041 - Spelt Wholemeal Sourdough with Rosemary and Caraway

Wholemeal Rosemary and Caraway Bread
June 21, 2011

This is the first yeasted bread I've made with anything other than water flour and salt. The theme for BreadBakingDay #41 is bread with local herbs/spices and since this is also my 41st loaf (!), I finally decided to join the fun after watching BBD for a few months now. I went with a rather conservative mix of rosemary and caraway seeds. 

[250WM - 250SP - 230LE - 350WA] autolyse 30 min
[10SA - 50WA] mix, bulk ferment 2 hours, stretch and fold every 30 min
bench rest 30 minutes, retard for 7 hours in mixing bowl

I was more than a little tired when preparing this dough so I forgot to write down any notes. I don't remember much about the bulk fermentation other than that again, the spelt flour produced a very gassy and stretchy dough in a short period of time. I baked the loaf for 1:30 in a pre-heated dutch oven after flouring the top of the dough and spraying with water. 

Coming out of the oven the bread smelled very strongly of caraway and not much of rosemary. Thankfully the taste of the caraway was not overwhelming but the rosemary could only be tasted very slightly - a bit disappointed about that, as I was hoping it would lend its strong woody flavor to complement the caraway seeds - I might not have used enough rosemary. The crumb was moderately thick and crunchy and the crumb was quite light and moist with a good amount of bounce. The structure of the crumb looked relatively well distributed without being stretched one way or another, which I'm content with. 


Later in the day we cooked up some lunch with the remainder of the bread. Lots of cheese, butter, tomatoes, and herbs were in the mix. Tasty results all around. A meek effort for my first BBD, but I may try a loaf with merkén, my favorite spice, before month's end. Looking forward to some interesting challenges in the months to come. 

BBD #41 - 4th anniversary editon - bread with herbs (last day of submission July 1, 2011)

6 comments:

  1. Thank you (sorry, I couldn’t find your name), your bread looks delicious. Today I’m baking with just Rosemary, but I will try the combination with caraway. I can almost smell it. I’m happy you joined the Bread Baking Day at this 4th anniversary with your 41st bread. I’m curious about the bread with the mixed spices merkén. I just baked a Thai Tartine with fresh chili; spicy! Thanks for baking with us.

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  2. Fantastic bread! this one is on my "must try" list. thank you! you'll probably see it on my blog soon. :)

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  3. ummmm, you are quickly becoming my fave bread blog. definitely in the top 3

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  4. @Connie - I saw your thai chili bread and it looks really nice, I like the idea of a spicy bread. I'm a bit apprehensive about folding cooked ingredients into a loaf but maybe I'll inch my way there with some help from a friend

    @Codruta and Frankie, thank you kindly! I really appreciate your comments and your baking. I'm quite flattered, as you both make breads that I would like to make but haven't. I should pay more attention instead of experimenting by myself all the time. :)

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  5. Hi Daily Bread, as you can see you have a lot of friends who are willing to help you. But, seeing your beautiful breads I would say; 'go for it'. I'm sure it will be a delicious spicy bread. In my first spicy bread I didn't cooked the onions and herbs and it didn't turn out ok. This time with the cooked spices it did, I think because I used a little bit of oil for baking the onions and garlic with chili.

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  6. @Connie . Thanks for the support! I'll definitely get to it sooner or later, but the list of things I want to make is endless. Hopefully I make a spicy bread soon.

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