BBB - Rheinbrot

The kitchen that provided the challenge for this month was Paulchen's FoodBlog?!.  Note to self: feed sourdough more often.  Using a sluggish starter practically doubles the time needed to produce a loaf.  I'll bet I would have seen much more oven spring with a happy starter.  That's okay, it's happy now and I made super fluffy pancakes with it this morning.  I still have some wine left so maybe I'll try again!  That all said, this loaf has delicious aroma.  I used part all purpose and part spelt flour this time and it really had great gluten development during the folds.  I ended up with a pretty slack dough even though it started out pretty stiff.  With both spelt and sourdough, I was expecting that.  This is a pretty nice and mostly hands off recipe.  Just a few turns with a wooden spoon, a fold here and there, and aside from fermentation time it is ready to go.  It's hard to be a buddy in the summer when vacation and higher temperatures make baking go lower on the totem pole, but I'm glad I did this one.  The dough was kind of sweet during the proofing times and I was worried there would not be enough salt to flavor it, but the resulting loaf smelled great and nice and salty.  Well, not too much, but deliciously so.  ☺  I got a more typical chewy sourdough result than some of the other bakers, who reported a light and fluffy crumb and soft crust.  I attribute that to my underfed starter.

Rheinbrot

makes 1 loaf

Sponge:
50 g semisweet Riesling
50 g boiled water, at room temperature
100 g flour (I used all purpose)
50 g sourdough starter at 100% hydration

Dough
250 g flour (I used all purpose and light spelt)
135 g water
6 g salt

Mix sourdough with liquids, whisk thoroughly.

Add flour and mix again.

The dough ferments at 2 stages:
a) 4 hours at a temperature 30-32°C, it should grow at least twice its size, will be lumpy looking at this stage and have larger and smaller bubbles. If you stick your nose into the container, the scent will be somewhat unpleasant, it may even seem that the dough has deteriorated. Don't panic, this only means the dough is doing the right thing.

b) Pour the sponge in a bowl and whisk thoroughly to remove all the trapped gas and aerate it with oxygen. Cover with foil and let sit for 10-12 hours (overnight) at room temperature. Dough will rise again in half and very often shows smaller bubbles.

Now the sponge is ready for kneading: pour in the water and stir until smooth. Add the flour, mix well and give the autolysis a chance to work for 40-50 minutes.

Add the salt and quickly knead the dough, if it is too sticky add a little flour, but be careful not to add too much.  (I proofed mine in a greased tub so I didn't need any flour for my folds.)

Let ferment for 2-2.5 hours. Fold twice after 1 hour and 1 1/2 hour.

Form a loaf and let proof in a basket for 1 1/2 hours (doubles in size) covered with a towel in a draft free place. (Mine took three hours - sorry starter.)

Preheat oven to 450°F.

Transfer dough to your parchment or baking sheet. Make a slash or two and let it slide on your baking stone.

Bake for 10 minutes with steam and then without steam 20-30 minutes at 400°F.

Let cool down for at least half an hour before slicing the bread.