Whole Spelt Bread with Herbs-infused Olive Oil using Tang Zhong starter

This loaf of bread is made with whole spelt flour, using tang zhong starter. Tang zhong is a method from Asia which involves heating up a portion of the flour with water until 65C and turning that into a glue-like paste consistency. By doing so, the final product ends up softer and fluffier.

Ingredients
Tang zhong starter
20g whole spelt flour (around 5% of total spelt flour used)
100ml water

Main dough
360g whole spelt flour, divided (180g + 180g)
140ml water
40ml herbs-infused olive oil
40ml honey
120g tang zhong starter (see above)

Method
Start by making a tang zhong starter. The ratio of water to flour is 5:1. For my case, I used 100ml water with 20g spelt flour and mixed them in a pot while heating the mixture up to 65C, stirring continuously. Once the temperature is reached, turned off the heat and let the mixture cool down. You can cover it with clingfilm and put it in the fridge for a few days before using.

Tang zhong starter

Heat up 40ml of olive oil with some of your favourite herbs. Let it cool down and strain it before using.

Olive oil infused with herbs

In a stand mixer, combine 180g of the spelt flour with 1 tsp of yeast and 6g of salt. Add to the mixer, 140ml water, 40ml honey and the 40ml of herbs-infused olive oil. Mix it for one minute.

Cover the bowl with a towel and let it rest for one hour. It will be bubbly like below.

Bubbly bubbly bubbly

Add in the tang zhong starter. If you had placed it in the fridge, take it out for at least a few hours before using.

Start adding in the rest of the flour in small proportions while mixing. You will know you have added enough flour when the dough pulls away from the bowl and forms one big ball. The dough may be slightly sticky. Do not over-add the flour or the dough will be too dry. It is alright to have some flour left. For this bake, I have 20g of flour leftover. Do not over-mix this dough in a stand mixer because the gluten in the spelt flour is very fragile and over-mixing will destroy the gluten strands.

Placed the dough in the loaf tin and let it proof for 1 to 2 hours. When it doubles in size, it is ready for baking.

Proofing

Proofed and ready to be baked

Preheat the oven to 175C. Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes. Take the tin out of the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes, then carefully remove the loaf and finish cooling on a rack.

Freshly out of the oven

Loaf is cooling down

Cross-section of the bread

Do try making this on your own and see how soft the bread can be. You can use normal bread flour instead of spelt flour. If you are using normal bread flour, you might want to knead the dough to develop the gluten.