Ingredients
- 225 g leaven
- 875 g water for the dough
- 1000 g stoneground wholegrain ‘heritage grain’ flour, such as einkorn, emmer, spelt, kamut® or durum
- 20 g fine sea salt
Inclusions
- 200 g seeds such as pumpkin, sesame, linseed or sunflower seeds or 200 g sprouted heritage grain such as spelt, einkorn or emmer
How to Make It
- If I suspect a student has digestive issues relating to modern wheat (see here for more on this), I suggest they try a long, slow-fermented heritage grain made in a tin, as many students report that they find heritage grains easier to digest. That said, don’t be put off baking this loaf on the grounds that you don’t have digestion issues, because the deep, nutty, sweet, complex flavours are an absolute knockout.
- There are several reasons for using a tin. Firstly, heritage grains often have a more complex gluten structure than modern wheat varieties, and as a result these ancient flours can be challenging, especially for a beginner, to make into a boule. Secondly, heritage grains grown in a maritime climate have more enzymes. Their activity massively boosts the amount of sugars made available from the wholegrain flour, and so increases the amount of acid the bacteria produce. Being coupled with a long, slow, cold prove and a rye starter pushes the acidity levels as high as possible, which break down the gluten matrix, so the tin helps to support the loaf as it proves. It is not essential to ferment this loaf using a long, slow prove, but if you like a really sour loaf, or you have digestive issues, this is the key component in lowering the ph levels and so potentially making this bread more easily digestible.
- There is no need to stretch and fold this loaf more than once – just mix the bassinage water in thoroughly. Also omit scoring.
