Orange Poppyseed 100% Stoneground Spelt Sourdough
I’ve had orange poppyseed in the back of my mind for quite some time and finally got around to trying it in this 100% whole stoneground spelt sourdough bread.
Whole stoneground spelt 453 g sifted yielding
47 g of bran scalded with 94 g of boiling water and left overnight in the fridge.
VWG 23.55 g
Water 341 g water and 15 g for bassinage
Salt 10.47 g
50 g of poppyseeds
Zest of 1 small-med orange
Overnight levain
16 g starter + 16 g brown sugar + 25 g water + 47 g whole spelt
In the morning breakdown the levain in the water. Add salt and dissolve. Add all the sifted spelt and VWG and mix until there is no dry flour. Rest for 10-15 mins. Do French Folds until good gluten development. Add bassinage water and incorporate. Add poppyseeds and orange zest. Stretch and fold until well incorporated. Do a bench letterfold and place dough in a bowl in the proofing box at 82°F.
Do coil folds every 30 mins stopping when the dough is strong and doesn’t really spread. Four coil folds were done. Allow to rest until 40% growth.
Shape and place in a banneton and allow to rise to 60% growth.
Preheat the oven to 500°F and place the dough in the freezer to firm it up for scoring. Place cast iron skillet in the oven. 30 mins later fill a metal loaf pan with a towel with boiling water and place in the oven to pre steam the oven.
When the oven reached 500°F flip the dough onto a sheet of parchment paper. Brush off rice flour and score. Brush water onto the dough. Transfer the dough to the peel and load into the oven onto the baking steel. Drop the temperature to 450°F and pour 1 cup of boiling water into the cast iron skillet. Bake with steam for 25 mins. After 25 mins vent the oven removing the pan and the skillet. Drop the temperature to 420°F and baking for 20-25 mins turning as needed.
Index of my bakes 
Comments
The hydration is too low at 90%, I think that caused the crumb to be more closed than my last bake. The zest of one medium orange is not enough, in order to taste or smell the orange zest the next time I’ll need to use the zest of two or three medium oranges. The flavour and texture of this bread is lovely though, this is the first time that I can recall that I’ve added poppyseeds to a loaf and I love the flavour along with the nuttiness of the whole spelt.
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Benito - The crumb actually looks amazing and I can only imagine the aroma of this beautiful bread. With spelt, I find it tricky (or impossible may be a better word) to tune the hydration to get open crumb and a moderately tall loaf. I'm surprised that you have complaints about the crumb.
-Sumi
Thank you Sumi, my last spelt loaf had a better rise and crumb than this one. It had 96% hydration and had a much more upright profile. Had I never baked that one I wouldn’t have been disappointed with this one. Here’s my last 100% spelt loaf for comparison.
Benny
Benny, this looks so great. Yozzause baked with poppyseed and orange recently too. What a great flavor combination, it sounds so refreshing. The bread is aesthetically beautiful and I bet it eats even better. You set a high bar and keep raising it.
-AG
Thank you AG, so nice of you to comment here and on Breadtopia. When I toasted the bread today I could just barely taste the orange. I think the combination as Derek posted is great together but I didn’t use enough orange zest. I will have to bake this again with changes.
Benny
Benny, this bread looks gorgeous. The color of the crust is beautiful and the crumb is perfect.
Thank you Marta, it was a delicious bread although I couldn’t taste the orange so will have to try this again with much more orange zest because I think I’d like to taste the orange zest.
Benny
Beautiful looking loaf Benny. I can imagine the orange-poppyseed combination and can see how that would compliment the spelt.
I think I’ve asked you this before, but are you sifting with a #40 screen? Would you see benefit from doing something similar with Kumat, Durum, Red Fife, etc.? I’m doing a lot of home milling, but I have done any sifting/scalding yet.
Thank you Troy, orange and poppyseed along with spelt are great together.
Yes I sift with a #40 sieve, I think it ends up being 85% extraction. But of course I add all the extracted bran back to the dough as a scald. Yes I do think it is beneficial for other whole grains as you can fully develop the gluten before adding the bran which would otherwise interrupt the gluten.
Benny
I agree with the other comments, Benny...I would be thrilled with that crumb for 100% spelt. I love poppyseeds in just about anything, especially bread--I always add them to my (near) weekly seeded loaf. I usually add them during a lamination though with the other seeds. Did they incorporate ok during S&Fs or was it a little challenging?
What are your thoughts on the orange zest in the dough as far as gluten interactions? I thought I have read somewhere (probably here, LOL) that orange/lemon/grapefruit zest can have detrimental effects on gluten structure. I've used a scant amount of orange juice to toss with warmed dried fruit before adding it to dough without any ill effects, but I've never tried a direct add of zest. I wouldn't think the zest from a small or medium sized orange would amount to that much, especially since you didn't do a long refrigerated retard.
Any who...the crumb looks lovely, light and very symmetrical. Orange and poppy seed is always a great flavor combination!
I think I would have been happy with this crumb and oven spring had I not had a previous bake with much better LOL. I’m never satisfied Leigh. 😜
Funny you should mention it, someone on IG also said that she has seen the addition of orange zest causing tightening of the gluten. In fact, she says she now adds it later during bulk. That could also have led to some of the less open crumb seen in this bake.
I didn’t find the poppyseeds hard to add. I added them along with the orange zest to the brans scald just before adding them to the dough. Stretching and folding them in and finally doing some French folds to get them very evenly incorporated.
Benny
Another excellent bake Benny. I was going to ask you if the orange peel was enough but you already answered the question. I’ve tried getting a nice fruit flavor in the past and was not able to get there so I’ll be waiting until you perfect it for me 😉. That’s a mighty fine crumb for so much whole grains. Nothing to sneeze about 😁.
happy baking!
Ian
Thanks so much Ian. I’ll let you know if I ever perfect this LOL. The orange was detectable when I had this as toast today, but still not as prominent as I’d like. I’m thinking that doubling or tripling this would be better.
Happy Baking back to you too.
Benny