Spelt Sourdough Baguettes 78% Hydration
I’m working on improving my spelt baguettes by slowly increasing the hydration 1% at a time trying not to overshoot and have a disaster LOL. At only 9% of the total flour, whole spelt should give some good whole grain flavour while also helping the dough’s extensibility. Also this should help achieve an open crumb which is quite desirable for baguettes. I don’t think I’m quite there yet with this bake. I also had some trouble releasing one of the baguettes from the couche causing some degassing. As well, by using my Ankarsrum Assistent to develop the dough I have been increasing the final rise. This time I started the preheat of the oven when the dough had a total rise of 60%. During the oven preheat, the shaped en couche baguettes were cold retarded in the fridge. I believe next time I will increase the hydration to 79% and start the cold retard at 65% rise.
I have been dropping the temperature of the oven sooner and more and like the effect on the crust. I have been able to get a thinner crust this way which I love for my baguettes.
Overnight levain
Built and fermented at 76°F to be ready in 10-12 hours.
Fermentolyse - mix 359 g water with all the levain, salt 10 g and diastatic malt 5.3 g to dissolve, then add AP flour to combine. Rest 5-10 mins. Slap and fold x 100 or use mixer to knead until moderate gluten development, then add hold back water 27 g gradually working in until fully absorbed then slap and fold x 100 or use mixer until mod-full gluten development.
Bulk Fermentation 82*F until aliquot jar shows 20% rise.
Do folds every 30 mins doing 2-3 folds
Could do cold retard at this point for up to overnight. (Aliquot jar 20% rise)
Divide and pre-shape rest for 15 mins
Use spelt flour for couche
Shape en couche with final proof until aliquot jar shows 60% rise then cold retard shaped baguettes en couche for at least 15 minutes for easier scoring.
Pre-heat oven 500*F after 30 mins add Silvia towel
Transfer to peel on parchment
Score each baguette and transfer to oven bake on steel
Bake with steam pouring 1 cup of boiling water to cast iron skillet dropping temperature to 480*F
The baguettes are baked with steam for 9 mins. Decrease the temperature to 450°F and continue to bake with steam for another 4 mins. The steam equipment is removed venting the oven of steam. The oven is left at 450ºF but convection is turned on and the baguettes bake for 8 mins rotating them halfway. The oven temperature is then dropped to 375ºF and the baguettes rotated again if needed and baked for another 3-5 mins to achieve a rich colour crust.
Comments
Here’s the section of one of the baguettes showing the effect of prying the dough off the couche.
IMG_1703.jpeg
Benny - another really nice set of baguettes. Great blistering and scoring. The flour combination sounds tasty too. I also found that spelt flour adds to the extensibility of the dough, I'm adding these types of flours to my pizza dough experiments.
A really nice bake
Tony
Thank you Tony. My partner now says he prefers the flavour of these baguettes over my Yorkville baguettes which are all white flour. Spelt is so great for extensibility so I’ve been adding it to pizza doughs as well.
Benny
Even with your sticking issue these still look pretty awesome. Your crumb looks excellent for baguettes just like a good one should.
Spelt can certainly be tricky and it's easy to be fooled and add to much hydration. I find whenever I have gone too far with the hydration it's been way too slack to handle and it performs much better at a more moderate number. Since you are using such a small % of spelt it probably won't make that much of a difference in regards to the hydration.
Either way I would be happy to dip these in some good olive oil or grill them and add some nice fresh cheese.
I hadn't seen a post or comment from you in a little while so I was getting worried you had abandoned us :). Nice to see you are still churning out such amazing breads and baked goods.
Best regards,
Ian
Thanks always Ian. It is always a bit frustrating to have dough stick to the couche a bit so that your hard work (and the hard work of the microbes) gets damaged.
You’re right about going too high with the hydration on spelt, the dough can get too floppy and kind of pancake too. You know me though, always a sucker for punishment, I’ll tinker slowly with the hydration for kicks.
I’d been working doing some locums this summer so got a bit behind on my posting and baking.
Happy baking
Benny
That crumb looks terrific. Actually, everything does. In what way weren't you satisfied?
I'm surprised at the low amount of levain, just about 10%. Do you think that contributes to the crumb, or are you just looking for a longer ferment time for flavor?
TomP
Thank you again Tom. I’m always tinkering with my formulas. I think the fermentation and hydration can be adjusted to get a more open crumb, but we’ll see when I get a chance to bake baguettes again. We have a fair bit of traveling coming up so it may be a while before I can bake baguettes again.
I believe most of my lean dough formulas use only about 9% prefermented flour otherwise I do find they ferment too quickly. With baguettes especially, I don’t want them fermenting too quickly since they take a fair bit of time to divide, pre-shape, rest, shape and score, they could easily over ferment.
Benny
The baguettes look really lovely. The whole spelt definitely makes a nice addition. Nowadays, I always do a fermentalise with wheat flours.
Cheers,
Gavin
Thank you Gavin. It surprised me when my partner said he actually preferred these baguettes now with the spelt over the all white baguettes that I have made many more times. So with that in mind I will tinker with the formula. Because I’ve been using stiff levains of various kinds almost exclusively now for some time, I end up doing a fermtolyse.
Benny