I've never managed to make a "rustic" (whatever that means<g>) loaf with
Spelt, the only success I've had is with Ficelles, hardly "rustic" but a
basket of these thin, light, stick breads is a very appetising sight.
This is not a "recipe" in the usual sense of the word, more a report on one
of my experiments but it will tell you how to make a small Spelt loaf that
is not a brick.
The following is a concatenation of 3 posts in alt.bread.recipes.
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>On Mon, 22 Nov 2004, Wcsjohn wrote:
>> I made a batch of Spelt Ficelles today and, for the first time, obtained
>> an open, light, not big-holed but what I would call a proper bread
>> structure instead of the previous results which had a few large holes in
>> a mass of heavy crumb. The crust is much thinner than previous attempts
>> and the bread is actually a pleasure to eat.
>> pix at
>> http://hometown.aol.co.uk/Wcsjohn/images/spelt01.jpg
>> http://hometown.aol.co.uk/Wcsjohn/images/spelt02.jpg
>> Is this any better than the results other Spelt experimenters are
>> obtaining? If so I'll post details and go further down the path
>> I've started.
> They look very nice, John! Yes, better than most all-spelt breads I've
> made. I am surprised at the color, though. Molasses?
>Dave
Just spelt, water , salt and yeast. The spelt is stoneground, organic,
wholegrain from a company called Doves Farm - they sell a very fine range
of flours, at premium prices and, admittedly, premium quality. Details.
I started this experiment because I find a lot of references to spelt
gluten being fragile and quick to develop but quick to degrade. I dabbled,
a couple of years ago with minimal mixing methods applied to wheat flour
but gave it up when I realised that for really fine results, wheat needs a
lot of input and intensive gluten development. The results of my dabbling
were encouraging enough to try the technique of minmal mixing with spelt.
So, 250 gm spelt, 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp instant yeast and 200 gm warm water,
mixed until coherent with a wet spoon, total mixing time < 1 minute.
Cover and leave to double. Scrape out with a wet spatula or bowl scraper
onto a heavily floured counter, sprinkle more flour over the top and roll
the dough as gently as possible so it's all flour coated. Cut into 2 and
stretch to fit 15" baguette pans lined with 4" wide strips of parchment -
you can buy 4" wide parchment on a roll, used for lining the walls of cake
pans.
Leave, covered, to become very bubbly, in the ones I've posted pics of a
FEW small bubbles were breaking the surface, and bake at max turned down to
230C after 5 minutes. After 15 minutes total time, peel the parchment off
the ficelles and bake for another 5 minutes upside down.
Extremely simple - I would very much like you or anyone to repeat this
experiment, if it works for someone else I'll pursue the idea further.
Love
John
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Any questions just ask, on or off list.
John
