In an earlier post I spoke about my health condition. After several years I am discovering I am unable to digest regular wheat flour. Since learning of this needed lifestyle change, I have tried baking bread with several types of flour, but none have come out successfully.
I want my bread to have a light, fluffy texture and awesome crumb. I don't want the first thought to be healthy. Actually, I want it to look, feel and taste like normal bread.
I had almost given up hope of ever being able to make or buy bread that made both my gut and my taste buds happy. After extensive research, a few experimental tries and prayer, I successfully made three loaves of spelt bread. It is everything I want and need in a slice of bread. The flavor was excellent and the texture and crumb had baked to perfection.
I want to explain a little about spelt flour before I move onto sharing my recipe. From what I understand, spelt is an old grain and is a relative of wheat, which means it has gluten in it. It has a nutty flavor, but not very strong.
With my intestinal issues, I have found I am able to digest spelt flour much better than wheat flour. I am not allergic to gluten, so please understand I am not going for a gluten free grain, but rather wheat free.
Where do I buy my spelt flour? If you are near a Whole Foods store, their price on spelt flour is reasonable. However, I have found Bob's Red Mill on Amazon to be the best for my dollar with the price under $2/lb. Bob's Red Mill spelt flour is what I used in my recipe.
I am providing pictures of my baking process so you can follow along with me.
The first thing you will do is make a sponge. A sponge will ferment part of the flour in order to help make it more digestible. You will need 2 cups of spelt flour, 2 cups of very warm water ( I turn my tap to the hottest setting and use it at that temperature) and 1 teaspoon vinegar. I use the white vinegar, but I'm sure apple cider vinegar will do just fine as well.
Mix it good, then cover and let it sit in a warm place for an hour.
It will look like this when you take the cover off:
Add 2 tablespoons of white sugar or 1/3 cup of honey, 2 tablespoons of yeast and 2 cups of hot tap water:
Mix it up good:
Now we are going to cover it again and let it sit for 20 minutes:
This is what it looks like after 20 minutes:
Now you are going to add 5 tablespoons of melted butter, 2 teaspoons of salt & 1 cup of spelt flour:
Mix thoroughly and then add 5 more cups of spelt flour a cup at a time, mixing well in-between. You want the dough to be soft and sticky, but able to form a loose ball:
Scrape it out onto your floured counter and sprinkle flour on top and knead very gently until the dough is no longer sticky, but is still very soft:
I always wash the same bowl and use it for the first rise. Anyway, make sure you sprinkle the bottom of the bowl with flour, then place the dough in the bowl, sprinkle flour on top, cover and place in a warm place to double in size. Mine always takes 25 minutes:
Grease 3 loaf pans with whatever you like. I prefer coconut oil, but I was out, so I used butter:
Shape the dough out into 3 equal parts. If you are particular about them being equal, use a kitchen scale. I just eyeball it:
Take each part and gently poke in it like this:
Now it's time to shape them for the pans:
Now put pans in a warm place, cover and let sit for 15 minutes. Start preheating your oven to 375 degrees F while you wait. You want your oven hot and ready when your timer beeps:
Your dough is now ready for the oven. Bake them at 375 degrees F, for 30 minutes or until internal temperature is 195-200 degrees:
You want to let them cool in the pans on racks for 10 minutes:
Take them out of the pans and let them cool on the racks for at least 25 minutes before slicing. The longer you can wait, the better. But I know, it's hard to let fresh bread just sit there ;).
I also like to brush a little butter on the tops, but that is totally optional:
And that is all! You have perfectly lovely loaves of spelt bread that not only look good, but are perfect in texture and have a great flavor that is great for sandwich bread. You won't even know you are eating healthy.
