Country Style Bread

 A white bread for BBQ season. I usually prefer bread with more rye but this wheat and spelt bread is actually really tasty. Like most wheat breads the process takes a little longer as it has to rest multiple times.

Pre-Ferment (Vorteig)

• 200g all purpose flour
• 65g white spelt flour
• 65g whole grain spelt flour
• 200ml water
• 1 tsp salt
• 10g wheat sourdough starter

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix it up a little bit. Knead in a mixer for 5 minutes. Transfer dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover and let it ripen at room temperature for 16 hours.


Main Dough (Hauptteig)

• 325g all purpose flour
• 290ml water
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp "Active Dry Yeast", 1/2 tsp of sugar and 1oz of water, mixed and let stand for about 10 minutes (or 5g fresh yeast)
• Pre-Ferment

Put all ingredients except the Pre-Ferment into the mixer and knead for 5 minutes. Keep the mixer running and add the Pre-Ferment in little portions. Total kneading time is 20 minutes.

Now the dough needs to be folded ("stretch and fold"). To do that, press the dough into a square, then fold the corners into the center. Repeat two more times. Put the dough back into the oiled bowl and let it rest for 50 minutes. Stretch and fold again and let it rest for another 50 minutes.

Then form the dough into a round shape, place in a well floured fermentation basket and cover it with plastic food wrap. Let it rest at room temperature for 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat oven to 450°F (230°C). Our oven needs about 15 minutes to do that so I start about 15 minutes before the dough is ready.

Turn-over the dough onto a baking sheet covered with parchement paper. Place the sheet in the oven on the 2 level from the bottom and bake for 15 minutes; then reduce temperature to 360°F (180°C) and spray some water into the oven using some kind of a spray bottle. Bake for another 35 minutes.

To test if the bread is done knock on the bottom of it, it should sound a bit hollow. I always do that but so far it turned out to be ready after the given time in every single occasion.

Let bread cool on a cooling rack.

Original recipe in German language on ketex.de.