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.