Oh, today is the day.
I dried the sprouted grain (spelt) yesterday, so today was grinding day.
Thanks to my Vitamix blender given to us by my husband’s late grandfather, the process went fairly quickly.
I grind in small batches and sift the flour so that I end up with a really fine quality flour at the end.
Then, I began the actual bread making process.
This is the recipe I followed for both the gluten free and spelt loaves.
Ingredients
- 1 c Sourdough starter
- 1 Tbsp. Coconut oil
- 1/2 c. Milk
- 1 Tbsp sugar
- 1 tsp. Salt
- 2.5 cups flour
Directions
- Preheat oven to 375°F
- Melt coconut oil in milk. (About 1 minute in the microwave)
- Combine starter, milk, oil, salt, and sugar and let sit for about 15 minutes to acclimate.
- Stir in flour one cup at a time. The end result is a sticky dough just beyond batter texture.
- Transfer dough to parchment lined bread pan, and cover. Let rise for 1 hour
- Bake bread in preheated oven at 375°F for 10 minutes
- Reduce oven temperature to 350°F and continue baking 40-45 minutes until top of loaf is golden brown.
- Remove bread from oven and turn out to cool on a wire rack.
- The flavor of the coconut oil comes through nicely and ever so gently counters the sour flavor. If you prefer, you can substitute butter for the coconut oil.
The gluten free sourdough loaf I did using this recipe turned out quite nicely. It was a bit more dense than regular sourdough, and didn’t rise quite as much as I expected, but overall, it’s texture was better than store bought gluten free loaves.
However, when attempted with the spelt, the dough didn’t rise and the result was a dense doughy bread, more like Irish soda bread. So, I’m a little disappointed. I was expecting something light and fluffy, sandwich style bread, if you will…
Obviously, the leavening needs to be adjusted, so here’s back to the old drawing board.
Wholly Holy Living 