Sourdough bread is a great alternative when wanting a healthier bread. If you haven’t read my article on sourdough bread, you can read it here: A Healthy Bread That Is Good For You! I have always loved an authentic sourdough loaf. A true sourdough loaf is made with wild yeast or a sourdough starter. If you haven’t read my post on how to start a sourdough starter, you can do that here: How To Start Your Own Sourdough Starter. This loaf of bread has 4 ingredients, that is it! It is super easy to make but does take some time to ferment. This dough actually ferments for 19 hours. Don’t let that scare you…the whole process will take you 10 minutes of prep time and the rest of the time the dough just sits there getting better and tastier.
There are several things that you will need to get started. It is a good idea to have a digital scale to measure your ingredients but is not absolutely necessary. I do my best to show you how to utilize what you have in your kitchen so you don’t have to buy any special equipment. I use a dutch oven to cook my bread in. Often times people will cook sourdough in a La Cloche, but I find it just as easy to use a dutch oven. Another item that is often used when cooking sourdough bread is a proofing basket or a round brotform (pictured at bottom of post). Again, I just use what I have in my kitchen. You can make a proofing basket by using a colander lined with a thin towel (not a thick towel). You might want to purchase a Danish dough whisk, but a slotted spoon works as well. See the bottom of this post to see where you can purchase these items. I have pictures showing you all of this. This recipe was modified from Breadtopia, a great website that teaches us all how to make a better loaf of sourdough! So let’s get started.
The first thing you need to do is measure out 350 grams (1 1/2 cup) of filtered water (at room temperature). Place water into a ceramic bowl, not metal. Stir in 3 tablespoons of honey. If using raw honey, melt the honey on low heat until it turns into a liquid.
Add 1/4 cup of sourdough starter (learn how to make your own sourdough starter here) to the water mixture and mix well. Your sourdough starter should look like this.
Add 1/4 cup of this starter to the water mixture and stir well.
In another bowl, measure out 530 grams (about 5 cups fluffed) of 100% whole spelt flour. Add 10 grams (1 1/2 tsp) of unrefined sea salt and stir. Please note, you need to use whole spelt flour, other flours will not work with this recipe.
Mix the flour mixture in with the water mixture. Stir with a slotted spoon until well combined. The dough will be a wet dough.
Cover with plastic and store in a warm place for 1 hour.
After 1 hour, dust your hands and the top of the dough with flour. Pick up the dough and stretch and then fold the dough. Stretch once again in the opposite direction. Place back into the bowl and cover with plastic for another 1/2 hour. After a half hour, do a second stretch and fold in both directions. Put back in the bowl and cover with plastic for another half hour. After a half hour do a final (third) stretch and fold in both directions. Place the dough back into the bowl and cover with plastic and allow it to sit overnight. I usually start this whole process at 3:30 pm and bake it the next morning at 9:30 am.
In the morning you will need a wood cutting board, a colander and light dish towel.
This is what your dough will look like in the morning. Yours might rise a bit more, it all depends on the weather and how warm your kitchen is. It was cooler in my kitchen, so it didn’t rise as much, but don’t let that alarm you, it will still rise as it proofs and cooks.
Flour the cutting board, hands, the dish towel in the colander and the top of the dough with rice flour. Gently scrape the dough out of the bowl and place it onto the cutting board. Pull the sides up and pinch the dough at the top. Place dough into the lined colander and cover with plastic and allow the dough to rise for another hour and a half.
In a 400º-450º F oven(temperature might vary depending on your oven, 450ºF was too hot for me, I cooked mine in a 400º F oven). Preheat a dutch oven with a lid on for the last half hour that the dough is rising. Pull the very hot dutch oven out of the oven and gently transfer the dough into the hot dutch oven by flipping the dough gently out of the colander. Put the lid back on and return to oven and bake for 35 minutes. After 35 minutes remove the lid and allow to bake for 10 additional minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 195º-200º F.
Remove bread from Dutch oven and allow the bread to cool for 1 hour before serving. Serve with some grass fed butter and enjoy!
How To Make A “Real” Sourdough Spelt Loaf
Prep Time: 20 minutes- Cook Time: 45 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes
Yield: 20 pieces 1x
Category: side dish
Method: baking
Cuisine: american
Print Recipe
Pin RecipeDescription
Learn how to make your own sourdough spelt loaf. It really is quite easy!
