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SPELT SOURDOUGH
Difficulty level: Medium-Hard
Time: 10 minutes preparation + 3-3.5 hours to prove and bake
Spelt is an ancient grain.
It does contain gluten, however, the gluten contained in spelt is water-soluble, more easily broken down, degraded by heat and mixing action, than the gluten contained within wheat. For this reason, many people find it easier to digest spelt, rather than wheat.
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I like to use spelt as it is a more nutritious grain in comparison to wheat.
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I strongly encourage you to buy whole spelt grain in husk and mill it yourself in a food processor to create your wholemeal spelt flour. Not only does this give you a better bread, but also because flours often sold in Australia and New Zealand as 'wholemeal' or 'wholegrain' do not have to be entirely made up of the whole grain, only a proportion of it does. Therefore they are often blended with highly processed white bleached flour to save on production costs.
Ingredients
3 cups of whole spelt grain (please read above as to why I suggest the whole grain to begin with)
1 cup filtered water
1/2 cup sourdough starter (see my starter recipe here)
1 pinch of sea salt
Additional flour for sprinkling your board
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Method​​
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Add the sourdough starter in a small bowl. Add the water and mix until combined.
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In a separate large bowl, combine spelt flour and salt. Make a well in the centre of dry ingredients.
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Pour in starter and water mixture and fold into the dry ingredients using your hands or a dough scraper. Combine until a dough ball forms and is well combined. It will be a little sticky.
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Allow the dough ball to sit in the bowl in a warm place with a clean tea towel covering, for at least 30 minutes. This process is called 'proving' and allows the good bacteria in the dough to ferment and produce gases that allow the bread to rise. The mixture should double in size after 30 minutes.
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In the meantime, dust your benchtop or worksurface with a little spelt flour to stop it sticking. Prepare a flat surface such as a chopping board or baking tray, where the bread is able to prove for a second time.
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Remove the expanded dough from the bowl onto a work surface. Flatten dough ball into a 2cm thick round shape.
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Take the top edge and fold into the centre of the round.
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Do the same with the bottom edge.
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Continue to do the same with the sides of the round so it is folded as if a piece of paper.
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Turn the folded dough over. Mould sides around the edges with the sides of your hands, so to form a ball. Tuck in the the bottom seams and openings underneath the dough. It should appear like a rounded mound with a flat bottom.
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Place the dough on the prepared flat surface covered with parchment paper and place in a warm space, covering with the tea towel. Leave for 1.5-2 hours. Again, it should grow in size.
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Lightly dust a little more spelt flour on top of dough. Lift the dough by the parchment paper into a dutch oven with lid.
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Bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, remove the lid of the dutch oven and leave in oven for a further 5 minutes to further brown the top of the bread.
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Remove the bread from the oven and allow to sit in the dutch oven for a further 5 minutes before removing.
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The bread should sound hollow when you lightly tap on the bottom. That's when you know it is done!
