Khorasan Wheat Sourdough Bread Recipes

KAMUT® (KHORASAN) SOURDOUGH BREAD

Steps:

• Mix the flour and water. Cover to autolyse for 1-2 hours.
• Add the starter and salt to the dough, pinching and kneading to incorporate the additions. Cover and let rest for 30-40 minutes.
• After the rest, begin a series of stretching and folding every 20-30 minutes. I did six stretch and folds for the all-Kamut and the 40%, and four for the 20% Kamut.
• Cover and let bulk ferment for a total of 6-12 hours from when you added the leaven. The time will depend on your room temperature. (My all-Kamut fermented 9.5 hours at 75 F. The 40% fermented 11 hours, 3 hours at 76 F and 8 hours at 64 F. The 20% fermented 10 hours at 72 F.)
• Scrape the dough onto a well floured surface. Dust the top of the dough with flour and stretch/press it into a rectangular shape. Fold it in thirds and then in half as per this video.
• Cover and let the dough rest for 15-20 minutes while you prep a basket/tea towel with all-purpose flour, rice flour, or bran flakes.
• Flip the dough and shape it into a boule or batard, depending on your baking vessel. Lay it in your basket seam side up for smooth scoring, or seam side down for a rustic look.
• Let the dough proof 60-90 minutes at room temperature, or 6-10 hours in the refrigerator. I proofed the whole grain loaf in the refrigerator for 7 hours, as the dough was very sticky and difficult to handle. The 40% and 20% doughs proofed at room temperature for 75 and 90 minutes, respectively.
• Thirty minutes before the end of the proofing stage, preheat your oven to 500 F with the baking vessel inside.
• Flour your hand and flip the dough out of the basket. Gently place it in the hot baking vessel. Score the top, cover, and bake:
• 500 F for 30 minutes lid on
• 450 F for 10 minutes lid off
• Or until the internal temperature is over 205 F.

NATURALLY LEAVENED KHORASAN SANDWICH BREAD

Steps:

• See the photo gallery and video below the recipe for target dough consistency and expansion.
• Starter Build
• The night before or early in the morning, build your 150g sourdough starter. For a night-before feed, use 20g sourdough starter with 65g water and 65g flour. For an early morning feed, use 50g starter with 50g water and 50g flour. Allow the starter to ripen until it is at least double in size.
• Mixing and Bulk Fermentation
• Scald the milk by warming it to 180°F. You may want to start with 400g milk because of evaporation.
• Add the honey, oil, and salt to the hot milk and let the mixture cool down to less than 115°F.
• Combine the flour, ripe sourdough starter, and liquid mixture in a large bowl. Mix thoroughly and cover.
• After a 20-30 minute rest, stretch and fold the dough with damp fingertips (see video below). Cover, let the dough rest another 20-30 minutes, and repeat the stretching and folding. Do the rest, and stretching and folding a third time.
• Let the dough bulk ferment until it has almost doubled in size. At warm ambient temps (high 70s) and the dough already warm from the milk, this took about 5 hours. Colder dough will need more time.
• Shaping and Final Proof
• Flour your work surface and scrape your dough out of the bowl.
• Shape the dough by stretching it into a rectangle, roll that up into a tube, flatten the tube a bit, and re-roll the dough into a tube again, making sure it is not quite as long as your pan.
• Place the dough in a lightly oiled loaf pan with the seam side down. I use a medium USA Pan, which is 9x5x2.75 inches.
• Cover and let the dough rise again for 1-3 hours at room temperature. My dough proofed for about 2 hours. The dough is ready to bake when it has doubled in size or its highest part crests over the lip of the pan. You can also refrigerate the dough overnight but first let it rise almost completely at room temperature, or plan for it to expand more the next morning at room temperature.
• Baking
• Put one of your oven racks on the second-from-the-bottom position and preheat your oven to 375F for about 15 minutes.
• Brush the top of the dough with milk and place it in the oven.
• Bake for 50-60 minutes, turning the pan halfway if the bread is browning unevenly. To firm up the bottom and sides of the loaf, take the bread out of the pan for the last 5-10 minutes of the bake.
• When baking is complete, the bread should have an internal temperature of about 200F.
• Brush the still-warm crust with butter or oil to keep it soft.
• Ideally, the bread should cool for about 2 hours before slicing.