until all the flour has been hydrated. Let this autolyse for a couple of hours. 

3. Once the autolyse is done, add the salt, the yogurt, and the levain to the bowl. Mix on speed one for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on speed 2 for 7 more minutes.  

4. Add the soaker to the mixing bowl. Mix on speed 2 until it is evenly distributed. This takes two or three minutes.

5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot (oven with light on). 

6. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 30 minute intervals and then more 2 sets at 45 minute intervals, and then let the dough rise to about 30%. Total bulk was about 4 hours and 30 minutes for me

7. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~830 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 30 minutes on the counter. 

8. Do a final shape by flouring the top of the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule.

9. Sprinkle a  mix of rice and all purpose flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight. 

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside. 

2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.