February 2, 2022 - 9:03am
spelt and rye
Hi all
I'm trying to make a multigrain sourdough and it calls for some spelt flour in the blend. I don't have any but I have rye. Can I use that instead? I just don't want to have to run out to buy spelt. And I have so much rye to get rid of.
Thanks
LL
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Spelt and Rye are different and will change the recipe if substituted. If it's a large percentage then expect very different results in the way how it handles and the final loaf. Other things may have to be adjusted like the hydration too. If this is the case then better to substitute for more what flour. If it's a small quantity like 10% or less you may get away with it without noticing too much difference in the dough but i'm sure it'll add a lot of flavour.
Spelt has gluten, because spelt is a variety of wheat, rye does not.
If your wheat flour is really strong and your rye flour is white rye, which is as mild tasting as spelt, then yes, you can substitute.
Otherwise, just use wheat, maybe pastry wheat flour if you have any, instead of spelt.
Rye does have gluten but it’s about a third of wheat and spelt. As Abe said it depends on how much spelt you are subbing for rye in the formula. Rye tends to soak up more liquid than spelt so you have to adjust accordingly.
Yes, rye has gluten, meaning it is not safe for a gluten free diet, but you cannot wash it out of rye dough as a cohesive mass, cannot develop it by kneading, etc.
In that sense it does not contribute to the dough strength the way spelt flour does and should be substituted with caution.
Thanks for everyone's input. I wanted to use up my rye AND not have to run out to buy spelt so that's why I was wondering. To be safe , I ended up just using whole wheat. This is the result. I'm quite pleased. This is 20% ww and 10% bread flour and the rest is apf. 70g 10grain cereal soaker . I'm happy with this result because the original formula asked for bread flour not apf. I suspected my apf is quite strong so i took a chance . AS you can see I gave up on the ear and just scored down the middle
multigrain.jpeg
From oven spring to crust and crumb... simply perfect!
Thanks Abe. That means alot coming from you
One day when I slept in and thought I overfermented my dough was when i realized I had been under fermenting all along. I was going by the dough almost doubling guideline before. It seems my dough can more than double and yield a strong final product. The problem is , I bought 2 quart cambro containers for bulking and they're not big enough now.
I think many of us early on under ferment. Then once we realize that, we then start pushing it and over ferment for a while. The crumb looks great LL.
Benny