Whole Spelt Sourdough
When you think of 100% whole grain spelt bread, what images come to mind? Bland 1970′s era health food? What people with dietary restrictions must resort to? Lots of hard and challenging work? A door stop?
Those were largely my impressions until I found this spelt bread recipe to be as delicious and easy to make as it is nutritious. So when the inspiration strikes to get virtuous with your eating habits without sacrificing sensory pleasure, give this one a whirl. You’ll enjoy that flaky, buttery croissant all the more when you rotate this spelt recipe through your bread baking line-up now and then.
A bit about spelt: Spelt is an ancient variety of wheat with its roots in the Fertile Crescent some 9000 years ago. It is more widely used in Europe where it’s known as dinkel in Germany and farro in Italy. While higher in protein than commonly used wheat varieties, the nature of its proteins results in less gluten formation when making bread dough. Spelt is renowned for its health benefits. Many people with wheat allergies or sensitivities can enjoy bread made with spelt flour. What really helped make a fan out of me, however, is the mellow nutty flavor that spelt delivers. Read more about the Wonders of Spelt.
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The Ingredients:
530 grams (about 5 cups well fluffed up) whole spelt flour
350 grams (~1+1/2 cups) water
10 grams (1+1/2 tsp) salt
3 Tbs honey or sugar or 2 Tbs agave
1/4 cup sourdough starter
Follow the instructions in the video.
Bake at 450 for 45 minutes or until internal temp is 195-200.
Spelt/Kamut Variation
Miscellaneous Notes: I’ve baked this bread several times since making the video and have found a few things you can vary in order to adapt the recipe to your time schedule.
Spacing the stretch and folds out by as little as 10-15 minute works just as well as the 30-60 minutes mentioned in the video. Three or four stretch and folds at 15 minute intervals seems pretty optimal.
Most of the time I mix up the dough in the evening, let it sit out overnight, and bake it the next morning. But I’ve also mixed up the dough in the morning and then immediately refrigerated the dough in a covered bowl until just before bed time. I then took it out to proof at room temperature until morning. This worked very well too.
You could probably also leave the dough in the fridge for up to a two or three days until you’re ready to bake. Since the dough continues to proof in the fridge (just very slowly), you’ll want to be careful not to let the dough sit out too long after removing from the fridge or it may over-proof. Since I haven’t tried this yet, you’ll have to take a good guess on the timing and let us know your experience.
Another relatively minor thing I’m doing differently now than when I shot the video, is I’m leaving the lid on the baker for the entire 45 minutes. I find the crust gets plenty brown and crusty this way.
Wheat Berries
Recipe Variations: There are, of course, endless ways to vary the recipe. A mix of spelt and kamut flour also produced an excellent loaf. Kamut is another ancient variety of wheat known for its nutritional value and naturally sweet and nutty flavor. The “official” kamut web site has some very interesting information.
Kamut flour has different moisture absorbtion properties than spelt, so if you’re playing around with different combinations of grains, you’ll also have to adjust the amount of water used. The following worked well:
300 grams spelt flour
230 grams kamut flour
360 grams water
Same as video for everything else.
{ 203 comments… read them below or add one }
Dear Eric, Please HELP…..Just took my first Spelt Breads out of the oven: I was so excited, but they are as flat as a pancake. ( See photo ) The measuring, mixing, folding and proofing overnight were picture perfect, just like your video. When shaping the loaves this morning, the dough was extremely wet and had to use extra spelt flour just to be able to handle it. I used my round and oblong baskets, dusting them generously with spelt flour and rice flour. (They raised up about 2″ ) When dumping the dough into the preheated La Cloches, I had to scrape one of them out of the basket.
When measuring ingredients, I used my scale. Should I experiment by adding more flour or using less water? My goal is to make good-looking loaves to give to my friends. By the way, the regular NKB’s are *picture perfect. ( *Photo )
P.S. Your videos are excellent..I will watch them again and again before starting my next few batches of spelt bread dough.
