Half and half spelt bread

When you wake up and realise you don’t have any bread for lunch and it’s tipping it down outside, you really need a simple and, in bread terms, quick recipe. Here’s one you can start about 10:00am that will give you a warm, tasty accompaniment to cheese or whatever you like by lunchtime. 

Ingredients:

250gms white spelt flour

250gms whole meal spelt flour

2 tsp Vitamin C powder

2 tsp dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

150 ml warm water to activate the yeast and a further 200 ml to mix

Pinch of salt

2 tbsp olive oil

1.       Activate the dry yeast. Add the yeast and sugar to 150ml warm water and cover. Leave for about fifteen minutes until it is frothy and then stir.

2.       Mix the flours, citric acid and salt in a large bowl. (Add quick yeast at this point if you are using that instead of dry yeast.)

3.       Add the yeast mixture and 200ml more of warm water. Mix and knead into a smooth dough. If you’re using a mixer, you’ll find that the dough will form a ball and adhere to the hook once it’s ready.

4.       Roll the dough into a ball, cover the bowl with a cloth and leave in a draft-free place for an hour or until it has doubled in volume.

5.       Punch back the dough, add the olive oil and knead again. This is the important knead. The dough should end up smooth and spongey. Be careful not to keep folding the dough during this knead as air will become trapped between the folds and create holes in the bread. If you do find yourself folding the dough make sure you knead it well afterwards to remove any trapped air. Again, if you’re using a mixer the dough will form a ball on the hook once it’s ready.

6.       Grease a 1 pound baking tin.

7.       Mould the dough into the right shape for the tin and pop it in.

8.       Cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes.

9.       Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees fan, 225 degrees conventional. It’s important to preheat, even with a fan oven as then a minimum of heat will be lost when you open the door.

10.   Bake until golden, about 35-40 minutes, turn out and allow to cool on a rack.

This will produce a good sized loaf that is perfect for sandwiches and toast. By mixing the whole meal and white spelt you end up with a lighter texture than a fully whole meal loaf but it has the all the nutty flavour. Be sure to cut off the crust while it’s still warm, smother with butter and enjoy. It’s wonderfully crunchy and absolutely scrummy.

Choc chip banana bread

There’s something about bananas, especially when their skin has gone black and insides are all soft and creamy, they just scream chocolate and walnuts. So here’s a little recipe for banana bread with all those ingredients. 

   

Ingredients:

65 gms olive oil spread

75 gms sugar

1 egg

1 banana

90 gms spelt flour

1 tsp baking powder

30gms walnuts, chopped

50gms dark choc chips

1.       Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees fan, 190 degrees conventional

2.       Cream the fat and sugar together thoroughly in a large mixing bowl.

3.       Mash up the banana and add to the mixture. (If you’re using a mixer then just add the banana to the fat and sugar.)

4.       Break the egg into a small jug and whisk until the mixture will pour easily.

5.       Mix the egg into the creamed sugar and fat a tiny bit at a time. This is important and the reason why I use a jug. If you add too much the mixture curdles. By using a jug you can dribble the egg mixture into the bowl as slowly as you want.

6.       Mix the flour and baking powder and fold gently into the mixture a little at a time. The trick here is to keep the mixture light and not destroy any of the bubbles that have formed.

7.       Fold in the walnuts and choc chips.

8.       Line a one pound bread tin with baking parchment. The dough is very sticky and lining makes for a lot less washing up!

9.       Spoon the dough into the tin and bake in a pre-heated oven for 35 - 40 minutes until cooked. A good way to test is to insert a fine metal skewer. If it comes out clean the bread is ready.

10.   Lift out of the tin – this is another advantage of lining the tin with baking parchment - and place on a rack to cool. 

The smell of this bread coming out of the oven is wonderful. I defy you not to want to have a slice long before the choc chips have cooled enough to make it safe!

Spelt and rice flour Victoria Sponge

There really is nothing nicer when friends come to visit than a Victoria sponge. It might be traditional but it’s yummy none the less, and in this family at least one of the teens will eat it for breakfast if there are no brioches around too!

Ingredients:

175 gms olive oil spread

175 gms sugar

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla essence

100 gms spelt flour

75 gms rice flour

1 tsp baking powder

Strawberry jam to fill

1.       Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees fan, 190 degrees conventional

2.       Cream the fat and sugar together thoroughly in a large mixing bowl.

3.       Break three eggs into a small jug, add the vanilla essence and whisk until the mixture will pour easily.

4.       Mix the egg into the creamed sugar and fat a tiny bit at a time. This is important and the reason why I use a jug. If you add too much the mixture curdles. By using a jug you can dribble the egg mixture into the bowl as slowly as you want.

5.       Mix the flours and baking powder and fold gently into the mixture a little at a time. The trick here is to keep the mixture light and not destroy any of the bubbles that have formed.

6.       Line two 15cm sponge tins with baking parchment – I use pre-formed liners as it makes this bit less fiddly and divide the sponge mixture roughly equally between them.

7.       Place in the pre-heated oven and cook for 25 minutes until the tops are golden and the sponge bounces back if pressed gently on the top.

8.       Turn out of the tins and place on a rack to cool. Then sandwich together with liberal amounts of strawberry jam. 

Of course, the problem comes when you just can’t wait for the sponge to cool properly. Then you spread the jam, pop on the top and wait while the jam gently oozes down the sides of the sponge. It might not be WI perfect but it looks scrumptious.

Spelt and Kamut Loaf

On a snowy day like today what could be better than waves of fresh bread fragrance radiating from a hot oven? This is a spin on spelt bread as I’ve added kamut. It gives a slightly nuttier flavour and a golden glow to the cut loaf.

 

Ingredients:

300gms white spelt flour

250gms kamut flour

2 tsp Vitamin C powder

2 tsp dry yeast

1 tsp sugar

150 ml warm water to activate the yeast and a further 200 ml to mix

Pinch of salt

2 tbsp olive oil

1.       Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees fan, 225 degrees conventional.

2.       Activate the dry yeast. Add the yeast and sugar to 150ml warm water and cover. Leave for about fifteen minutes until it is frothy and then stir.

3.       Mix the flours, citric acid and salt in a large bowl. (Add quick yeast at this point if you are using that instead of dry yeast.)

4.       Add the yeast mixture and 200ml more of warm water. Mix and knead into a rough dough.

5.       Add 2 tbsps of olive oil. Incorporate this into the dough and keep kneading until the dough is smooth and elastic.

6.       Roll the dough into a ball, cover the bowl with a cloth and leave in a draft-free place for an hour or until it has doubled in volume.

7.       Punch back the dough, and knead again. This is the important knead. The dough should end up smooth and spongey. Be careful not to keep folding the dough during this knead as air will become trapped between the folds and create holes in the bread. If you do find yourself folding the dough make sure you knead it well afterwards to remove any trapped air.

8.       Grease a 1 pound baking tin.

9.       Mould the dough into the right shape for the tin and pop it in.

10.   Cover with a cloth and leave in a warm place for 30 minutes.

11.   Bake until golden, about 35-40 minutes, turn out  and allow to cool on a rack.

This will produce a good sized loaf that is perfect for sandwiches. The texture is more substantial than shop bought bread, but lighter than many wholewheat loves in spite of the fact that the kamut flour, which is almost half of the total is wholewheat.