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.
