Many of my recipes come from chetday.com, which provides free emails chock full of recipes and ideas, and offers a section for requests, in case you are looking for a recipe that someone might have.

Bread

SOURDOUGH SPELT BREAD
Courtesy "Country Breads Of The World"
Sourdough starters capture the yeasts naturally in the air and the flour used. Use organic flour [never bleached] and spring [not chlorinated] water. Some sourdough starters will not interact with commercial flour. The starter is alive and must be fed and will take on your characteristics and your conditions. You always save a piece of sourdough for your next batch. Place it in a dish with a covered lid in the refrigerator. If you like a well-risen loaf with a mild flavor, feed the starter every day; for a stronger flavor, feed less often and allow a longer time for the dough to rise. Don't let the starter go over 5 days without being fed.
A good starter should smell "milky" or have an "apple- like" smell and look bubbly. If it smells bad or is moldy, throw it away and start over. To revigorate a tired starter, discard half of it and refeed the other half.
Starter: 
6 tablespoons organic wholegrain spelt flour
6 tablespoons lukewarm water

First refreshment: 
1/4 cup organic wholegrain spelt flour
2 tablespoons lukewarm water

Second refreshment: 
1 2/3 cup organic wholegrain spelt flour
1/2 cup lukewarm water


Raisin mush

1/3 cup organic [preferrably] raisins, golden or dark
3 tablespoons boiling water



To make the bread:

3 1/2 cups organic wholegrain spelt flour
3/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
About 1 cup lukewarm water 
A baking sheet, lightly floured



First make the starter. Mix the flour and water
together in a small bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and
leave for 2 days in a warm, but not hot, place free of
drafts. The mixture will start to ferment and bubble
and will develop a sweet apple-like smell.


Stir in the flour and water for the first refreshment.
Cover and leave overnight.


Measure 3 1/2 ounces of the starter [discard any
excess] and mix with the flour and water for the second
refreshment to make a soft dough. [I didn't have a
scale and used the whole starter and the bread turned
out wonderful] Leave to ferment, covered, in the
kitchen for 4 hours. This is now your sourdough
starter.


Most of this starter will be used in your first batch
of bread. Keep what is left in the fridge in a covered
container for your next batch, refreshing it as above
for the second refreshment, in the same proportions
every couple of days. Give it a final refreshment 4
hours before making bread and leave it to return to
room temperature, so that it is vigorous.


For the mush, steep the raisins in boiling water for 30
minutes. Then put into a blender and whiz into a fine
mush or puree. Measure 10 ounces of the starter [
again, with no scale, I guessed] and put into a bowl
with the raisin mush, flour, salt, and lukewarm water.
Mix all the ingredients together to make a soft, but
not sticky, dough - the amount of water you need to
bind the dough will depend on the thickness of your
starter and the flour you use.


Turn out onto a floured work surface and knead
thoroughly for 10 minutes. Shape the dough into one
large round loaf or two smaller ones. Dip the shaped
bread into a little extra spelt flour to coat all over.
Place on the prepared baking sheet. Cover loosely with
a sheet of plastic wrap and leave to rise in a warm
place until double in size - allow up to 5 hours.


Toward the end of rising time, preheat oven to 450
degrees F.


Slash an H across the top [or your initial] with a
sharp knife. A dull blade will tear it. Then bake for 1
hour for a large loaf and 40 to 50 minutes for two
smaller ones. The bread will be done when it sounds
hollow when tapped underneath. Cool on a wire rack. The
bread will keep for a week. Once it has thoroughly
cooled, it can be frozen for up to a month. Date bread
when freezing.



Return to Main Page

Go Back to Recipes