Thank you for your outstanding service. Bread baking is rewarding, fun and therapeutic . *May your bread always rise and the crust be crispy. ( Peter Reinhart )
[img]IMG_5271.JPG[/img][img]SpeltBred1.JPG[/img][img]1_SpeltBread2.JPG[/img][img]1_PB140028.JPG[/img]
Slothbear – good suggestion. I just added right below the ingredient list.
I found and bought a bunch of Arrowhead organic whole spelt flour, but now I can’t try the recipe again until Passover is done. Arg!
Eric — could you add the baking times & temps to the text of the article? The rest is easy to remember after a couple of trials; the text makes a great reference.
Hi Tim. Please email the photos to me and I’ll add them to your post. Thanks.
Well, I have just made my second spelt sourdough. The first one was a bit flat, but I don’t have a clay baker, and I’m awaiting delivery this week. I very much enjoy the flavour, it really is satisfying.
But this second loaf I wanted to vary a few things. I have now found some measures of ‘cups’, and in this second loaf I have put what I think is a half cup of starter, not the quarter cup that Eric suggests. I also have added three tablespoons of agave. I wish I knew how to get photos onto this forum, then I’d show you. But, suffice to say, the loaf is very dark and smells delicious!
The proving time was a bit reduced on the first one, but the room temperature at proving has been virtually the same – 18 celcius (~64F).
I can’t wait to get the rumertopf! This second loaf I plopped into a baking dish (metal), and slashed the top.
I have also baked a wholemeal loaf using the same recipe as per the spelt loaf, but using two tbsp of agave but again half a cup of starter. Gonna be expensive using that agave! I’ve used nearly half the bottle I bought last week.
Thanks so much for another great recipe and video. I was so anxious to try it, I didn’t notice that I had white spelt flour, not whole spelt. I used the recipe exactly, and the dough was a little wet. I did the 4 evening folds, then the overnight, then… kind of forgot about it until late afternoon. It was chilly in the house, and while the dough expanded a bit, there were only a few large bubbles.
I couldn’t face slopping the wet mass into a basket, so I plopped it into a 5″ x 10″ loaf pan. After a couple hours in the oven with the light on, it had grown by maybe 1/3 — just to the top of the pan — not very energetic. I baked at 400 degrees for about 50 minutes (200 degrees on the instant thermometer), and was amazed at the oven spring.
After cooling completely, I cut in. It’s late and I thought, heck, I’ll just eat one slice as I write this review. But I had to go back for a 2nd slice before I finished writing. It looks and tastes nummy.
Eric, Did my first spelt loaf yesterday, using a rye/wheat starter, and it is an absolutely beautiful loaf, great flavor, perfect sourdough, simply a wonderful loaf of bread! Man, it does seem like a long time ago that you sent me my first sourdough, remember that? Sure have been a few loaves of bread baked since then!!
Marie and I celebrated our 60th wedding anniversary March 4, and we are looking forward to 60 more! Well, guess we will accept as many as we get, huh?
I used a Chinese sand pot, glazed interior, which I did soak before placing in oven. Picked this pot up at a Thrift shop for 3 bucks! Glazed lid, and lid has a small steam vent hole, worked very well, and have a beautiful 2 lb loaf to prove it!
Cheers, old Doug in Nanaimo BC
Eric, or anyone, can you tell me what the weight of ‘one cup’ of start is, in grammes? I don’t have any measuring devices that give ‘cups’.
Thank you.
Hi Sandra, yes, prices are relative, and postage for heavy items like flour will always be a major factor. Out of interest, spelt flour here, locally, cost me about £6 per three kilos – I think that’s around the $9 US, but that’s in a shop, not posted.
Tim. I guess because I am not in the uk I think the price is high. I pay $8-10 for 25 lbs of ap and bread flour. It just seemed high to me. But thank you for the heads up on prices worldwide. The shipping price is higher that the price I pay for bread flour. I don’t know. Thank you.
Sandra, that actually looks like quite a good deal from here.
I’m in the uk.
The spelt flour from purity is $32.00 for 25 lbs plus $17.00 shipping. Just too much money. There must be another way.
