Spelt bread with sourdough, good crust formation

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 350 g spelt flour type 630
• 150 g wholemeal spelt flour
• 350 ml water, lukewarm
• 50 g sourdough (spelt sourdough), liquid
• 10 g dry yeast
• 1 tbsp, leveled salt
• Flour for dusting

Instructions

Working time approx. 10 minutes; Rest time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 2 hours 40 minutes

Place the pizza stone in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 250°C. Also, place a small ovenproof bowl filled with water on the floor of the oven. This is the first step, as the stone takes time to reach the right temperature, ensuring a sufficiently humid environment in the oven. The steam is important for crust formation. Mix the flour in a bowl. Measure the lukewarm water and mix it with salt and dry yeast to form an emulsion. Pour the water mixture and the prepared sourdough starter over the flour and knead with the dough hook until you have a smooth dough. Now line the proving basket with a linen or cotton cloth (e.g., a tea towel, a piece of a bed sheet) and sprinkle with 1-2 tablespoons of flour. Using a dough scraper, tip the dough from the bowl into the proving basket and sprinkle the surface of the dough with 1-2 tablespoons of flour. Loosely cover the dough with the excess fabric and let it rest in a warm place for about 60-90 minutes. After the resting time, the dough will have its typical marbled pattern and is then tipped directly from the bowl onto the stone and baked at 250°C for 15 minutes. Then remove the water bowl, reduce the temperature to 200°C and bake the bread for another 45 minutes. Let the finished bread cool on a rack. A loaf of bread made according to this recipe weighs about 750g and has a calorific value of about 250 kcal/100g. For this bread, I use a pizza stone and a proving basket. It can of course be done without, but then the flavor is not as intense. The pizza stone ensures better heat distribution and crust formation on the base of the bread. I use a wooden proving basket. It is easy to clean and draws some of the moisture out of the bread. A similar container will also work. I made my first attempts with a turned wooden bowl.