Mr TBTAM makes a mean sandwich. Perfect little combinations of meat and cheese, sometimes tuna salad, always topped with either fresh roasted peppers or some red pepper relish, just the right amount of mustard or mayo, and a perfectly placed lettuce slice.
He is quite proud of these sandwiches, so proud that he will often stop his lunch preparations to find me so he can show me the freshly cut edge of the masterpiece he is taking to work tomorrow morning. At this point I am required to ooh and aah and if I am lucky, he will make me a sandwich as well.
As much as he loves my thick sourdough boules, I know what Mr TBTAM really wants me to make is a sandwich bread. So when this spelt sourdough sandwich loaf from Maurizio Leo’s website The Perfect Loaf caught my eye this week, I knew I had to try it.
The Perfect Loaf is an award winning blog and the online bible for sourdough obsessives like myself. Maurizio, a software engineer turned bread baker, is truly going for perfection. Each recipe catalogues his trial and error efforts at finding just the right combo of freshly milled flour, water and salt to get that perfect slice of bread. I can lose myself for hours among his recipes, videos, photos, and musings about sourdough bread making.
I have to admit I was quite nervous about trying this bread. Spelt is one of the ancient wheats, the other two being Emmer and Einkhorn. Spelt is healthier (higher in protein, zinc and tryptophan, lower in gluten) and more flavorful than modern wheat, but its gluten performs much better than that of Einkorn and Emmer. However, Spelt is notorious for its wet, hard to handle dough, so you cannot just substitute it one for one for modern wheat in a bread recipe. You have to adjust your hydration accordingly, something you can only do by trial and error. Which means a fair amount of failure till you get it right.
Fortunately, Maurizio has done all that hard work for us, playing with multiple levels of hydration in one degree increments until he got this spelt bread loaf just right. A little OCD, perhaps, but I for one am grateful for it! I’m awed at his diligence and perseverance and grateful for this recipe.
I was so happy to see the oven spring on this loaf I was literally dancing around the kitchen! On second thought, however, you don’t really want a pan loaf to spring this much. I think I could have proofed it a bit longer in my box or scored it to control the spring a bit and keep the loaf more level. Or perhaps it’s simply that my pan is so shallow – only 2.75 inches tall. I’m gonna’ get me a deeper pan for my next try.
This bread has great flavor and a lovely texture. Not too wet, not too heavy – just right. I need a better bread knife to get prettier crumb cuts, but I think you can see its got plenty of nice little air pockets.
Mr TBTAM decided he could not wait for lunch tomorrow to taste this bread. Since I had two nice marrow bones just finishing stewing in a pot of cabbage borscht, we decided to christen the bread with marrow. Heaven.
SOURDOUGH SPELT SANDWICH BREAD
I modified Mauritzio’s recipe to a total dough weight of 1200 grams to fit my 9.25″ x 5.25″ x 2.75″ loaf pan, and reduced the hydration to around 70% at his advice to spelt newbies.
Levain
- 5 g mature starter (my starter is a 1:2:2 starter/rye flour/water)
- 35 g water
- 35 g spelt flour
Mix ingredients in a clear jar. Cover and let sit out overnight at room temp (mid-70’s right now)
Dough Ingredients
- 605 g Spelt Flour (I used Arrowhead Mills)
- 413 g water
- 32 g honey
- 32 g olive oil
- 14 g salt
- 76 g levain
- Rolled oats, sesame and poppy seeds (Optional Topping)
Technique
- In the morning, mix mature levain in a large bowl with flour, honey, extra virgin olive oil, salt and water till the dough comes together in a shaggy mass. (If working with spelt for the first time, hold back about 10 grams of the water until you are sure you need it – this can be a very wet dough, and different brands of spelt can behave differently. The amounts above worked fine for my flour.)
- Stretch and fold for 4-5 mins till smooth and elastic. Cover for a 3 1/2 hour bulk ferment, performing 4 stretch and folds – the first after the first 15 mins, then every 30 mins thereafter for three more folds – then let the dough rest for the remainder of the ferment time.
- Pre-shape dough into a taut round on an unfloured countertop using wet hands and a dough scraper, then rest uncovered for 20 mins.
- Lightly grease the pan with oil. Shape dough on a floured surface. If using a topping, spritz top lightly with water, roll in topping on a cloth towel, then place in the pan seam side down. Cover with plastic wrap and let proof 1-2 hours at room temp. (Confession – I had dinner plans and so I put the bread into the fridge in a plastic bag overnight, during which it did not rise much, then proofed it in the morning in my microwave proof setup* for 2 hours, where it rose to a perfect proof.)
- Towards end of proofing, place a metal pan on the over floor and preheat oven to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.
- When your dough is fully proofed, unwrap and place on rack in middle of the oven. Pour boiling water or toss a handful of ice cubes into the metal pan, spray water several times into the oven chamber with a handheld spray bottle and close the oven door. (My bread was quite moist from the microwave proof, so I did not spray the oven.)
- Drop the oven temp to 425°F and bake for 20 minutes, then remove steaming pan (careful!) and bake for an additional 25-30 minutes. When the bread looks well colored on top and the interior temp registers around 205°F, remove the loaf from its pan and finish baking in the oven directly on the oven rack for 5 minutes for more color. Remove fully cooked bread from oven and let cool 3-4 hours before slicing.
*MICROWAVE PROOFING BOX
Place your bread into the microwave with a large mug of boiling water then close the door. Don’t turn it on! (You can unplug to be on the safe side.) Monitor the temp so it does not go too high. Replace the boiling water as needed to maintain optimal temp.
