Classic Sourdoughs (4 page)

Spring wheat is planted in the spring and harvested in late summer. In North America, it is grown primarily in Montana, the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Canada, since the winters are often too cold for the wheat to survive if planted in the fall. This wheat is known throughout the world as Manitoba or Dark Northern Spring, and it is considered to be the wheat with the strongest gluten. Winter wheat is planted in the fall, lies dormant over winter, and is harvested in early summer.

An additional variable is the method of milling, which is the grinding and sifting process that produces flour from grain kernels. During milling, the kernel components are separated, depending on the type of flour being produced. The largest portion is the endosperm, which contains about 75 percent of the kernel’s protein and is the sole source of white flour. Bran is the outer coating of the kernel, and it is included in whole wheat flour. The embryo or sprouting section of the seed is the germ. It contains fats and oils and is usually separated from flours, since it leads to rancidity during storage at room temperature.

In ancient times, milling was done by hand between two heavy stones, which not only removed the kernel’s husk but ground the remaining portions so finely that they could not be separated. Some modern milling techniques still utilize special millstones, but millers who use them can now regulate the degree of fineness and
separate the kernel components. Some believe, however, that stone milling is done primarily for its image and promotional value: these flours are highly touted to the home baker. High-speed steel roller milling remains the most common method, and the choice is largely one of personal preference. The type of wheat is far more important to the sourdough baker than the milling process.

White flour is available in two major categories. Bleached flours are treated with chlorine compounds or other bleaching agents to whiten the flour and may also have a number of chemical additives to improve baking characteristics. We believe that bleach and other additives may not be suitable for use with sourdough organisms. Unbleached flours generally have no chemical additives. Both bleached and unbleached white flours are usually enriched with iron and several of the B vitamins.

Lower gluten flours are often treated with oxidizing agents to strengthen their gluten. They may be blended with several other flour types, and may even include barley. Unfortunately, labels on flour rarely list the types of wheat they contain. In fact, most flours are a mixture of types, but the proportions and types remain a mystery. All-purpose flours are in this group of mixed-type flours. Because sourdough bakers want a unique, open texture and don’t like a variety of chemicals, we prefer unbleached all-purpose flours. High-gluten flours produce the even texture desired by commercial bread bakers—this quality is not highly desirable for sourdough bakers.

One particular caution justifies a special paragraph. Avoid self-rising or instant flours, which may contain dried yeast or chemical leavens or both. In general, 1 cup (140 g) of self-rising flour contains 1½ teaspoons of leavening agent and ½ teaspoon of salt.

Grinding your own whole wheat is one way—perhaps the best way—to guarantee the type and quality of your flour and may offer a source of satisfaction worth the effort. Whole wheat flours contain most of the wheat kernel components and are more nutritious than white flours. However, enrichment standards established by the FDA in the early 1940s for white flours have lessened the nutritional differences between the two types. Whole wheat generally contains part or all of the wheat germ and will become rancid unless stored in the refrigerator or freezer. Cracked wheat is cut rather than ground and is used in bread recipes for special texture and flavor. Flaked and rolled wheat is also available.

Organic wheat flours are becoming more widely available in bulk food sections and health food stores. If organic foods are important to you for health or even moral reasons, you can bake organic sourdough breads more cheaply than you can buy them.

Kamut has an intriguing history shrouded in controversy. It starts some sixty years ago when a military serviceman stationed in Portugal was given a few grains of wheat said to be from King Tut’s tomb. This “King Tut’s grain” found its way to the Quinn ranch in Montana, where it was planted and produced organically for a number of years. In the 1980s, Bob Quinn studied the grain, classified it as
Triticum polonicum
, and labeled it Kamut, an Egyptian word for wheat. It has since been identified as khorasan wheat, a subspecies of
Triticum turgidum
and a close relation of emmer, the great-grandfather of modern wheat. Unlike emmer, Kamut is a so-called “naked” wheat—one that threshes free of its hull—as are all modern wheats. Quinn has trademarked the grain and continues to produce it organically on his Montana ranch and licenses it to be grown and marketed around the world: in a recent conversation with Quinn, he told me he sells more Kamut in Italy than anywhere else, including the United States. It is widely available in natural groceries and health food stores. It imparts a distinctive nutty flavor in sourdough bread.

Spelt may be even more ancient than Kamut and is said by some to have emerged more than nine thousand years ago. It has been popular in Europe for thousands of years and is currently common in European food stores. Our sourdough culture from Australia was collected on spelt.

Spelt, like emmer, has a tough husk that is difficult to remove, requiring special dehusking equipment. It was introduced to this country by Amish farmers in Ohio, who fed it primarily to livestock. In the 1980s, Wilhelm Kosnopfl, president of Michigan-based Purity Foods, financed a spelt research program at Ohio University and subsequently developed a facility at Okemos, Michigan, to provide spelt products to health food stores. I had an opportunity to have a brief chat with Willy Kosnopfl early in 1996, during which he remarked that “in Europe, spelt is used almost exclusively with sourdoughs.” We both speculated that there may be something intrinsic about sourdough fermentations that is particularly well adapted to spelt flours. Indeed, spelt is a remarkable grain that produces terrific sourdough breads. The flour yields a soft, satiny dough with minimal kneading, and has a mild, pleasant taste.

The original marketing of spelt was a bit flamboyant, describing it as a “non-wheat” grain and therefore ideal for gluten-sensitive individuals. However, most agronomists consider spelt as a distinct species of wheat. Those with wheat allergies should use it with caution.

Don Stinchcomb, now the president of Purity Foods, says that health food fans appreciate spelt’s unique nutritional qualities. According to Stinchcomb, spelt is higher in B vitamins and fiber than ordinary bread wheats and has larger amounts of both simple and complex carbohydrates. Studies by a number of researchers seem to indicate that spelt’s gluten degrades rapidly during mixing, suggesting that mixing times should be limited for best results.

