Spelt Berry Bread

This is a rye/wheat bread with whole spelt berries. I used spelt berries before but those breads also contained at least a good amount if not all spelt flour. What made this interesting is that there is no spelt flour in the dough, which sometimes gives the bread a little more of a drier taste. This one is basically a rye sourdough.

Sourdough

• 50g (1 3/4oz) whole grain rye flour
• 50ml (1 5/8 oz) water
• 38g (1 3/8 oz) rye sourdough starter

Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl, stir until smooth, cover and transfer to fridge. Let proof in the fridge for about 14 hours.

Soaker

• 100g (3 1/2 oz) spelt berries
• 100ml (3 1/2 oz) water

Put berries and water into a pot and bring water to a boil. Let boil for 10 minutes on low heat - add water if necessary - then let cool and transfer into the fridge as well. Let rest for about 14 hours also.

Main Dough

• Sourdough
• Soaker
• 175g (6 1/8 oz) light rye flour
• 75g (2 5/8 oz) all purpose wheat flour
• 200ml (6 3/4 oz) luke warm water
• 17g (5/8 oz) fresh yeast, or 2 1/2 tsp Active Dry Yeast, 1 1/4 tsp of sugar and 65ml (2 1/4 oz) of water, mixed and let stand for about 10 minutes
• 7g (1 tsp) salt

Remove sourdough from the fridge about 1 hour before beginning preparation to acclimatize to room temperature.

Dissolve yeast in the water (if using fresh yeast) and stir in with the sourdough. Add all the other ingredients except for the soaker to the bowl and mix with a dough hook for 2 minutes on low speed. Pour remaining water off of the soaker if there is any and add the berries to the bowl. Mix for another 5 minutes on higher speed (I set my Kitchen Aid mixer to 2).

Place on a well floured surface and cover with linen cloth or towel and let rest at room temperature for 40 minutes. Fold after 10, 20 and 30 minutes (go around the dough and fold outer edge into the middle and press in; go around the dough two or three times doing that). The dough is super sticky and very runny, so make sure to flour well, otherwise most of the dough will end up sticking to your hands.

Grease a 10" (26cm) loaf pan with butter and place the dough inside. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 230°C (445°F).

Transfer loaf into the oven, spray in a lot of water and bake for 20 minutes. Then open the oven to let out steam, close and reduce temperature to 210°C (410°F). Bake with falling temperature for another 30 minutes.

Take out of the pan and let cool on a cooling rack.

Based on recipe by Bernd Armbrust, published by GU in the book "Brot". I reduced all amounts to make only one bread instead of the two produced by the original recipe.