Bake Spelled Sourdough Bread Yourself – This is How It Works

Spelled sourdough bread: the preparation of the sourdough

Making the sourdough is not particularly difficult. What puts many off, however, is the amount of time that sourdough requires. Basically, you need one thing above all: patience.

• Use organic wholemeal flour for the sourdough. This contains significantly more natural yeast cultures and bacteria, which make the dough work better.
• To prepare sourdough, you generally only need rye flour and water. For spelled sourdough bread, we recommend a mixture of the two types of flour. The mixing ratio should be 85 percent rye flour to 15 percent spelled flour.
• Mix 100 grams of flour with 100 milliliters of lukewarm water to form a thin batter. Then place the batter in a large jar and loosely cover with a cloth. Allow the mixture to breathe and place the jar in a dark, warm place.
• The dough stays here for about 24 hours. After this time, add another 100 grams of flour and 100 milliliters of water to the dough and mix the mixture. Let the starter rest for another 24 hours.
• Then add 200 grams of flour and 200 milliliters of water. Now the dough has to rest for the last 24 hours.
• Before you continue to process the sourdough, separate about 100 grams and put the amount in an airtight container. You can use this to make the next starter. The dough will keep in the fridge for about a week and can be used up to four times.

Bake spelled sourdough bread yourself: Here’s how

For your spelled sourdough bread, in addition to the sourdough, you also need 500 grams of wholemeal spelled flour and around 14 grams of salt. If you are unsure about the quality of your sourdough, you can use half a cube of yeast as a backup. This is especially recommended for fresh sourdough.

• First, dissolve half the yeast cube in about 200 milliliters of lukewarm water.
• Then stir in the salt and then slowly add the sourdough.
• Then the spelled flour, which by the way is by no means gluten-free, goes into the bowl. In total, you will need about 300 milliliters of warm water for the main dough. Ultimately, it depends on the consistency of the dough.
• Before kneading you can add sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, or walnuts. Then knead the dough well until it is soft and slightly firm.
• If you put the dough in the fridge overnight, the bread will be much tastier. If you don’t want to wait that long, let the dough rest for at least 30 minutes.
• Before the spelled sourdough goes into the oven, knead it well again. Place a cup of water on the oven floor and bake the bread in a loaf pan or springform pan at 225 degrees for about 50 minutes.
• If you are using a springform pan, remove the frame once the bread is set. Allow the loaf to brown freely the rest of the time. This will make the crust even crispier.
• Do the chopstick test. If no dough sticks to the wooden stick, you can take the spelled sourdough bread out of the oven.
• As a precaution, tap the bread after removing it from the baking pan. If the loaf sounds hollow, your spelled sourdough bread is really done. Otherwise, put it in the oven for a few more minutes.

Sourdough and yeast – indispensable when making bread

Making bread yourself has many advantages and is back in fashion. You have the choice between yeast and sourdough.

• However, the leavening agents not only ensure that the dough “rises”, but they also give the bread its taste. In short: Without yeast or sourdough, you will hardly succeed in pulling a tasty, fluffy bread out of the oven.
• Yeast is a fungus that you can use to make bread dough relatively quickly. The preparation of sourdough, on the other hand, is much more time-consuming, but it has a number of advantages.
• In the course of the fermentation of the sourdough, the yeast fungi and lactic acid bacteria of the respective grain thrive particularly well. And it is precisely these cultures that are essential for the loosening and flavor of the bread.
• The sourdough also has the advantage that it prevents the formation of mold bacteria a few days longer than yeast dough, so you can keep the bread a little longer without worrying.