Spelt sourdough (with "raisin mush")

Another "Bread Matters" recipe, this one uses a spelt starter (made up following the instructions in Andrew Whitley's book but including a tbsp of my original "Boris" - who's still chilling in the fridge!), and with the addition (to the flour, not the leaven) of 50g of raisins soaked in 50g of boiling water, which had been blended up to make a "mush".

The recipe itself was simple - make a production leaven (which I left overnight in a cool place), then knead together the flour, water, salt and raisin mush, before adding the production leaven and kneading again. Actually I added in another step by mixing the spelt flour and water and leaving for 30mins, as I love the way it makes the initial dough so much easier to handle.... So far so good. Once all the ingredients were combined and kneaded together, I followed the method used for the other sourdough loaves in Bread Matters, leaving for 1 hour (covered with a bowl on the worktop) and then stretching and folding, before leaving for the final prove. Decided to use the big oven as I wanted a good thick crust, and that's just not possible with a fan in the smaller oven (which can't be switched off)....... That was where my frustration began! NOTHING to do with my loaf but everything to do with my oven thermostat which has completely broken now... Won't heat up, or does heat up and then goes "nuclear"... This time it was all going well until the temperature dropped suddenly and irreconcilably... So it took a good 4 hours before I could bake my loaf... By which point I fear it had over-proved :-(

Actually it was fine!! Perhaps a touch over-proved, and a little "well fired" BUT it had a lovely crust and the taste was loads nicer than my previous spelt sourdough (the RC version with hemp seeds). A success! Delicious with homemade hummous and salad.. one I'll definitely be making again :-)