Ingredients
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Sponge
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50g/1.7 oz Rye flour
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200g/7 oz Spelt Flour
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250g/8.4 oz water
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3g/ 1 tsp instant yeast
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Final Dough
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500g/ 4 cups Spelt Flour
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all of it poolish
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30g/ 1oz fresh yeast
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340g/ 11.5oz water
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40g/ 2 tbsp Date honeyregular honey can be used as well
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17g/1.5 tbsp Salt
Directions
For most people bread making sounds like a difficult task, making Spelt bread? sounds like bakery stuff.
Truth is that there is nothing to it, if you stick to the instructions and general rules for the bread dough as presented here I guarantee a great crusty spelt bread with amazing flavor, much better than the bought bread.
In order to get a deep flavor for the bread we use ‘sponge’ or ‘starter’ dough. it’s a dough we make 12-15 hrs prior to the actual spelt bread making, it is left outside (in summertime it can be left in the fridge) and we expect to see a kind of fermentation in the dough thru the bubbles which will appear on the batter.
The method we use in this spelt bread
For this spelt bread we use autolyse, the biological meaning of autolyse is self-digestion, when referring to bread its the destruction of the cell using its own enzymes. I’ll get into autolyse method with more details in the future but in short, the autolyse means that we are letting the dough rest without the action of yeast for about 30 minutes, this allows the gluten make ties passively and develop a much more stable structure. it also allows us to add more water than usual creating a much runnier dough, it’s not an easy dough to work with but the outcome is fantastic.
There is something about bread, the smell of dough baking in the oven that really brings you back to forgotten memories, handling dough is very emotional task, you shape it as you please and determine how it will look at the end of the process, I look at it as a creation and it really is, try it and understand what i’m talking about.
Enjoy this spelt bread because it will disappear fast
Steps
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1
Done
12-15 hours
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starter dough (Polish)dissolve the yeast in the water and add to the flower mix, cover with a plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 12-15 hrs. we are waiting for the polish to bubble. |
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2
Done
2 hours
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prepare the main doughmix only the flour and the water for a few minutes, no polish is added at this stage, autolyse remember? cover with a plastic wrap and let rest for 30-60 minutes. add the polish, date honey and yeast to the autolyse dough and mix for 5 minutes, add the salt and mix for another 8 minutes. |
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3
Done
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final resting and shapingat this point you can chose if to divide the batter into 2 loafs or keep as one. spread a bit more flour on the dough and knead for 2 minutes, shape the dough into a loaf pressing it down and rolling it. place dough in a flour dusted pan, i used 8 1/2x4 1/2x2 1/2 inches (21 x 11 x 6 cm) but you can use whatever you want as long as the dough will not pass more than 3/4 of the height of the pan because it will rise. let the bread a final rest of 60-75 minutes |
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4
Done
230c/446F
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bakingpreheat oven to 230c/446F and place a bowl of water in the bottom of the oven. we are not scoring this bread, it has is indeed risen quite and we don't want it to lose its height. when the oven reach its temperature slide the loafs into the oven and remove the water. |
