A sandwich loaf, about three-quarters spelt, leavened with an overnight spelt levain and sweetened with honey. Spelt ferments fast, so the rise is short and the pan gives support.
Untested: not yet made in this kitchen. It is here as the showcase for one flour in the Flour section and is adapted from the source named in the Notes.
Ingredients
Levain
- 1 cup (99 g) spelt flour
- ½ cup (113 g) water, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon ripe (fed) sourdough starter
Dough
- 3 cups (298 g) spelt flour
- 1 to 1½ cups (120 to 180 g) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 cup (227 g) lukewarm water
- 2 tablespoons (28 g) unsalted butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons (43 g) honey
- 1¼ teaspoons (8 g) table salt
- ½ teaspoon instant yeast
- 1 batch levain (above), all of it
Directions
- Levain. Mix the levain ingredients and leave 12 hours or overnight, until bubbly but not collapsing.
- Mix and knead. Combine everything, holding back the last ½ cup of all-purpose flour unless the dough needs it. Knead until soft and elastic.
- Rise about 1 hour. It will not double.
- Shape a 9-inch log and put it in a greased 9 × 5-inch loaf pan. Rise 1–1½ hours.
- Bake with steam. Heat the oven to 425 °F with an empty pan on the lower rack. Slash the loaf lengthwise, pour about ½ cup of hot water into the steam pan, and bake 10 minutes. Lower to 400 °F and bake 30–35 minutes more, tenting with foil for the last 15–20 minutes, until the centre reads 190 °F.
- Cool. Turn out at once and cool on a rack.
Notes
Source Adapted from Charlotte Rutledge, “Honey Spelt Sourdough Bread,” King Arthur Baking.
Not 100% spelt The flour is about 397 g spelt to 120–180 g all-purpose — roughly 69–77% spelt. No measured 100% spelt loaf was found in the sources reached, so none is given.
Why this flour Spelt’s gluten is extensible but fragile and it ferments quickly: the short bulk and the pan are the adjustments. The honey suits spelt’s natural sweetness.
Safety Spelt is wheat and contains gluten, including the main coeliac trigger peptide.
The Flour section of the Food site covers the history, the science, milling, label systems and every flour used here.
The photo The photograph shows a German Dinkelbrot (spelt pan loaf), not this honey-sweetened loaf.