Revisting Wrocław Trencher Bread

Last spring, I tried making a medieval wheat/rye bread from Medievalists.net, which was in turn quoted from Maria Dembinska's Food and Drink in Medieval Poland (1999). The recipe is a reconstruction based on 14th century bread regulations from the city of Wrocław, so the ingredients are well-documented, though the method is speculative (and the results delicious). 

Since last year, I have found spelt flour (a particular wheat variety) and so decided to see how that changed the results compared to generic whole wheat.

As I do not have any mixing bowls large enough to contain a whole batch, I once again opted to make this recipe on a half-scale:

4 cups rye flour
3.5 cups spelt flour
1 cup beer
1/4 oz (2.5tsp) dry yeast in 1/2 cup water
2 additional cups water
1 Tablespoon salt

As given in the instructions, I started by mixing the flours together, then taking half of the mixture (~3 3/4 cups) and adding the proofed yeast, beer, and water. 

The 'before' picture of the sponge.

After sitting overnight (and through the workday), I added the remaining flour and salt, kneaded ~20 minutes, and took periodic breaks from kneading to hit the dough with a wooden rolling pin.

 

The dough then rose for another ~2 hours until approximately doubled in size. I kneaded it once more (with stick-hitting) for about 10 minutes, then shaped into 5 loaves each between 3" and 4" in diameter. I let the dough rise for another 90 minutes until the loaves expanded to 5"-6" across, then baked 15 min at 400F and a further 15 at 375F.

 

Finished bread.

 

The bread turned out perfectly edible: tasty, with a decent texture, though a touch dense. I think I could have gotten a better crumb by extending the final knead to a full 20 minutes and letting the loaves rise just a little longer, and will probably try that next time. The loaves were quite good the second day after baking (approximately T+36 hours), though the crust was rather hard to cut the day after that. As usual, this half batch was more than sufficient for a two-day event. I really should start making quarter-batches...