Is anyone working with emmer, spelt, etc? I'm working on this partly because the flavors are interesting, partly because a regular dinner guest has some pretty serious reactions to commercial wheat.
My first round of testing was with Bob's Red Mill Whole Wheat Spelt. Did an overnight poolish and then combined to make the main dough, ferment 4-5 hours with occasional folding. The gluten development of the spelt was decent enough to make a bread like substance, but encumbered by the large portion of bran. The result had good flavor and texture, sturdy crust, pairs well with cultured butter. Couldn't get past the crunchy hippy aspect though.
In a taste test, V1 was much better than Whole Foods pre-sliced spelt bread plain and toasted. No tummies were tortured in the taste test.
On order I have VitaSpelt white flour. This should improve the gluten percentage. I would like to try both 100% white spelt and 70/30 with the whole wheat.
Similarly would like to try white and mixed feed for a sourdough starter. I made a starter for about a week with the whole wheat spelt and the smell was really off putting. I ignored it for the last few days, and it got oxidized and or moldy (black stuff) on top. Gross. Better luck next time.
My experiments with 100% emmer wheat products have ended in tears. Dense and too far off the classic taste profile for my favorite breads.
Will post progress on the next spelt loaf.
PS, yes I've read Tartine Book No 3, most of those recipes don't go above 30% heirloom grain.