This morning I baked my whole grain spelt loaf. I added my own Canadian twist by substituting two tablespoons of maple syrup for the agave. I don’t have a La Cloche, so I decided to try baking the loaf in a parchment-lined terracotta flowerpot. Fortunately, I have two identical pots and I used one as my proofing basket while the other one was preheating in the oven along with a terracotta saucer which was to be my lid.
Like Eric, I found that I didn’t need to remove the lid/saucer for final browning. The bread browned quite well–a little too well, especially on the bottom. So, next time, I’ll try placing the flowerpot on top of my baking stone to help protect the bottom and maybe reduce the temperature a bit. Haven’t cut into the bread yet because it’s still cooling on the rack. It does smell good!
Can’t wait to bake my first loaves of spelt bread. Had a difficult time finding spelt flour. The local healthfood store had only one bag for over $3.00 lb. After doing an extensive WEB SEARCH, I found Purity Foods and VITA SPELT. I purchased 25lbs. for $ 34.00 + S&H.
http://www.purityfoods.com They specialize in spelt products and have the best prices. HAPPY BAKING . Kristine
P.S. Eric, I love your site . Is there group therapy for bread addicts? LOL
Hi Tim,
Most of the time I just use my white flour starter for this otherwise all whole spelt recipe. It’s a small percentage of the recipe and so much easier to take care of just one starter. If you want to feed your white flour starter with some spelt flour, that’s fine too. Like I say in the video, it’s just a question of how much of a purist you want to be.
I’m not sure what you’re asking about absorption rates. If you follow the above recipe it will work out. If you use a 1/4 cup of while flour starter instead of 1/4 cup of spelt flour, it won’t noticeably change the results.
We’ve been using Spelt for a couple of years now, due to most of my family’s intolerance to wheat. I use a machine-kneader and I just adapted my favourite whole-wheat bread recipe. You might need more spelt flour than you usually would with whole wheat flour. It’s hard for me to judge, because we’re grinding the flour just before we mix it, which makes it really fluffy, so of course we use more cups of flour for that reason.
Also, when we grind it ourselves, the bran pieces are fine, and the flour tastes so much better!!! (The already-ground spelt and whole wheat flours start to get a strong taste. Fresh-ground is SO much better!)
Just remember that the protein/gluten in spelt seems to be more fragile than wheat, so you don’t knead as long. For example, for white bread (wheat flour), you usually knead 15 minutes, let ‘rest’ 15 minutes, then shape loaves.
With the spelt (yeast) bread, I ran the machine 5 min, rest 5, knead 5, rest 5, knead 5, rest 15, then shaped the loaves and let them rise in the pan, then baked as usual. The bread was wonderful, surprisingly light, and we love the natural, almost ‘nutty’ taste of the spelt.
My favourite Whole Spelt recipe:
1 tbsp. traditional quick-rise yeast soaked in 1/2 c. warm water, 1/2 tsp. honey (let stand 10 min till foamy)
3 cups hot water, add 1/4 c. butter or margarine, 1/2 c. honey, mix till melted
add 3 1/2 c. spelt flour and mix 3 min. (to get the gluten ‘started’), then add 1 egg and the yeast mixture, mix till blended
Mix 3 tsp. salt with the first 2 cups of spelt flour, and mix into dough, then keep adding spelt flour till the dough is a nice consistency (you should be able to touch it briefly with your fingers without sticking, and if you’re using a machine kneader, the dough should be cleaning itself from the sides of the bowl. Don’t make it too dry, though. I bake mine in regular bread tins 15 min at 425F, 15 min 325F, and it has a nice, browned but not too thick crust.
Enjoy!!
Now, I’m going to try BreadTopia’s sourdough method above!!! I’ve tried sourdough spelt bread 4 times now, and it gets better each time – but still quite ‘heavy’, but I think from his video above that I’ve been leaving it too ‘wet’, and kneading it too much so I’m excited to try his method above!!!! Thanks so much for the video, it’s way better than just reading about it!
