Spelt Bread

Today was a day of rest... for Harrison. With his Christening and then two days of out and about, the little guy needed some sleep. And sleep he did.

So, while he did that, it was tidying, cleaning and baking for me and Charlotte.

Charlotte wanted to help... really she did! 

Once the tidying was done, I decided to try my hand at making some spelt bread. I can't eat a lot of wheat and I do like a piece of toast in the morning. I've tried making spelt bread in my bread machine but it comes out quite dense. Good for toast, but I wouldn't eat it in a sandwich. My Mom gave me a spelt recipe that is very easy to do and makes just a couple of loaves at a time. I had a loaf of hers a couple of weeks ago and it was very good. So light and fluffy. The secret - light spelt flour and very little kneeding.

I got my spelt flour yesterday. The flour needs to be light, not dark and a company in Donovan's (G.J. Shortall Ltd.) sells it in a 20lb bag. A lot of flour if you aren't going to make a lot of bread, but worth it is you do. I tried making it in the bread machine yesterday. It didn't turn out as well as my last batch. This morning, I gave the more traditional way a go. It turned out pretty good. Charlotte liked it. Not as good as Mom's though. But, practice makes perfect. I'm looking forward to breakfast tomorrow.

Here's the recipe:

SPELT BREAD
1 Tbsp. yeast
2 cups warm water
3 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp. melted butter
2 tsp. sea salt
6 cups spelt flour

Combine warm water and honey in a bowl.  Add yeast.  Let stand 10 minutes or until the yeast softens and rises.  Stir in the butter and salt and three cups of flour.  Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon.  Add remaining flour in increments until the dough becomes too stiff to stir.  Then place dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for about six minutes, add remaining flour if and as necessary until dough becomes smooth and elastic.  DO NOT OVER KNEAD.

Place dough in a lightly greased bowl.  Cover and let rise in a warm draft free spot for about 1 hour or until double in bulk. Punch dough down to deflate it and divide in half.  Form each half into a smooth loaf and place in greased loaf pans.  Cover and let rise in a warm draft free spot for about an hour or until the dough has risen to top of the pans.  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place the pans on a heavy baking sheet and bake 45 minutes or until tops are light brown and crusty.  Remove bread from oven and the pans.  Place bread on baking sheet.  Turn off the oven and return bread to oven to crisp for 5 minutes.



Enjoy!

Warm bread with molasses and a cup of tea. Yummy!