These are the three spelt loaves I made early this morning : two small tins and a medium. I didn't slash the loaf in the larger tin and that's why its popped its crust.
Hullo again dear friends,
This morning I made three loaves from freshly ground Spelt Flour. But why... and what is it? Well,
I read that Spelt grain evolved from an ancient grain called ‘Einkorn’. But Einkorn had an inedible hull and was difficult to thresh, and was supplanted by ‘Farro’, a grain grown from the natural intermixing
of Einkorn and Goatgrass (?) genes.Though not around much these days, Farro is really popular as a pasta grain in Italy I am told. Now, Spelt is a more domesticated version of Farro, and... Spelt is a tall grain with deep roots, valuable in drawing up nutrients
from deep in the soil and very useful in protecting the plant in a drought. Modern shallow rooted wheat has been intentionally bred to be a shorter plant and so easier to harvest, and has heavier heads. So there you are.
One very good reason to use Spelt flour is that people with gluten intolerance, and other people too, often find the proteins in Spelt easier to digest than the proteins in the hybridised (and generally heavily Round Up sprayed) modern wheat,
that is now a mono crop around the world. Wholemeal Spelt flour is highly praised for cakes and pastries, though I have only used it for bread making (check out the picture). It is very tasty friends, with a nutty flavour, and the bread is sooooo simple
to make: you don’t knead the dough made from Spelt Flour, and its quicker to make too…only one rise!🙂
So here’s the recipe I use. By the way, you can get organic Spelt flour from The Source Bulk Foods, https://thesourcebulkfoods.com.au which has 30 stores around
Australia. If you want to buy organic Spelt grain by the 10 kg bag try Demeter, or order through your local health food shop
WHOLEMEAL SPELT BREAD
800 g WHOLEMEAL SPELT FLOUR.
700ml LUKE WARM WATER
14g (4.5 tsp) ACTIVE DRY YEAST
2 tsp SALT.
OLIVE OIL for oiling
the bread tin(s).
Thoroughly whisk together the water, yeast and salt. Carefully add the mixture to the Spelt Flour, because you may not need to use the full 700ml, depending on how dry
your flour is; it varies. Just mix it all together with your hands or a wooden spoon: do not knead. The mixture should be doughy but not wet.
Let the dough rise in a warm place for 2 hours,
or longer if the place isn’t warm. It should about double in size. Heat your oven to 220C.
Now, once the bread has risen, wet your hands and roll up the dough into an ovalish ball,then
gently drop it into one large (or two small) oiled bread tins, slash a few times with a sharp knife, and spray/sprinkle with water: allow for a 50 per cent rise in volume when deciding on the size of your bread tin
Put the loaf/loaves in your oven for 40-50 minutes till the bread is a delightful brown co;our, and the tin sounds hollow when you knock the bottom. Check every 10-15 minutes to see how its doing, especially notice if its getting a burnt crust,
if it is, turn down the heat to 200C. I use a wood burning stove so heat precision is a bit tricky.
When it’s done, take your bread out of the oven, leave for 10 minutes to settle, then
upturn onto a wire rack, with care. Slice when coolish. You might like to spread on some Vegan Butter.**NEW! VEGAN BUTTER.
You can make tasty variations to your bread by adding seeds of various kinds to the flour: pumpkin or sunflower seeds for instance, or try raisins or other dried fruit for a sweeter bread. Be generous!😋
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