Spelt bread - a recipe

In the last few months I've been making this bread fairly regularly; it's delicious and doesn't ever seem to make me blow up like a balloon. Always a good thing.



Happily I also know that eating butter with it - any bread - makes it far more digestible and enables you to absorb any goodness more easily. Just don't ask me exactly how. I do wish I had managed to focus on the butter  here... this heart was a complete fluke!



The recipe is on the back of the organic spelt flour I use and is apparently a recipe from circa 2000 years ago ... or from any time when 'Romans' were marching about.



It's super easy to make, which I do by hand; can't speak for the machine version of it. I tend to double everything (apart from the cooking time!) and make one large loaf that ends up in various shapes depending on which tin I decide to use.

Here's the recipe if you want to copy and paste:

500g wholegrain Spelt flour

half a teaspoon of salt

1tsp of quick yeast

1 tablespoon of honey

400ml of warm water

1 tablespoon of olive oil

• First mix the flour, salt and yeast in a large bowl.


• Dissolve the honey in the 400ml of warm water and pour into the the flour and roughly mix


• While dough is craggy add the olive oil and mix well. ( I use a knife throughout this process to bring it all together as the dough gets really sticky - don't be tempted to add more flour, the wetness of the dough gives it it's lovely texture when cooked.)


• I put my oven on at 200 deg. ( gas mark 6/400 F/ 18o deg. C if you have a fan oven) at this point as it takes a while to heat up and the bread rises as it warms


• Knead the or work the dough for a few minutes then divide between 2 500g  bread tins ( I don't really knead it a lot - just poke it a bit and keep moving it around and cutting and melding with the ordinary knife ( by this I mean a normal eating knife with rounded end)


• Place in a warm spot for at least 25mins and then cook for 40/45 mins in the pre- heated oven


• If it looks done and sounds hollow take it out and after a minute or so tip or lever out!

(personally I had trouble getting the bread out of the tins when I first made it - not sure what the answer is there - more greasing of tins perhaps); anyway I tried lining the tins with baking parchment and that of course was fine. It's a sticky dough so I like to put it in more of a tray bake shape tin and line with the parchment - then brown the bottom for a few minutes in the oven. Ideally let it cool on a wire rack so that the outside remains crispy.

Let me know if you have a go! It's delicious. As I said at the beginning.