OK, in Part 1, I mixed, lightly kneaded 2 batches of dough for honey spelt and maltster breads. This happened between 9 and 10pm last night and it’s now just before 7am when its time to press on…
Here’s the tubs of dough. As you can see they’re well risen and ready to go.
Nothing really special here – I put the tub on the scales, zero the scales then tip out the dough. Put the empty tub back on the scales (which weight negative!) and divide the number by 4 to get the weight of each loaf… Divide the dough into those 4 lumps, then roughly shape into a boulle.
I’ve re-shaped them and transferred them to the couche. My shaping is a 2-step process and one day I might even video it, but there’s a quick 2-turn roll, then a stretch and fold in thirds followed by another roll… It needs a video!
The couche is covered by the spare linen, the oven it turned on to heat up to 250C, and it’s left to prove while I have breakfast, shower, etc.
Almost there now. The spelts have risen and spread, the maltsters have also risen but not as much – it’s always a trade-off when doing anything else with spelt (unless I use 2 ovens) as its much quicker to prove. Fortunately they get a good bit of spring in the oven.
Next up, it’s onto the transfer board, slashed and into the oven!
Couche to transfer board – this is a piece of 3mm plywood shaped to fit just inside the guide rails in my oven, so I can use it as a full-width peel to load bread into (and out of) the oven.
This is the oven (with one bulb broken!) Note three shelves, each is a 10mm thick steel plate that fits into the guide slots. Each one weighs nearly 17Kg. the oven is heated up to 250C. Once the door is closed, a little button on the front panel opens the water solenoid which jets a spray of water onto the back panel which fills the oven with hot steam.
Finally …
And there we are. Low-impact sourdough baking. Minimal kneading, let all the hard work happen overnight and it only takes up a few moments in the evening and morning and it fits in well with the rest of the days activity.
The last thing now is putting them in bags, sticking the label on and taking them up to the shop! This lot were in the shop by 9:30 and sold-out by lunchtime. Must make more!
