After having read the formula for “multigrain” bread from Zachary Golper’s book, which used a special starter involving cracked oats and rye in addition to a normal spelt liquid levain, I was inspired to try making this bread with the rolled oats I had on hand. The “bread flour” is a standard hard red winter wheat, roller-milled, unbleached, ~11.5% protein. It’s a pretty good flour, and the best I have.
SPELT LEVAIN: Whole-spelt flour 100% / Water 100% / 20% Starter (I used my standard stiff starter). 75F for 10 hours.
SOAKER: Whole-spelt flour 30% / Oats 70% / Water 120% / Starter 20% – 75F for 12 hours.
FINAL DOUGH: Bread Flour 85% / Whole-wheat flour 10% / Whole-rye flour 5% / Water 75% / Salt 2.5% / Levain 30% / Soaker 50%
I bulk fermented 3 hours at 79F.
I mixed the levain, 66% water (per total flour), and the flours using the slap-and fold method to a medium development. I added a bit more water (4%) and continued. Then I added the remaining water (5%) and the salt. By this point the dough was feeling overhydrated… oops. A couple vigorous folds later and I was getting my hopes up! But then I added the soaker at about an hour in and that was more liquid… By shaping time, the dough had enough strength to shape (albiet gently), but the final loaves still lacked quite the oven spring I wanted. The flavor, however, was great (it had a fairly robust lactic flavor, but not overly sour. It was also balanced by the oats’ sweetness), and the crumb was fairly custardy, although it toughened a bit the next day.
The oatmeal-spelt loaf is on the right, some basic country bread (young levain, retarded for 18 hours at 45F) is on the left. I was hoping for a bit more open on the porridge, and the volume was a little lacking, too. Honestly, I was more bummed by the volume than the cell-structure on the oat loaf.
What happened is that I had forgotten to account for the extra liquid added by the spelt levain- remembering this, and I would have hydrated the dough at 71%. The end hydration would still end up being 75%, which is about the level of slackness I was hoping for. (I often do bake mostly-white bread with 80%+ water, but those breads use a young levain with low protease activity.)
The chase continues!
Walker
breadcrumbs 