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No Knead 50% Spelt Sourdough
Spelt is an ancient wheat, with cultivation dating back to at least 5000 BC. It has a mellow, nutty flavor and is known for being more extensible (stretchable) than elastic (springing back). This characteristic makes it easier to manage at moderate or low hydration — dryer dough — and perhaps helps it develop a relatively open crumb structure even when used by itself and unsifted, such as in this whole spelt sourdough recipe.
For this project, I used 50% whole grain spelt flour and 50% bread flour with a no knead method. I wanted to make this ancient wheat extra approachable for beginners by including bread flour, using a simple hands-off process, and hydrating the dough just enough that the crumb was somewhat open but the dough was still easy to shape.
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Figuring out a manageable hydration was a follow-up in curiosity to the no-knead 50:50 whole grain yecora rojo flour and bread flour test bake I did in this blog post. Yecora rojo has relatively strong gluten; and even as a no-knead recipe, it was manageable at 84% hydration. In contrast, although spelt is high in protein, it doesn’t generate as strong a gluten structure. Therefore, the recipe below suggests a range of 73-77% hydration, which I found to be just inside the realm of manageable with Breadtopia’s bread flour and spelt berries milled in my Mockmill. As with all bread recipes however, flour brand, milling approach, ambient humidity and more will affect how wet your dough feels, so it’s always best to start with a little less water and work your way up to (or past) the recipe amount.
All-in mixing with 77% water.
Active gluten development, which is described in detail in this article, can strengthen the gluten in a dough and make the dough easier to handle, particularly in faster fermenting processes and doughs made with stronger (higher gluten) flours. But active gluten development takes time and ties you to being available to work the dough periodically, often over several hours. Moreover, stretching and folding can make tracking the expansion of the dough a bit more tricky for beginners, because each round of stretching and folding de-gases the dough a little. So for this recipe, I let the dough ferment untouched, opting for ease of tracking fermentation over what I believe would have been a slight boost in loaf height and crumb openness.
Bulk fermentation in a straight-walled 2-quart bucket, about 7 hours for the dough to approx. double and develop nice aeration. Had I done several rounds of stretching and folding of the dough, I would have aimed for approx 75% dough expansion.
The fermented dough was bubbly and loose feeling, but it pre-shaped into a nice boule.
About 20 minutes at room temperature and 13 hours in the refrigerator. Had I stopped the bulk fermentation earlier, I would have taken the final proof farther (more time at room temp and more visible change in the appearance from start to finish).
Huge score bloom, perhaps indicative of the extensibility of spelt
I believe that for most recipes whether to do active gluten development on a dough is a matter of the baker’s preference. Any no-knead recipe, including this one, can be supplemented with rounds of stretching and folding, coil folding, lamination…etc. Likewise, any recipe with numerous gluten development maneuvers can be made no knead or be reduced to just 1-2 rounds of dough manipulation. The convenience is sometimes worth the difference in oven spring, and that difference can range from impressive to unnoticeable, particularly in slow fermenting doughs.
In the future, I’ll repeat this dough formula but do some active gluten development to see how the loaf differs. I’d love to see your results if you try this formula, with or without active gluten development.
No Knead 50% Spelt Sourdough
This 50% spelt sourdough bread has a soft nutty flavor and a lovely crispy crust. The method is no knead, and ideal for beginners and advanced bakers alike who are looking for a simple and healthy ancient wheat sourdough bread.
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No Knead 50% Spelt Sourdough