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.
August 2011 Update: Thanks Brent for this Spelt Bread Recipe variation and how to make it into sandwich loaves. Great picture too!
Feb 2012 Update: Check out Phil Dellinger’s post for Dutch Crunch topping.
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Hi!
I just tried your recipe for the first time. I followed it quite closely. I even used the same Romertopf. A local artisan bakery gave me some spelt starter. It seemed to be in good shape, as it was quite bubbly. My bread rose quite well, but I was disappointed. It just tasted OK. It was quite dense and didn’t have the open crumb I associate with Lahey’s no-knead method. This was also the first time that the top of my non-knead bread didn’t split open. Would this have something to do with the starter, or could it be something else, like my flour maybe?
OMG. Finally had a few days off to get my yeast starter which I got off your site to sit over night and fluff up, then did exactly what you said. My other attempts were terrible, but this is what I found. I had to put more water in and I put more yeast starter in. My dough was too dry before and I think not enough yeast. But, now that I added the extra water and starter and made sure to do what you said and put it in a dutch oven, OMG IT IS SO GOOD! THANK YOU! I can’t eat wheat but I ca eat this! THANKS! Don’t give up guys, try to adjust for yourself till get it.
I made this loaf of spelt bread using the Breadtopia recipe with only 3 minor adjustments.
1. Spelt sourdough starter was used.
2. The flour weight remains at 530 grams, but I changed the content to 318 grams of spelt flour, and 212 grams of white bread flour. (this makes a less dense loaf)
3. Lastly, I adjusted the oven temperature to 430 degrees with cooking time remaining the same.
What fun!
Closeup of loaf top
End cut
Just baked my second loaf following this recipe. Prepared as per my previous comments, but this time I added the salt (but I still added no sweetener at all). It is hard to imagine bread getting any better than this! Or a recipe any simpler or more reliable!
I kept feeding my spelt starter and it finally got very vigorous.
My starter isn’t doubling. It smells fermenty but isn’t growing. I use 100% spelt flour. Any thoughts?
Also, even tho I score the bread the top opens on its own making the top crust hard to control when cut. Any suggestions?
Eric,
I split my starter in two and made one into a spelt starter using whole spelt flour. It is not nearly as active as the wheat starter. Would it make a difference if I used white spelt flour?
PS: Forgot to write that I had a baking stone under the Dutch oven. All was thoroughly preheated before dropping the dough in as per the excellent recipe.
I followed the instructions as closely as I could, with the exception of going even further hardcore and not using salt or sweetener. Just water and locally grown and stone-milled organic wholegrain spelt (triticum spelta) flour. Even the sourdough starter (1:1 by weight) was made using only water and the same spelt flour. I wish I had a clean spring/river/well for the water, but I just took it from the tap. London (UK) tap water! The bread came out quite good for the first try! Next time, I’ll add the salt, though, as that would have balanced the taste a bit. I used a thin Teflon/PTFE sheet under the bread for proofing then transferred the whole sheet plus dough directly to a pre-warmed Dutch oven.
I made this recipe from sprouted wheat flour from kaf. I found the bread to be a little bitter. Does anyone know why? How can I take the bitterness out?
Thanks
Hi Kgruett,
I had exactly the same problem. I used wholegrain spelt flour. It tasted as if I had used far too much sourdough, even though I only used quarter cup.
Hi,
I am following your spelt sourdough recipe right now. I followed all the instructions but my dough looks much much dryer than yours. It is resting at the moment and doesn’t seem to be rising at all. My starter was good very active, light and bubbly, I halved all your ingredients to make a smaller loaf, but looking at the dough compared to yours I think it’s not going to work : (
Any thoughts?
Victoria
Thank you Breadtopia!!! I have never tried something like this. I am using spelt flour all the time, but sourdough spelt bread baked in clay baker is something sooooooo SPECIAL!!!
Happy, happy, happy!!!
Hi Eric,
After watching your Sourdough Spelt video, I JUST had to give this one a try. Fortunately, we have a local Mennonite bakery nearby, who just happened to have the spelt flour. I don’t have an oval clay baker, but have a La Cloche, and a Sassafras Bread Dome. I decided to give the latter a dry. Following your instructions, stretch and fold included, all went very well. 32 min. baking at 450 degrees worked just right for me. The sourdough and nutty taste is a great combo (to my personal taste) I’m looking forward to using the spelt in some of our homemade pasta. I sure appreciate your site and videos!
Excellent!
Hi!
If I wanted to add nuts or seeds to the recipe would I reduce some of the flour or just add a 1/4 cup or so to the recipe?
Thanks!
Sandra
Hi Sandra. I don’t think the nuts or seeds are going to absorb enough moisture to require much of a tweak, if any. I would just add them.
Hi, Sandra —
I’ve had great success adding either seeds (flax, sunflower, sesame, or a mix) or walnuts to this recipe — about 1/4 c. per loaf, or more if I’m feeling extravagant. The walnut version is my mother’s favorite, so I make it for her and my dad often.
I just add the nuts into the dough with the dry ingredients, and haven’t seen any difference in absorption.
Brent
Thanks so much for the tips!
Sandra
Here is my first loaf of Spelt Sourdough Bread with Dutch Crunch topping. It tastes as good as it looks. The Dutch Crunch could have been made a little thinner with a touch more water as it slowed up the “oven spring” just a little bit.
