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Spelt and Kamut Whole Grain Sourdough
Call it fear of the frisbee or dread of the doorstop, but I usually avoid using lower-gluten ancient wheats as the only flours in whole grain artisan-style breads. Normally, I either use these wheats for pan loaves or pair them with hard red or hard white wheats in order to have a dough with enough gluten strength to rise and be moderately airy inside. But for this recipe, I wanted to push my envelope and use only whole grain ancient wheat flours.
I picked spelt and Kamut for this project. I figured spelt could be the primary flour in the recipe because the all-spelt loaves I’ve made with Eric’s whole grain spelt recipe have turned out great, and because spelt’s flavor is smooth and nutty. I wanted Kamut in the mix too, because of it’s buttery, slightly sweet flavor and because the whole grain loaves of @j4m3s4j on Instagram look delicious. They’re made with a mix of spelt, Kamut, and hard white spring wheat. Both Kamut and spelt have less gluten strength than hard white spring wheat, but I was hopeful the bread would turn out delicious and not too flat.
Spelt on the left; Kamut on the right
In my recipe testing, I combined these wheats in two different ways: The first was low hydration and a moderate amount of starter. The second was high hydration and high inoculation. The latter loaf fermented faster and the crumb had some larger holes, however this wetter dough was much more difficult to shape. I folded and re-folded it probably six times before putting it in the proofing basket. This aggressive shaping seemed to work (it’s the batard in the photo below), but I recommend making the dryer dough unless you’re in the mood for a shaping challenge. I’ll include formulas for both.
The bread turned out quite delicious, with plenty of oven spring and a nice crumb; soft and slightly open–perfect for the grilled cheese sandwiches in the photo below. If you’re interested in seeing a sourdough bread made with only Kamut flour, check out this blog post.
In the future, I plan to test the recipe using whole grain durum wheat in place of Kamut. The two wheats are somewhat close genetically, and both have a beautiful golden color and somewhat buttery flavor.
Process: In my experience, effort and time are both good ways to soften the bran in whole grain flours and get optimal gluten development in a dough. For this project I chose to effort. I mixed the flour and water to autolyse the dough. I added the leaven and salt one after another, and I performed multiple rounds of stretching and folding as well as a round of lamination. Had I chosen to do a multiday but hands-off process, I’m sure I could have had a dough of similar strength. Depending on how the process length was achieved, the flavor and sourness could be quite different though. A long cold temperature fermentation, would likely make for a more sour bread, while using a very small amount of sourdough starter as in this Slow, Lazy Sourdough Bread process would probably be less sour.
Sourdough starter: When making these breads, I had just finished experimenting with different flours in sourdough starter. As a result, my starter was a 50:50 mix of whole grain rye flour and bread flour. From a gluten strength standpoint, this starter felt comparable to a spelt flour starter, which I worked with in this spelt ciabatta recipe. From a flavor standpoint, rye adds an earthy note. It’s up to you how you want to build your starter and what flavors you’d like it to add to the final bread. Spelt and Kamut will be the dominant flavors as they comprise 500 grams of the flour versus. 40-75 grams of starter flour depending on which formula you choose.
Baking: I wanted some insurance against a flat loaf, so I baked the doughs in clay vessels with side support. One loaf went in the round combo baker and the other went in an oval bâtard baker. In the end, they both had plenty of oven spring independent of the side support.
Spelt and Kamut Whole Grain Sourdough Bread
This whole grain sourdough bread has a mild nutty and buttery flavor, as well as a tender pliable crumb. It uses ancient wheat flours to achieve a lovely flavor and texture that appeal to whole grain lovers, as well as people who claim they don't like whole wheat bread.
Ingredients
Version 1: Moderate Hydration 80%
Version 2: High Hydration 84%
Instructions
Shopping List
Spelt and Kamut Whole Grain Sourdough