Ingredients
- 530 grams (5 fluffed cups) spelt flour
- 3 tbsp honey
- 350 grams (1 1/2 cup) water
- 10 grams (1 1/2 tsp) unrefined sea salt
- 1/4 cup sourdough starter, see recipe
Instructions
- See Instructions in this post
Notes
Nutrition Info: Calories: 143.8 Fat: 1.0g Carbohydrates: 28.5g Protein: 4.1g
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 piece
Hi Halle, starter is done, now I need some advice on the baking end. My issue is the same as another bakers. When I got my dough out in the morning it was just glop. No chance of folding anything, it was so liquidy. I just dusted with flour as best I could. It’s in the proofing basket now, but I can’t imagine getting it out! I did weigh the ingredients, only switching about a cup of whole grain with a cup of white spelt. Any ideas? Thanks!
Sounds to me that you need to knead in some more flour to make it a stiffer dough. Dough can change dramatically with environmental changes. Weather, altitude, humidity all affect how your dough performs. Follow your gut, if it seems to wet and you are unable to work with it, it needs more flour.
Thanks for sharing this great recipe. It worked perfectly for me and was the best sourdough spelt bread I have made. I used rye flour starter, which did not seem to effect the result. As per some other bakers, I put the bread on baking paper to make it easier to get into and out of the Dutch oven.
Is it okay to use sprouted spelt flour for this recipe?
Hey Craig, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work. Give it a try!
Thank you, Halle, for this excellent recipe! First time in my life that I make a sourdough starter and sourdough bread, and the result was excellent!!! I wish I could attach a photo to show you the beautiful finished product! I followed your recipe almost exactly. I didn’t have whole spelt flour, so I used white spelt flour. Delicious and beautiful! Couldn’t be happier.Thank you so much!
★★★★★
So happy you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing your feedback! 🙂
Hi, I followed this recipe to a T, and ended up with a pretty flat loaf. I used spelt starter and spelt flour. Similar to another poster, I had wet, sticky dough that would not fold. It sounds like I should have mixed in some more flour to thicken it. I used a spatula to move the dough around, and used a lot of flour on the towel when I put it in the colander, and didn’t have much trouble with transferring it to the Dutch oven (cast iron) not enamel coated. The dough had almost doubled in size by the morning, but seemed to shrink a lot when I transferred it to the towel/colander, and ended up being only about 2 inches tall when fully cooked. The flavor is good, texture is dense, but not terribly… Wondering what I did wrong that kept it from fully rising?
I have timed my baking wrong and need to get up about 3am to do the last stage before leaving it to rise the last 1.5 hours. Is it ok if I leave it longer?
You can leave it a bit longer and shouldn’t have any issues.
For people who were reporting that their dough turned into gloop, I just read another blog on making sourdough spelt loaf and they recommended that spelt doesn’t like a slow rise and doesn’t take much moisture. He said that your dough should start off a bit stiff as it liquefies over time. I’m confused now and don’t know what to do. By the way is this recipe for wholemeal or white spelt flour?
Definately trying this recipe tomorrow! How long is overnight approximately? Seems It must be awhile to total 19
hours. Cant wait to try the bread! Thank you 🙂
Mine was about 12 hours.
can you do it without the honey?
I’m sure you could, just replace it with either pure maple syrup or an organic sugar of choice.
I only use one Tbsp at the most & it turns out great!
★★★★★
I did it! This was my first try. I am so happy with it! I can’t believe that I have a spelt boule sitting on my counter :). The instructions were very easy to follow and most importantly, it worked. I followed the recipe pretty much exactly. I gave it 14 days to make my starter and made my bread the following day. Very happy with the results.
★★★★★
Yay Christina! Great job! 🙂
I have been making sourdough bread for a long time but I was taught to use a tin. Also I used almost 50/50 starter, flour. It always rose so I thought that it was a success. I just finished my second slice of bread and just can’t believe the difference of fermenting over night and using a Dutch Oven can make. I am in awe of my humble slice. Thank you for this enlightening blog. Namaste.
★★★★★
Yay! Happy your sourdough was a success, Frederic!
I just made this and it turned out beautifully!!! So pleased!!! I have never made any sour dough before and frankly I am in awe that I pulled this off!!!! Thanks for the pictorial instructions!
Yay, so happy your loaf turned out beautifully!
My second loaf turned out rather flat despite being fully risen per instructions. Any clues or helps?