Topping recipe (from the Bread Bible)
1 tbsp active dry yeast
½ cup warm water (105-110F)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup white rice flour (not sweet rice flour
Combine all topping ingredients in a medium bowl and mix very well. Let stand for 15 minutes.
When bread has risen a bit and the topping is ready, spread a generous layer of topping mixture on the bread. Let rise for another 20 minutes before baking. Bake bread following video instructions. If using a La Cloche Clay Baker, remove lid for the last 15 minutes of cooking time to brown the topping.
This was a great video…calm, thorough and made it look less tedious. Many years of baking whole grain plus grinding wheat, some sour dough (makes me a tad anxious); high hopes for this week; only have a stone…always something! A type personality is breaking out. Thank you.
Hi Eric and Breadtopia!
This is the most wonderful bread I’ve ever made and maybe the best I’ve ever tasted so far in my life. It scared me at first how wet the dough was, but it turned out just perfect. Airy, full of bubbles and it melts when you eat it. It’s not sour and i can agree with Eric when he says the spelt flour has a special flavor.
Thank you Breadtopia! You help me develop my love for baking bread. Lots of good tips and very efficient videos. Keep up the good work!
Hello,
I just made two loaves of the sourdough spelt that you demonstrated, and my family and I are very pleased overall with how it turned it. It tastes very good and is definitely an improvement over the sourdough rye bread that I had previously made (not your recipe). It was rather difficult to cut (but I think it was probably because we didn’t wait very long to let it cool – we were hungry! Also, it got a little burnt on the bottom, which made it pretty tough to cut.) It was interesting because it got a little overdone (hence the black underside) when it had only cooked for about 30 minutes covered at 450 degrees. Do you have any ideas on why this happened? I should mention that I baked the bread in a covered glass baking dish because we don’t have a romertopf or other clay baker.
Do you have a recommendation on how to store this bread, i.e. plastic, paper, refrigerator, etc.?
Thank you for the wonderful recipe and the helpful video instruction!
Eric,
Can you use dry yeast instead of starter for the SPELT recipe
I have been baking NKB for a year now and still have not used or made a starter. Is there a recipe somewhere on this web site…It has always sounded rather mysterious and time consuming…
carol
Hi Carol,
follow this link.
http://www.breadtopia.com/make-your-own-sourdough-starter/
I decided last night to start another loaf, then discovered I was almost out of spelt berries. I already had all my “bread stuff” out so decided to make up the difference with regular wheat. It turned out to be about 1/3 spelt and 2/3 hard red winter wheat. Other than that I followed the spelt bread recipe. I should have added a little water, as I noticed right away that it was stiffer than my earlier whole spelt dough, but decided to try it as is. When the dough was ready I put it in the fridge for a cold overnight ferment, because I had to work today so couldn’t bake it until after 6pm. Took it out of the fridge this morning and let sit on the counter at room temp all day. When I got home from work I was impressed and encouraged at how much it had risen. Finishing the process and baking per instructions resulted in the loaf you see here.
It was about 8:30pm when I took it out of the oven, and it smelled great! I’ll admit I only let it cool a little over half an hour before I cut it. It was getting late and I just couldn’t wait until morning. You can see it’s a little tight, but I thought it was pretty good considering. And the flavor was very good. I plan to continue the spelt adventure, but will keep this in the back of my mind for future reference.
Very Nice!
I made my first loaf of this today. I lost the race for the oven this morning, so it seriously over proofed by the time the turkey and dressing were done. Needless to say it didn’t rise much so it’s quite dense… but the flavor is very, very good! I’ll certainly be trying this again soon. (I grind my own flour in my Retsel slow stone mill.)
Thanks for the recipe Eric.
Hi,
I wanted to ask a generic question regarding using Romertopf.
I just purchased a new Romertopf and used it for the first time. Before I added the dough I’ve soaked it for 15 min, than put it in the oven for 30 min at the required temp and then added the dough and continued the bread cooking as per the recipe. When it was time to take the bread out of the oven and let it cool down I realized the bread was stuck to the Romertopf.
Can anyone advise if I’ve done anything wrong or if I should have done anything differently?
Thank,
Marius
Try putting the dry Romertopf in the oven to preheat and before putting in the bread – put a strip of parchment.
I also put the parchment in the proofing basket – minimizes sticking.
Have been making this yummy bread for a while. Even when I slash the top to let the steam escape, it seems to create its own path as well making the top awkward to cut and unstable. Any thoughts?
Hi Eric, can I use dry yeast instead of a sourdough starter? Thanks, Doris
Sure, that’s fine Doris. I’m just not sure how much. I guess I’d try about a 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of instant yeast and see how that works. You can always adjust later. Of course the proofing times might change too (shorten most likely) so keep an eye on it.
Good luck an maybe tell us how it goes for you.
Hi Dick,
I would stick with the same approximately 100% hydration. But then I’m never that particular. I just add flour then water until it’s kinda thick.
Hi Eric,
I really like the spelt bread. I was wondering about doing a spelt starter. Since you use less water to make the bread with spelt, can you tell me what flour/water ratio you would use to make the spelt starter?
Thanks,
Dick
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