Lorna
thanks,,,
very nice and delecious bread its sure healthy
we try it as soon as possible
thanks again
Hi Eric, Another great video and recipe, thank you! I baked this loaf today and can see why you’re so enthusiastic about it. Very tasty and amazing crumb for 100% spelt flour. I’m going to tweak timing and temperature a bit next time – my loaf was done (202 degrees internal) at 30 minutes at 450 in an oblong La Cloche. The sides and bottom were very dark, probably because of the sugar ( honey). FYI, I bake all of my no kneads at 450 and I think you usually start out at 475 or 500 so my oven may be running a bit hot.
For you bakers looking for spelt flour, try health food or organic foods stores. In the Seattle area, PCC Markets , Madison Market & Whole Foods all carry it in their bulk foods section .
Hi Eric
I was wondering if you would advise me if I could use my ‘ordinary’ white flour starter with this spelt loaf recipe?
I am planning on taking some of my leaven and mixing it with some spelt to make another starter – would this make sense?
What I’m a bit concerned about is that if the spelt has a different absorbsion rate to white flour if I won’t end up with something far too dry, or even far too wet.
My current recipe for sourdough uses 80% water to 100% flour.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this.
Tim
Some people place the sides of a spring form pan (those baking pans with the bottoms that come out) directly on a stone. Of course the dough is shored up this way. I haven’t tried this myself, but it sounds like a good idea.
I use a dutch oven for almost all my NKB and it has been fine ..one day when the prices come down I’ll treat myself to a La Cloach I wanted to know if using a stone you can control the spread…. any thoughts
Hi Sandra. Ask your grocer to get it.
Hello Angels,
Easier is good!
Sure, we ship to Spain. If you add a proofing basket to the shopping cart, you’ll find Spain in the “Ship to Country” drop down list.
the very big problem with not buying your flour locally is the cost of shipping. It is just way too much and I cannot seem to justify it. How can we get spelt flour into our corner grocery?
Hello!
Eric, you just made my life a lot easier! We’ve been wondering what would happen if we preheated the romertopf for ages! The instructions make you think it wouldn’t fall short of a nuclear explosion! Thanks so much for the recipe, we can’t wait to try it out.
On a different note, would it be possible to ship a proofing basket to Spain? It’s really hard to find proper equipment here! It’s hard to understand in such a bread-loving nation…
Angels, Barcelona
Eric, just lovely. I have baked many partial spelt loaves, but not 100%. I am really jazzed to try it. Also, I have a romertopf baker that is about 25-30 years old and was my Mom’s. I have been wanting to bake in it for a couple months now, but haven’t found the gumption to try it. I think you just pushed me over the edge! Thanks for sharing.
Oh, thank you so much for your site! I’m German (married to an American, which is why we live in the US) and a bread addict. I’ve tried sooo many recipes, undergone so many frustrations (2 years of experimenting with sourdough in Wonderbread-eating America ;o)), until I found your no-knead bread recipe…! It always turns out great, is easy and “fast,” and reminds me so much of home (not to mention that it makes heavenly turkey-cucumber-avocado sandwhiches)!
And just as I thought it couldn’t get any better, there it is: A “no-knead” recipe for Dinkelbrot (spelt bread, one of my all-time childhood favorites)!!! Now I just gotta find spelt four…
Thank you so much for sharing your recipes with the rest of us!!! I am truly blessed!
You can buy Spelt Flour at bobs red mill .com
Where can I get spelt flower?
My apologies, they used sourdough starter, But it is a very good video! and there is one also by veginity.com
Here is the video link; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1q0HspYLuI
Hello Jeff B
Yes, I saw a Youtube video for making spelt bread with yeast.
eric, thank you, thank you, for the great videos……………again! sandy in fl
they don’t have spelt flour in any of my grocery stores down here in Fl?? where to get it?
Sure thing, Audrey. I’d be honored.
Nope, I don’t soak the baker.
Thank you so much for sending the video postcard. I live in a very small town in Montana and will be teaching artisan bread baking at our new gourmet food store. Would you mind if I used your recipe? Also, do you ever soak the clay before you bake bread in it ? I have heard of doing this but not had much
luck with it.
