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Making your own Spelt and Kamut Sourdough Bread

The making of sourdough bread dates back thousands of years, all bread was sourdough before the advent of commercial yeast.

Sourdough bread has a lovely chewy crust and moist wholesome centre, it is more flavoursome than conventional bread and keeps exceptionally well. It is easy to make in the home kitchen once the starter is established.

Basically sourdough bread is made with a “starter” instead of commercial yeast. The starter is made by allowing a flour and water mixture to ferment, collecting natural yeasts from the surrounding air. The starter requires daily feeding with flour and water (similar to a ginger beer “plant”). If you are not making bread on a daily basis the starter can be refrigerated for up to a few months (without feeding), this is called a dormant starter.

To make sourdough bread you need bakers flour (a high protein flour), our spelt and kamut flours are ideal, active starter, salt, oil, water and maybe sugar, butter, milk etc depending on the recipe.

Making your own Starter

Mix 2 cups spelt or kamut flour with about 1½ cups warm water to the consistency of a thick pancake batter (add a little more flour or water if required), mixing with a wooden spoon vigorously to incorporate as much air into the batter as possible. (Air contains the natural yeasts).

Leave uncovered in a large bowl in a warm area. Give it a quick vigorous stir whenever you walk past (or a couple of times a day) and feed the mixture with another cup of flour and ¾ cup of warm water (or enough water to maintain the consistency) every 12 hours.

After 2 or 3 days small bubbles should begin to appear on the surface. Continue feeding and mixing until the starter has developed to the point where it is so bubbly it has a layer of foam 5 centimetres deep on the surface. At this point it is called an active starter and is ready to use for baking.

If the starter develops a foul order or colour it has gone off and should be discarded. Don’t be discouraged, just start again, once you have developed the starter it is easy to maintain and use. A slight apple cider vinegary smell indicates a healthy starter.

Always keep your starter clean, measure out what’s required for a recipe into a separate bowl for mixing with flour, salt, oil etc. The remaining starter can be feed up again for the next baking the following day or so, or 1 to 2 cups of starter can be placed in a jar (lid on) and put in the fridge.

Spelt or Kamut Sourdough Bread

4 cups active starter
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup water
2 teaspoons sea salt
6 cups spelt or kamut flour

Mix all together and knead into ball adding more flour or water if necessary to get a firm but not too sticky dough.
Knead on a lightly floured surface for about 10 minutes until dough is smooth and elastic.
Place dough into greased heavy duty good quality bread tin, cover and place in warm area until dough has doubled in size.
Place in moderate hot oven for 40 – 50 minutes. Remove hot bread from tin, tap bottom of bread, if it sounds hollow it’s cooked, if it doesn’t sound hollow put the bread back in the oven straight on the oven rack and cook another 5 or 10 minutes. Allow bread to cool on a biscuit rack.

Reactivating a Dormant Starter

After the starter has been in the fridge for a week or so (in a jar with lid) it will start to separate. A clearish watery substance will form at the top and a white dough at the bottom. After a month or so the watery substance will turn a dark colour (a bit like black tea) and generally the whole jar will resemble something that should be tossed. However, if you remove the lid and it has a winy/apple cidery/vinegary smell it is fine and can be reactivated for use.

A day or so before you want to bake remove the dormant starter from the fridge. Scrap the starter out of the jar into a large bowl and feed with 1 cup flour and ¾ cup or so of warm water, give a quick vigorous stir and place in a warm area. Feed again after 12 hours or so. Remember to have the consistency of a slightly thick batter. Continue feeding and stirring until totally reactivated and foamy, depending on the starter and how long it’s been in the fridge this will take 1 to 3 days.

When active again, measure out required starter for baking, and either set aside remaining starter for another bake or return a jar to the fridge.

Notes

Once you get the hang of it it truly is an easy process. It’s a natural, old-age way of making bread that’s succeeded for thousands of years. If at first you don’t succeed, try again (and again if necessary), you’ll soon have a feel for the consistency of the starter and timing the whole process.

Just remember the starter is alive and should either be given warmth, food (flour) and water to stay alive and multiply, or put into hibernation in the fridge.

One excellent book we recommend is:

“World Sourdoughs from Antiquity” by Ed Wood,
Published by Ten Speed Press, Canada
Distributed in Australia by E J Dwyer Pty Ltd

ISBN 0 89815 843 5

It describes the process in detail, has many recipes, some photos and even a section on making sourdough bread in the bread machine.