Ok, so here's the actual recipe for the loaf I mentioned in my last post:
Timings
Initial Prep time: 40 mins
Fermenting time: Overnight
Proving time: 1 hour
Final shaping time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 37 minutes + 5 mins cooldown
Resting time: 45 minutes
Eating time: Not a lot.
Ingredients (makes 2 loaves)
136g Spelt Flour
544g Strong White Bread Flour
2 1/4 Teaspoons of Dried Instant Yeast (not the stuff you have to activate)
1 Tablespoon of Sea Salt (the big grainy stuff - not table salt unless you want a heart attack)
500g Lukewarm Water (yes, weight it).
Method
Mix the flour, spelt flour, yeast and salt in a bowl. Add the water. If you're fortunate enough to own a Kenwood Chef or similar, mix it with that using the K-beater (not the dough hook) for a minute or so. If not, then use a spoon and mix the old fashioned way.
Leave for 5 mins to let the water mix in with the flour.
Turn out to a floured work surface.
Use the "stretch and fold" technique that Peter Reinhart talks about here.
For this dough, you can use flour on the work surface, like I do, rather than oil. Try oil if you like though!
Split into 2 portions and put your dough into well oiled bowls (spray oil works well for this).
Leave overnight in the fridge (or for up to 4 days).
When you want to bake it, you need to be careful. Get your bowl out of the fridge. Flour the work surface. Turn out the dough on to the work surface. It'll slop out. Grab each "corner" and bring it to the centre. Flip over the dough and pull the outside of the dough slightly taught towards the centre of the underside. Be careful not to be too aggressive, you want to keep the air pockets in the dough.
Carefully move the dough on top of a piece of baking parchment and slide a peel (or a chopping board will do) underneath that. Stick your bowl over the top and leave it to prove for an hour. This dough will tend to slop out sideways rather than up, so it's a good idea to try and contain it. Using a couche or just 2 rolling pins round the side of it (under some baking paper) should do it.
When ready to bake, make sure your oven is hot, and you have a hot baking sheet/stone in there, and a hot pan in the bottom. I set my starting temp at 210 degrees centigrade with my fan oven. My oven is quite lethal, so you may need a little bit of a higher temperature, it's very oven specific.
Boil a small jug of water (half a litre or so)
Pour the water into the hot pan at the bottom of the oven to create your steam bath.
Carefully slide your bread dough and baking parchment onto your baking tray in the oven.
Shut the door and wait for 12 mins.
After 12 mins, turn the loaf around, shut the door and reduce the temp to 180 degrees. Bake for 25 minutes. Turn the oven off, and leave the bread there for 5 minutes.
Take it out and cool it on a rack for 45 minutes or so.
Eat.
You should get a crumb with big holes in it, and a fairly crispy crust. I get a lot of separation from my crust and the crumb as well.
Give it a go and see.
You can also just use all white flour if you fancy it (that was the original recipe anyway) - that's 680g in total to save you the trouble.