OK, will do Eric. I’m going to pick up some spelt flour and try soon. On another note, I got so excited by this, that I actually went down and took my starter out of the back of the fridge. It’s been there for about 3 or 4 months of neglect. I mixed in some flour and water and have it on the counter. I already see some bubbles, so I can probably revive it, yeast is darn hard to kill. I had a lot of hooch and bit of mold on the sidewall of the container. Some fell in as I extracted the starter. Hope that won’t hurt. It smells pretty sweet from all of the alcohol fermentation, hopefully revival will get it back in shape as sourdough starter.
I do like the sourdough taste, just not the extra effort of care and feeding. But, I might have to buck up in order to get this Spelt Bread goodness. I find that your tastes are similar to mine, so when you say it is good, I am all ears!!
Regards.
I am going to try this bread this bread with regular yeast and I’ll let you know how it works. A friend has a wheat intolerance and I want to give her some home made bread (after I check whether she can eat spelt).
Hi Jeff,
It should work fine. Might even work better as far as the rise goes. I would probably experiment with 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of instant yeast in place of the starter and see how it goes. If you do this, please report so I can add it above. Lots of people would rather use yeast or at least know it’s a good option and how much to use.
Does it work with yeast instead of starter? I find it very difficult to maintain my starter. And so most of the time I just use yeast.
Eric, thanks for the notification of this video.
It’s wonderful watching these vids; funnily enough, when I got the email I was on my sourdough baking day, so you really hit the spot.
Nice one, that loaf looks amazing!
Many thanks for the inspiration.
Tim, England.
I’ve been looking for a good sourdough spelt bread recipe for a long time. Yours looks great, and I can’t wait to taste my first loaf! Thank you!!
Another informative and detailed video!
For some reason, I was under the impression that spelt dough did not need as much rising time as wheat dough, and although I have been using spelt either on its own or mixed with other flours, I have not made sour dough spelt bread yet. Time to try…
For info, spelt is called épeautre in French…
Hi Sally,
You’re right, I don’t soak it. I just heat it up and then put the dough in. I like the way the bread turns out better plus the dough doesn’t stick this way.
Hi Malcolm. Good to hear from you.
It was a fluke that I even tried this recipe in the first place, thinking there’s no way it’s not going to be a brick. I’ve got yet a another loaf ready to go into the oven now and I continue to be amazed at just how open a crumb it is.
Great video!
Quick question – do you soak your clay baker before sticking it in the oven? I had the impression you did not – that would make life a lot easier… but I want to confirm it before I go ahead and do it
I love spelt flour, add it to my regular pizza dough all the time, it makes it even better, in my opinion (I add 1/4 to 1/2 spelt)
I will be making this spelt bread very very soon….
thank you
Let us know how it goes, Tom.
Hi Peggy. Thanks. Soaking is apparently a good thing when using the baker for some foods. For bread, my personal preference is to preheat it dry and untreated and then drop the dough in. I haven’t yet explored baking without any wheat at all. It seems like there would be all kinds of resources on the net since there is for everything else in the universe, but I haven’t checked that out either.
Hi Eric,
Thanks for he information about the spelt loaf.
I’ve made many loaves using 25 % spelt or 25% kamut flour , but never 100% of either of them.
You seem to be to be working at 60% +/- hydration, so you get beautiful slashing. I’ve been working at 75-80% hydration, so it’s nearly impossible to slash the loaves.
You got a good rise in the crumb, and I notice you didn’t add any vital wheat gluten.
I’ll try your recipe.
Cheers,
malcolm
I love your videos. This looks like it is really an easy one to try since I do have the clay baker. I did not see you pre-soak or treat the baker in any fashion before baking the bread. Is that accurate? I wish there was a way to use either or both oat and barley flours. I am trying to stay away from wheat for inflammation reasons. I know that these flours don’t rise properly, so if you have any recipes please let me know.
Peggy
This looks really good, Eric! I’m off to the store for spelt flour now. I’ll probably also convert some of my starter to spelt. Thanks a million.
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