WHOLE GRAIN KAMUT SOURDOUGH BREAD

Whole Grain Kamut Sourdough Bread image

Provided by Melissa Johnson

Categories Recipes

Time 1h15m

Number Of Ingredients 4

460 grams whole grain Kamut wheat flour (3½ cups)
340 grams water (1⅓ cups + 1 Tbsp)
100 grams sourdough starter (⅓-½ cup) I used sourdough starter fed with rye flour but this isn't required.
9 grams salt (1½ tsp)

Steps:

Mix the ingredients together in a large bowl. Cover and let the dough rest for about 20 minutes, and then stretch and fold the dough with damp fingers. The dough should be sticky but not wet and gloppy. If the dough is soupy, add 30g more flour i.e. a couple tablespoons.
Repeat the 20 minute rest followed by stretching and folding with damp fingers two more times, and then let dough rise until it has expanded by close to 40%. This took my dough about 4 hours from when I initially mixed it, but could be anywhere from 2-8 hours depending on your ambient temperature and starter strength.
Scrape the dough out onto a well-floured countertop and shape it for your proofing basket (batard, boule, oblong). The dough has almost no gluten tension, so there's no need to do a pre-shape.
Place the shaped dough in a floured proofing basket, cover, and let it expand for 1-2 hours.
When the dough has expanded (see photos above), put the proofing basket in the refrigerator, and then begin to preheat your oven and baking vessel at 500°F for 30 minutes.
Remove the chilled-stiff dough from the refrigerator and flip it onto parchment paper or directly into your hot baking vessel. Score the dough and bake as follows:
20 minutes at 500°F with the lid on
8 minutes at 450°F with the lid on
8 minutes at 450°F with the lid off
If you're using a cast iron baking vessel, you may want to lower the oven temperature earlier.