Most of our test baking for this book was with sourdough cultures grown in a mixture of all-purpose flour and water. When testing spelt flours, however, we used a culture with a spelt-water mixture so that we could evaluate doughs containing 100 percent spelt. The results were impressive. The culture itself had an entirely different texture than an all-purpose flour culture, almost like thick whipped cream. We baked recipes with 100 percent white spelt flour and with mixtures of whole spelt flour up to 68 percent. The loaves uniformly leavened as well as doughs of the same recipe using 100 percent all-purpose flour. We compared kneading for five minutes and ten minutes and could detect no difference.

The product we evaluated is Vita-Spelt, produced by Purity Foods. It is advertised as organic, unenriched, unbleached, and unbromated, which in the current era is impressive. The breads we baked were exquisite sourdoughs, and we have
included several recipes for you to try. The flour at this time is a little pricey, but we think you’ll find it worth the extra cost.

If your objective is to avoid “nonspelt glutens” and bake breads made entirely with spelt, transfer your culture from a bread flour base to a spelt flour base. This is quite easy to do. If you are activating a dried culture, simply substitute white spelt flour for white bread flour. If you have an activated bread flour culture, put ¼ cup (60 ml) into a 1-quart (1 liter) Mason jar, add 1 cup (240 ml) of warm water, stir vigorously, and add 1 cup (130 g) of white spelt flour. Stir briefly and proof at 85°F (29°C) for approximately twelve hours. Then take ¼ cup (60 ml) of this culture and repeat the process. After three or four repetitions, you will have diluted the bread flour to an insignificant level.

At one time, we thought durum was a soft wheat used almost exclusively to produce pastas, such as macaroni, spaghetti, ravioli, noodles, and so on. All the soft stuff was made, we assumed, from “soft” wheat called durum. And then there’s semolina, a coarse durum used to sprinkle on baking sheets or stones to keep dough from sticking. But we never heard of anyone using durum to bake bread until a decade or so ago, when we learned about it from North Dakota farmer Arlen Gilbertson, who grows it and is proud of his crop. He would hold a grain between his fingers and point out that it was almost transparent—then he’d tap it with a hammer to demonstrate its hardness. Durum is a spring wheat, and when Gilbertson told us that the protein content was between 14 and 17 percent, we began to get interested. Did that high protein mean high gluten? We wondered why no one was making bread with it. (We’ve since learned that it is widely used for bread baking in the Middle East.)

Our first baking trials were disappointing. At a level of 25 percent durum, there was a definite reduction in leavening. But the flavor was exceptionally good. We couldn’t understand why what we now knew was a hard wheat with a high percentage of protein wouldn’t have good gluten. But not all glutens are alike; further, there seems to be no direct relationship between gluten quality and percent protein. That is, a high protein is not always associated with high gluten and a low protein may have high gluten. Durum wheat and its glutens have been selected to produce certain qualities in pastas, but those glutens are not noted for their leavening qualities, as are other wheat glutens.

In the United States, rye grain is grown mainly in the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Nebraska, in soils suitable for hardy grain varieties. It is a winter grain, planted in the fall and harvested the following summer. Rye protein is not of the gluten-forming type, and breads made entirely with rye flour do not rise well. It is usually mixed with wheat flour, producing a lighter loaf with rye flavor. Sourdough cultures originating in central Europe may be better adapted to fermenting rye, where it has been a dominant grain for centuries. These flours continue to be a major ingredient in the breads of many European countries.

When milling rye, two basic types of flour are produced: white and dark. White rye flour is made only from the endosperm. It is particularly recommended for mild-flavored Jewish and other light rye breads. It is generally mixed with 60 to 70 percent good-quality white flour. Dark rye is a more distinctive flavored flour especially suitable for heavy, dark rye breads such as German rye, Swedish rye, and pumpernickel. It is usually mixed with about 80 percent high-protein white or whole wheat flour. Pumpernickel flour is a coarse dark rye made by grinding the entire rye kernel. It is analogous to whole wheat and is milled in fine, medium, and coarse pumpernickel flours. Rye blends that combine regular or dark rye with a good-quality, high-protein white flour are also available.

One of the subjects at a Canadian conference on nutrition we attended in 1998 was the benefits of the omega-3 fatty acids in flax. We acquired some samples of milled flax and whole flaxseed for bake tests with sourdough. All the loaves with varying percentages of flax flour leavened well and had an unusual whole grain flavor.

Health claims of one sort or another are made for flax and for other fibers, including durum and certain barleys. This is not necessarily the best reason to change your diet to include these fibers. However, they do add something special to the flavor and texture of sourdough breads, and they might increase your longevity. And one thing is certain: you can enjoy any benefits of omega-3 for a lot lower cost from flax than from salmon.

Bulgur is not a special variety of wheat. Rather, it is almost any wheat prepared by a special method that was probably developed accidentally while in pursuit of long-term preservation. It is made by soaking and cooking the whole wheat kernel, drying it, and then removing part of the bran and cracking the remaining kernel into small pieces. Bulgur is man’s oldest recorded use of wheat: it was being made four thousand years ago, and it is theorized that ancient civilizations boiled wheat kernels and then sun-dried them. The process produced a different—and desirable—flavor, and the grain was more resistant to mold. More recently, it has been discovered that the process also shifts desirable vitamins and minerals from the outer layers of the seed to the endosperm, the primary constituent of white flour, thus enriching it. In baking tests, the dough absorbed much more water than conventional dough, and we did not think the heavy bread would rise. But it rose rapidly and produced a loaf with an unusual and delicious flavor.