Spelt and Rye Bread: More from the Miraculous Motherdough

I have posted earlier about the amazing motherdough, a way of maintaining a continuous supply of no-knead (ok, minimal knead) bread without the 18 hour waits involved in the justly-famous Jim Lahey/Bittman/Sullivan St recipe. More information on the basics here, but the short version is that you create a dough almost identical to that for the Lahey bread (2:1 flour:water, with small amount of yeast) but maintain it, keeping it in the fridge in a container with a well-fitting lid, feeding it like a sourdough and using larger or smaller amounts according to need.

After some weeks of revelling in this, I decided to create a similar concoction with rye. I actually began it with my existing largely-spelt mother dough, and took a portion and began to feed it rye. Some weeks later it is effectively a rye sourdough.

Although there are rye afficionados who can do so (at least by other means), my ambition has not extended to a 100% rye loaf from this process. Rather I have used the rye motherdough to supplement the spelt and create what is presently the staple bread around here: a spelt and rye sandwich loaf.

The somewhat conventional "tin" shape used here is eminently practical, but its origin lies in the way spelt dough inevitably spreads when proving. While spelt works well in the Lahey no-knead method because it can slouch around overnight but then gets helped into the shape of the relatively small lidded pot involved there, the longer final proof here needs a little more structure to force into a respectably upright form.

This doesn't quite count as a recipe, but here's how it works:

-Spoon a cup of rye motherdough and two cups of spelt motherdough onto a very well-floured (spelt, I'd say) surface and knead well together.

-Although spelt doesn't need or even like much kneading, the combined dough requires a bit of work to combine, and starts off very wet.

-I work only until it barely feels dry enough to use, and then shape and place in a lightly-greased loaf tin for 4-6 hours. I am going to try a shorter final proof one of these days for comparison - watch this space.

-When ready, prepare a very hot oven. Bake the loaf for 20 minutes, remove from tin and bake a further 5.