I usually order seeds from a store that offers a variety of products I haven’t used before. Last month I got some spelt flour and this was time to use it.

Zazwyczaj kupuję ziarna w sklepie, który sprzedaje mnogość produktów, z których dotychczas nie korzystałem. W zeszłym miesiącu nabyłem trochę mąki orkiszowej i nadszedł czas na jej wypróbowanie.

Spelt is a very old variety of wheat, but I heard it should be handled more gently than wheat and gives a delicate dough. I followed recipe form J. Hamelman’s “Bread” (sources).

Spelt bread with honey

Planning

It will take 12-14 hours to prepare the levain, 2 hours bulk rise, one hour final proof, 40 minutes baking. You should fit into 19 hours.

Ingredients

Levain

• 230 g dark spelt flour
• 150 g water
• 10 g salt
• 0.5 g fresh yeast or 0.2 g instant

Final dough

• 450 g dark spelt flour

• 230 g strong wheat flour

• 500 g water

• 10 g salt

• 12 g fresh yeast or 4 g instant yeast

• 40 g honey. I used buckwheat which made the bread darker and dominated the flavour. I would recommend using something milder to taste something different, although this one was very tasty with cooked meat

• Levain

  Spelt bread with honey

Preparation

1. Mix yeast with water, add flour and mix until you get a smooth levain. Leave for 12-14 hours in room temperature

2. Mix all final dough ingredients except the levain. I recommend starting with 90% of the water. Mix this for 3 minutes on lower speed and gradually add levain. If the dough is too stiff, add remaining water. Finish mixing for 3 minutes on higher speed

3. Leave for two hours to rise. Do a stretch and fold after one hour

4. Shape a loaf or two smaller ones and put in dusted baskets. Put the baskets into plastic bags and set aside for one hour for final rise

5. Set your oven to 230 C without fan (know your oven). If You’re using a stone or iron cast sheet, give it 40 minutes or so before placing bread on it

6. Put your loaf in the oven, add a lot of steam and bake for 40 minutes. When you see them getting a dark colour, begin to gradually release steam. The honey will cause the crust to get quite a dark colour, but if you feel it’s happening to fast, reduce the temperature to 210 C

   Spelt bread with honey – the crumb

If you have two baskets, I recommend dividing the dough as there​ was too much dough for my 2kg banneton. It also went flat in the oven, but then rose nicely during baking.

I added all the water from the recipe straight away, but it feels that it was too much. Next time I’ll use 90% first.

The crumb was very soft, much softer than whatever I usually bake. After all, it’s a yeast only bread. The crust was also very thin, as I was afraid I would burn it.

Spelt bread with honey

In terms of flavour, as mentioned, buckwheat honey dominated it. Next time I would probably use acacia honey.