Whole Spelt Sourdough Pan Bread
I am delighted to share this easy recipe for making 100% whole grain spelt sourdough bread in a pan. This recipe has the best of both worlds - a nice tasting bread with a great texture, made with an easy and effective no-fuss method.
This method has been a ‘go to’ for all of our whole wheat and whole spelt sourdough recipes lately. I really love the results and it’s pretty simple to make. It’s also quite flexible - you can adjust the first fermentation period to shorten or lengthen the final fridge proofing period (more detail in the ‘method’ section below). Lots to play around with using this method!
This recipe was a little bit inspired by my recipe for Swabian Souls Bread I recently shared on YouTube and here on the Blog.
Whole Spelt Sourdough Pan Bread
Part A ingredients:
500g whole spelt flour
My flour is freshly milled, but you can use store bought whole grain flour as well (just make sure it’s not refined or sifted - stone milled is best).100-150g whole spelt or wheat sourdough starter
I use my whole wheat starter straight from the fridge (video on that topic here).375g water
Part B ingredients:
50g water
9g salt
Baking tin:
The pan I use for this bread is quite small: approximately 20cm long x 10cm wide and 7.5cm deep.
It has about 1.5 litre total capacity and is perfect for this small-medium sized dough. You could easily double this recipe if you are using a very large loaf pan. I prefer small pans because in our climate the bread stales before we can consume it if we make very large loaves.
Method:
Place flour into a mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl, measure the first water portion and the sourdough starter and mix the two together.
Pour the water/starter mixture into the flour and mix until it forms a shaggy dough and no dry flour remains.
Rest the dough, covered, for 60 minutes. This helps the bran and gluten in the flour to fully absorb the water before the salt is added - greatly improving the dough texture.
While you wait, weight out the final water portion and salt, and dissolve the salt into the water.
When the initial 60 minutes rest is complete, pour the salty water over the dough and fold/knead gently to incorporate (see video for technique).
Cover the dough and rest for another 30 minutes.
Now start to stretch and fold the dough. Do this a few times while the dough is fermenting, at 30-45 minute intervals over the next couple of hours. Three or four folds is enough.
When the dough is starting to get gassy (listen out for tiny popping bubble sounds when you fold it), roll the dough into a log shape and place it into a greased baking pan. Because the dough will be proofed in this pan for at least 12 hours, make sure you are very thorough with your greasing. I use this non-stick pan release mixture and it works perfectly every time. Nothing sticks with this stuff! If you are using cooking oil to grease your pans, sprinkle some rice flour on top of the oil coating (oil by itself is ineffective in my experience).
Place the dough pan into a container with a lid or a plastic bag and place in the fridge for the final proofing period. Depending on how well fermented the dough was before shaping, how warm the dough is and how cold your fridge is, you can leave the dough in the fridge for 12-36 hours, or even longer! In the video I refrigerated my dough for almost 17 hours (4.30pm to 9.00am the next day) and got an explosive oven spring! If I wanted a more bubbly texture and less dramatic expansion, I could have extended the time for the final fridge proof. This page goes into more detail about timing the final proof.
Some more timing variations:
* Start the bread later in the afternoon and shape and refrigerate before you go to bed. Bake sometime the next day/evening.
* Start the bread early in the morning and place in the fridge before lunch, bake the next day.
* Start the bread in the evening, do a few stretch and folds then place the dough in the bowl in the fridge overnight. Shape the next morning and proof at room temperature and bake, or put back in the fridge again for another 12-24 hours before baking.Preheat oven to 210°C/410°F. You can preheat to a higher temp if you like but some of my bakeware has a non-stick coating so I prefer to stay under 220°C. I normally bake all of my pan loaves inside a large oblong roaster (for extra steam), so that also goes into the oven for preheating.
When the oven is ready, take your dough straight from the fridge and place into the baking pot/roaster, then into the oven (or straight into the oven if you are baking uncovered).
Using my roaster to bake my pan loaves of this size, they are normally done in 60 minutes at 210°C/410°F. If you are baking your loaf uncovered, or in a hotter oven, it will be ready sooner. If you have doubled this batch for a large loaf, it will take longer. The loaf should be dark golden brown. If it looks at all pale it may be underdone. Err on the side of caution and bake your whole grain sourdough loaves very thoroughly! (as dark as they can go).
Cool for a few hours if you can handle the wait, then enjoy :)
My whole spelt grain from Burrum Biodynamics in North West Victoria, Australia, which I buy through Sovereign Foods here in Brisbane and mill using my Mockmill 200.
Looking for more?
Find out about my Mockmill 200 and where you can purchase one from just about anywhere in the world!
(There are discounts available in some locations).If you would like to support my work you can ‘buy me a coffee’ here (big thanks to all of you who have 🌼)
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