I made a fantastic loaf with KA starter. My German friend says it tastes like the "real bread" he's used to in Germany--and he's tried some pretty high quality American-made sourdough bread, including Zingerman's. He thinks it tastes so "real" because I used spelt flour. Here's my recipe: Ripening starter: 1/3 cup refrigerated starter 1/3 cup water 2/3 cup KAF all-purpose flour Mix together and let sit at room temp for 4 hours. Loaf: 1 cup ripened starter 1 1/2 cups luke-warm water 1 3/4 tsp salt 2 2/3 cup KAF all-purpose flour 2 cups whole spelt flour 5 Tblsp wheat gluten (Tip: I measure my flour by spooning into a measuring cup and then leveling off with a knife.) Mix together flours and gluten. Reserve 1/2 cup of the flour mix in a little bowl. Put the lukewarm water in a mixing bowl and add the starter and 3 cups of the flour mixture. Beat on medium/high speed for 2 minutes. Beat in the salt. If you have a sturdy stand-up mixer, beat in the remaining flour (except for the 1/2 cup reserved); if your mixer is hand-held, it might work better to stir in the remaining flour. Knead the dough until smooth but soft (about 7 minutes), using a bit of the 1/2 cup reserved flour to dust the surface (I use a Silpat). Use the rest of the reserved flour during kneading if the sticky dough starts to drive you crazy. Don't knead in extra flour! The hydrated dough is part of the reason the bread turns out so well. Form the dough into a ball and put it in a lightly greased bowl. Cover with a towel. Let it rise at room temp for 5 hours. The dough should look "puffy." DO NOT PUNCH DOUGH DOWN. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Gently turn the bowl upside down onto the parchment paper. Very gently shape the dough into one large batard or two small boules. Make sure to create enough surface tension so that the loaf has an easier time holding its shape. Do not "pop" the dough during this process--you want to keep as much puffiness from the first rise as possible. If there are a couple of large bubbles right at the surface of the dough, it's OK to gently pop them with a toothpick. Make sure that the shaped loafs are sitting on the parchment paper with the seam-side down. Cover the loaf with a kitchen towel and leave alone for two hour. You can prepare the oven during the second rise. Put one rack on the bottom rung, and put the other rack on the next rung up. Set a large baking stone or large/long iron griddle on the topmost rung (my pizza stone is two small for this loaf so I use a griddle). Put an iron skillet on the rung below the stone/griddle. The oven should be preheated to 450 F for 1/2 hour. This is important! You want to make sure that the sides of the oven, the baking stone/griddle, and the skillet all have time to fully heat up. The high heat is what helps the bread to rise high. When the two hours is up, set some water to boil. Uncover the loaf. It should be a bit bigger than when you shaped it. It's OK if it's squashed out sideways; the intense heat from the stone/griddle will cause it pop right up. Carefully score the bread with an x-acto knife or lame (I use an x-acto knife; it works wonderfully). Score it with three diagonal slashes for the batard, or with a tic-tac-toe pattern if you made two boules. I score the dough twice. The first score breaks the surface tension of the dough, and the second score goes a bit deeper. This allows the dough to rise very high during baking. Mist the dough thoroughly with a spray bottle filled with water. Measure 1/2 cup boiling water and set it in an easy-to-grab spot by the oven. Carry the cookie sheet over to the oven. Working quickly, open the oven and pull the parchment paper (with loaf on top) onto the stone/griddle (I don't know what the flash point of parchment paper is, but mine DID NOT ignite at 450 F). Pour the 1/2 cup boiling water into the skillet on the bottom rack, and then close the oven door as quickly as possible. Bake the bread for 10 minutes at 450 F (it should spring very high during this first 10 minutes--you might be very surprised at how high it pops up!). Then, remove the skillet from the oven, and replace it with a room-temp skillet that has been filled with 1/2 cup hot/boiling water. Cover the loaf with aluminum foil. Lower the temp to 400 F and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and bake for a few extra minutes, or until golden-brown. Remove the bread from the oven and cool completely before cutting. The resulting bread should have a crust that is very chewy. The interior should be moist, yet soft, fluffy, and slightly chewy, and have medium-to-large irregular holes. The flavor should be well-developed, but not overly sour. We always appreciate when our customers are willing to share special recipes with us. Please feel free to post this on our community site as well if you wish. ~Amy

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