--- title: miche à l’épeautre author: Wouter type: post date: 2012-07-26T19:45:11+00:00 url: /miche-epeautre/ featured_image: /wp-content/uploads/2012/07/MG_6626.jpg tags: - miche - spelt --- This must be my most successful [miche][1] to date. There are so many recipes inspired by a _pain poilâne_ it’s hard to keep track of. Jeffrey Hamelman has one in his book BREAD, Peter Reinhart has one in his book Bread Baker’s Apprentice and in my most recent book I’ve seen a version from Daniel Leader in “[local breads][2]“. I wasn’t really looking for another miche style French _levain_ bread but wanted to try out different techniques I’ve found at The Fresh Loaf on **how to get moure sour** out of your sourdough. So while I was at it, why not try something new? This is an _adapted_ version from Leader’s _pain au levain_ complet. I noticed I still had a bag of spelt flour unopened I wanted to try. (_épautre_ is French for spelt). **I’ve learned the following things **on how to “improve” the sourness level of your sourdough bread: * Use a **stiff levain** – it builds up slower and develops more acids that way. * **Ferment longer** – quite obvious, right? I never fermented longer than 2 hours (bulk), so this was relatively new for me * Use a levain with **wholegrain** – it has a higher ash content and will act as a buffer for the lactic acids before they break down the yeast or gluten. * **Retard** your dough in the fridge for 12 to up to 24 hours. # The Recipe **Preferment** * 50gr starter, I used my “loose” rye starter (60-70% hydration, not sure but does not matter) * 50gr stone-ground organic wholewheat flour * 50gr spelt flour (this is not wholegrain) * 75gr water
Time table:
I baked it straight from the fridge, called a “cold bake”, with some steam injected into the oven. It is actually not really needed to slash this boule, as wholewheat does not get a huge oven spring anyway and you might want to decorate your loaf with some flour.
A closer look at the interior, look how dark and holey it is!The flour is locally milled and simply amazing – you can stretch it a lot without tearing (see the pictures!), it’s very very finely ground, it’s local and it’s cheap (and of course stone-ground, meaning no single bran left out and I did not sift anything). I did not want to use another “T85” kind of flour (85% extraction, meaning 15% bran sifted out). I simply love it this way.
I’ve learned a lot baking this bread and it’s simply delicious. I’m baking this thing again, that’s for sure!