Recipes

  RYE & SPELT sourdough in a tin

This recipe is a variation on a  100% rye loaf - so even though it is half spelt flour, it is going to be a firm loaf.If you want to go for a lighter loaf, use white spelt flour and sieve a bit of the bran out of your rye flour (unless you are lucky and can buy a medium rye flour.

 recipe in grams

1. Get your starter out and make sure it’s active

2. When the starter is active, make your sponge

·         Starter                                           30 grams

·         Whole rye flour                          220 

·         Cold water                                   330

3. Make your dough as below

·         add whole or light spelt flour  220

·         salt                                                  10

·         tepid water                                   90

Total                                                         900 grams

Method

Activate starter (using a handful of whole rye flour) a few hours before making sponge

Make sponge with flour and water. Mix to a paste and leave for up to 12 hours

Make sponge with all the other ingredients to form a dough

Leave for c2 to 3 hours/till nearly doubled

Get wet hands and weigh out loaves – keep all surfaces wet

Drop into oiled tin, leave till nearly doubled, only 2-3 hours

Put into a hot (200) oven, but turn down after 15 minutes to 170

Takes up to an hour – check the temperature with a thermometer

It will be soft so take care knocking it out

Leave for 24 hours to cool and mature.

 

 

Little Eye: Starting A Sourdough & Caring for your Starter.

Despite what you may read in books, starting a sourdough is best with a wholegrain flour and warm water only.  Here is a method to make your own sourdough starter: on Day 5 you can use it!

·         Use organic flours if possible, and the least processed you can find.

·         Warmth is important. After each day’s preparation, mix well, cover with a lid or polythene bag and leave in a warm place: around 27º C is ideal. Roughly, water should be blood temperature before it is mixed in.

·         Measuring small quantities is easiest with a set of digital scales. If you don’t have those, just be as accurate as possible. Don’t worry about being absolutely precise.

Date Day 1	Wheat or Rye Leaven Wholemeal flour	40	g
	Water (35°C)	40	g  (= 40 mlls) millilitre of water weighs one gram.
	Total	80	g
Day 2	From previous day	80	g
	Wholemeal flour	40	g
	Water (35°C)	40	g
	Total	160	g
Day 3	From previous day	160	g
	Wholemeal flour	40	g
	Water (35°C)	20	g
	Total	220	g
Day 4	From previous day	220	g
	White flour	120	g
	Water (35°C)	60	g
	Total	400	g

   Day 5                                  Ready to make a sponge - now go to your sourdough recipe!

 

  Our recipe for Rye and Spelt is being added here this week!

 

Sourdough bread with a TEFF starter

Heard of TEFF? It's a plant originating in Ethiopia, with absolutely tiny seeds, that makes a nutty flour a little like buckwheat. It doesn't have gluten, but is very lively and will ferment very quickly, and can be used to make your usual wheat or rye loaves - or added in for extra flavour. TEFF is a very nutritious grain.

I got my TEFF flour from my friend Zee, fermented it with 50% flour, 50% warm (30c) water, and within 24 hours it was bubbling and after 48 ready to use to ferment a wheat loaf. I used it in the usual proportions for a sourdough wheat loaf. The recipe follow.

Sourdough is based on the natural process of fermentation - it is not just one kind of grain, or one kind of loaf - enjoy experimenting! I have eaten TEFF with Zee in Ethiopian cuisine - where it is used to make INJERA, a spongy sourdough pancake. You can buy it from some wholefood or world food outlets, and it is sold in the UK wholesale by Suma.

 1. The Tef starter after 72 hours

 2. The Tef starter and white flour dough

3. The loaf - a bit flat but nice and spongy!

Recipe

1. For a loaf, make TEFF starter up over 72 hours, starting with four tablespoons of flour and water each, adding a tablespoon of water and flour every 24 hours, and keeping warm. Keep in a loose top plastic container.
2. Take 25 grams of the starter, and mix with 110 grams of water, 110 grams of good quality white flour. Leave overnight for 8-12 hours, covered.
3. Add a further 290 grams of flour - white or a mix of white and wholewheat, plus 170 grams of tepid water. Mix into a dough. Leave to rest for 20 minutes and then stretch. Leave to ferment for 4 hours.
4. Place into a proving basket, or a tin, and leave to rise for 2-4 hours.
5. If in a basket, turn onto a hot tray or stone, and pop into a hot 220c oven, turning down after 10 minutes to 200c (fan ovens take off 20 degrees from those figures). Bake for 45 minutes.
6. Turn out , cool, and enjoy.

The starter will keep in the fridge if you look after it - but it is really easy to make a new batch. You could also use the starter to make a pancake batter. Spongier than blinis but with good flavour.