Taking a bite of this white spelt flour sourdough bread will take you immediately to the summer: You are enjoying a picnic on a sunny meadow, some trees are spending their shadow and you are enjoying this nice bread, a bottle of good wine and creamy cheese. The bread has a light warm taste which is also pleasantly mild. The shape is perfect with the beautiful cuts that remind of leaves.
Hungry for this summer feeling or planning a nice picnic? Off to the kitchen, take out all the ingredients listed below and start baking your own summer bread!
Things to know before you start
Time Schedule
| Steps | Work time | Waiting time |
| Autolyse | ~5 minutes | 2 hours |
| Mix | ~15 minutes | – |
| Bulk Fermentation, Stretch & Fold | ~10 minutes | 3 hours |
| Pre-shape | ~5 minutes | 20 minutes |
| Shape | ~5 minutes | – |
| Proof | – | 10 hours |
| Score | ~5 minutes | – |
| Bake | ~5 minutes | 45 minutes |
| Cool | – | 2 hours |
In about 18,5 hours you will have this white spelt flour sourdough bread on the table.
Total ingredients
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 125 g | Mature sourdough starter – From whole spelt flour |
| 500 g | White spelt flour |
| 12 g | Salt |
| 10 g | Honey |
| 1,5 g | Yeast – Fresh (optional) |
| 290 g | Water |
You will have a dough of about 937 g in total.
Make sure to have a mature sourdough starter that is active and healthy. If you think your starter is not, then you can add about 1,5 g of fresh yeast to help with the rise.
Difficulty
The hydration level for this white spelt flour sourdough bread is at about 71% so it is easy to handle and therefore simple to make.
Never baked a sourdough bread yet? Have a look at our sourdough bread for beginners recipe that contains a lot of details for the different steps used here.
Baking tools
An oval banneton proofing basket is recommended and an oval dutch oven. Of course it is also fine to use a round banneton proofing basket and dutch oven.
You can also have a look at our should have baking tools for an easier time baking this loaf.
Steps
1. Autolyse
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 100 g | White spelt flour |
| 100 g | Water – 26°C (78°F) |
- Mix the 2 ingredients together
- Store sealed for 2 hours at 20-22°C (68-71,6°F)
2. Mix
| Weight | Ingredient |
| – | Autolyse |
| 125 g | Mature sourdough starter – From whole spelt flour |
| 400 g | White spelt flour |
| 12 g | Salt |
| 10 g | Honey |
| 1,5 g | Yeast – Fresh (optional) |
| 190 g | Water |
- Mix all of the mentioned ingredients in a stand mixer for 3 minutes on speed level one and 5 minutes on speed level two
- The dough should be smooth after mixing and not stick to the bowl a lot
3. Bulk Fermentation, Stretch & Fold
- Cover the dough and let it rest for a total of 3 hours at 20-22°C (68-71,6°F)
- During that time stretch & fold the dough every 30 minutes (4 times in total) and after the 4th time, let it ferment further for 1 hour until 3 hours in total are reached
- After each stretch and fold put it back to the bowl and cover it again so it doesn’t dry out
4. Pre-shape
- Get the dough in shape by roughly rounding it
- Afterwards look for a dry spot on your surface and flour it
- Transfer the pre-shaped dough ball on the floured surface
- Cover it with a towel and let it rest for 20 minutes
- Tip: If you realize that the dough starts sticking to your hand or bench knife, just clean the bench knife of any dough and flour it a bit again
5. Shape
- Get the dough in the final shape by long moulding it again
6. Proof
- Dust your proofing basket with white spelt flour
- Put your previously shaped dough seam-side-up in the dusted proofing basket
- Add flour on top and cover it with a towel
- Let it proof for 10 hours in the fridge at 5°C (41°F)
7. SCORE
- Cover a pizza peel with parchment paper
- Take your proofed dough out of the fridge
- Gently take your dough out of the proofing basket by flipping it upside down on the pizza peel
- Make several small cuts (about 2 cm deep) that don’t overlap on top of the loaf with a bread lame
- We went for 3 horizontal rows containing 5 small cuts per row, but you can make whatever pattern you want
8. Bake
- Place your dutch oven with the lid on top in the oven and preheat to 250°C (482°F) for ~45 minutes with the upper and lower heat function
- Remove the lid of the dutch oven (use oven mitts so you don’t burn your hands!), place the dough inside and seal it again with the lid and bake for 45 minutes
- After 20 minutes, lower the temperature to 220°C (428°F) and remove the lid from the dutch oven so you get a nice crust on top
9. Cool
- Let your white spelt flour sourdough bread cool for 2 hours on some kind of grid
Conclusion
Crust
Lovely crunchy with even more crunchier edges thanks to the beautiful scoring.
Crumb
Moist crumb with uneven and partly big pores.
Taste
This white spelt flour sourdough bread with it’s nicely mild taste reminds of summer.
Goes good with
We enjoyed this white spelt sourdough bread with some butter and soft and fluffy scrambled eggs. Something light fits this bread very well. If you don’t like scrambled eggs, you could also try some cream cheese or butter with fresh tomatoes.
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