Spelt or hulled wheat, cultivated since 5000 BC, is a hardier and more nutritious cousin of modern wheat and has a sweetish, slightly nutty taste. This bread, adapted from a lovely recipe by JPS Cloud on the website, is easy to make, particularly in a breadmaker. You can adjust the proportions of the flour – just note that the more rye you add, the less it rises.
Makes 12 slices 400g stoneground spelt flour 120g stoneground rye flour 11/2 tsp salt 2 tsp yeast 3 tbsp seeds of your choice: we suggest 1 tbsp poppy (these are small and don’t overwhelm the bread), 1 tbsp sunflower and 1 tbsp linseeds or pumpkin 430ml lukewarm water 2 tbsp olive oil (or 40g butter) 1 tbsp honey |
• CALORIES 180 • PROTEIN 5G • FAT 5G • FIBRE 4G • CARBS 30G |
Put all the ingredients in the breadmaker tin and set as a ‘large’ loaf on the wholemeal cycle (takes 4-5 hours, depending on the breadmaker). Easy.
Or you can bake it in the oven. Put the flour, salt, seeds and yeast in a large bowl and mix them together. Then gradually stir in the lukewarm water along with the oil and the honey to form a dough. Use your hands to finish mixing it. There should be none left sticking to the bowl.
Transfer the dough to a flat surface scattered lightly with flour and knead it for 5 minutes, until it no longer feels sticky. Add more flour as needed. Oil the loaf tin and fold the dough into a shape that fits inside it, pressing it in evenly. Put it in a large plastic food bag and leave it to rise for 2 hours (until the dough no longer springs back when you press it with your finger). Then remove it from the bag and place it in an oven preheated to 200°C.
Remove the tin after about 35-40 minutes. It should have risen and turned golden brown. Tip the bread out onto the baking tray. It should sound hollow when you tap it. If you like crisp crusts, put it back in the oven for 5 more minutes.
Tip: kneading bread should be a bit of an upper body workout as you need to repeatedly stretch the dough by pushing it away from you with the base of your hand, then fold it onto itself and repeat, for at least 5 minutes.