Rye-Spelt Loaf with Pumpkin Seeds

Strangely, adding coarsely ground grains makes for a more active dough and a well-aaerated crumb. The dough for this loaf is simply made from rye sourdough (150g, made with whole-rye flour), a spelt-pumpkin-seed soaker (250g in total, using 150g coarsely ground spelt grains) and 250g medium rye flour, salt, yeast and additional water. As with all loaves that include a considerable amount of coarse meals, there is an extra mixing time of about 5-10 minutes at the end of the first rest. Next time will add more grain chunks and perhaps I will have a loaf such as the beauties on the site of Steinofenbäcker – a very good bakery that sells moist and grainy breads and excellent fruit bread as well.

A parcel from England

Today the postwoman handed me a heavy parcel that had a “Royal Mail” sticker on it. I opened the neatly packed parcel very quickly to find that inside was Gill’s “Cotswold Orchard Damson Jam”. MMH.

It tastes great – very smooth consistency and a big fruit flavor not masked by excessive sweetness as is often the case in commercial products.

Thank you, Gill!

Loaf for tonight

Idea: Bake a light rye without sourdough but with big flavor and good shelf-life.

Light Rye

Rye Poolish

• 80g rye flour
• 120g warm water
• 8g honey
• 6g fresh yeast or 1/2 tsp dried yeast

Let ferment for one hour

Stale-Bread-Soaker

• 25g stale rye bread, chopped
• 120g hot water

Mix and let sit for about an hour.

For the final dough:
Dough

• Stale-Bread-Soaker
• Rye poolish
• 320g strong white flour (here: Type 550)
• 40-100g warm water to make a soft dough
• 10g salt

Bulk Fermentation: 1 hour, fold once after 30 minutes.
Final Fermentation: 45-70g minutes.

Bake at at 250°C for 5 minutes, then reduce heat to 220°C and bake for further 45-50 minutes. Optional: Sprinkle with coarsely ground barley malt before putting it into the oven.

I’m happy with the results. The new oven’s heat seems a little kinder and less aggressive than the old one, but is doing a good job of trapping the heat and moisture inside.

The finished loaf:

And in other news…

…I have a working oven! Yay!

New loaf tonight starting here (or scroll down below stickies).