Flour question for the bread bakers...

Mike B, Larry, Duane, Cowboy et al...

Have any of you ever used kamut flour? I have a 1kg bag I'm about to open. I was hoping to make sourdough with it, but I keep getting conflicting info re its handling properties. Would love any advice you can off, please? I know Mike said he'd worked with it before...

Thanks all,

Celia

I've used Kamut (it's a trademarked name), but only as an additive to other flours. I've never used it alone. But I've grown it, just to see what it looks like. When I get back from work later today, I'll take a look and see what info I have on it.

Thanks Larry. I've got the starter refreshing now, will try a small batch this arvo and see what happens. Any advice would be much appreciated!

When I bake bread it's almost always the simple wet dough baguette recipe I found here.

But the kamut interested me and I went poking about.

You may find this useful if you haven't already seen it:

http://www.kamut.com/english/index.htm

Click the "Professionals" link in the sidebar for great info. (It loads in a frame so I can't post a direct address.)

Fred, thank you! That was exactly what I was looking for - use a higher hydration dough, and longer bulk proving time. Cool !

As I recall I used it with a blend fo durum and other flours on some flatbreads with anise. It all depends on what grind you have as to how you are going to use it. Would love to see thepictures when you are done.

I have never used it but I am expecting pictures and notes from you on how it turns out.

Warning : boring and longwinded.

Last night I tried two batches of dough using 100% organic kamut flour. Using my usual wet sourdough starter (1 part by volume of water to 1 part by volume of flour), I began with my usual 74% hydration recipe, but pretty soon realised that it was waaay too dry. I ended up making one 700g loaf at a massive 88% hydration, and another at 81% hydration. Because I'd read that kamut was similar to spelt and other ancient grains, and therefore unlikely to be high in gluten, I added a tsp of vital gluten to the 81% batch.

Very long bulk proving time - 12.5 hours. Minimal kneading - I gave the dough a quick 30 second knead, and then a couple of folds before I went to bed. (I'd also read that kamut doesn't like to be overhandled). This morning, both doughs had risen substantially, but neither seemed to have the elasticity that regular bread flour doughs have, nor were there any big air bubbles in the dough. Proved both in my pvc wicker baskets (I love these!), which had been sprayed with oil - no flour. Allowed to rise for an additional 1.25 hours.

Baked on preheated pizza stones in a 220C FF oven for 20 minutes (sprayed the oven with water), then dropped the heat to 175C for an additional 15 minutes. The loaves baked very brown. Not much oven spring, and interestingly the added gluten didn't seem to make much difference to the loaves (the gluten loaf may possibly have risen just a little bit more, but the higher hydration loaf spread more).

The baking loaves gave off an interesting and delicious, almost sweet, aroma, quite different from regular flour loaves. The loaves came out pretty solid, but well cooked. When cut, they presented a really interesting crumb - not gluggy, but perhaps a little cakelike in texture, and very tender. The slices were delicious - reminiscent of rye in flavour, but without the overwhelming heaviness of a 100% rye loaf. They passed the peanut butter test, and the cheese test. The bread also has a lovely sourness to it, probably because of the long overnight prove. I really like this bread. It's probably a little heavy for every day eating, but it certainly makes a nice change. It surprised me that it wasn't very much like spelt at all - I guess I'd linked the two in my head. For next time, I won't bother with the gluten, but will definitely stick to the higher hydration dough.

88% kamut.jpg

81% kamut.jpg

88% kamut cut.jpg

Warning : boring and longwinded.

Very interesting! They look great.

The loaves look great. It's really cool to bake with ancient grains.

I don't have much on Kamut, but it's closely related to emmer (an early wheat), not spelt. It's a middle Eastern wheat. And it's a naked grain, in that the hull comes loose when harvesting, so it replaced emmer.

Thank you!

Larry, that's very interesting about the kamut/emmer connection! It must surely be a cheaper grain for them to mill. And you're right, it is fun to experiment. I absolutely adore spelt flour, which I always bake with added gluten. After today's experiment with the kamut, I'm going to try a really long overnight prove to see if the spelt will perform well without anything added. Having said that, I'm hardly a purist, and it's the taste of the spelt I love, not necessarily its other purported benefits. So if it takes a bit of gluten to make a good loaf, I'll add it without any qualms at all.

Have just eaten some of the kamut loaf for lunch. Very nice indeed with provolone cheese and apple paste!

it is fun to experiment

Great looking loaves. Keep up the experiments, they are good to eat !!

There was an interesting piece about Kamut in Richard Bertinet's new book CRUST, which is in line with what Larry said:

Khorason (or Kamut) - This is another ancient wheat which, like spelt, fell out of favour and has been reborn. In America, where is is grown organically in Montana, it is called Kamut, and the story is that it was used in ancient Egypt and rediscovered by an American airman in the 1950s. However, at Shipton Mill, where I buy the flour, they have done their research and discovered that its true name is Khorason, and it probably originates in northern Iran. In parts of the Middle East and Central Asia, it has been grown in subsistence farming systems for centuries. The flour is slightly more fibrous than wheat flour, with a sandy golden colour and a lovely earthy flavour - almost a taste of the fields. You can use Khorason on its own, but it contains a less strong form of gluten than wheat , which can make for heavy bread, so I find you get much lighter results when you blend it with strong white flour.