Carneros Spelt Loaves

Carneros Spelt Loaves 

As I'm writing this I'm eating a slice of the bread with sharp shedder cheese and a cup of coffee (since it's early in the day. It would be wonderful with a glass of red wine too.) The crust is a little crispy and the inside soft and chewy. The spelt flour gives the bread it's character. My picky husband also liked it, which is a good sign! I baked it with my dinner plans in mind. I'm going to make a salmon dish for dinner; with orange/lemon aioli, the bread is going to be a side dish, along with a green salad. I had to try the bread myself before serving guests of course…I've never baked this bread before, I made up the recipe as I mixed the dough. It is worth trying. I'm making it again, soon. It takes a total of 2hours and 15min to make it. It's a long time, but out of that time the dough is resting 2*40mins and the baking in the oven is 25min. The recipe is easy and not complicated at all. I exercised a horse during the first resting period and fed the baby/edited pictures during the second resting period. It's a low maintenance bread and you can do other stuff while the bread takes care of itself. 

The recipe is for 2 loaves of bread.

2 cups organic spelt flour

2,5 cups organic all purpose flour

3/4 oz active dry yeast

2tsp salt

Combine with a fork in a big bowl.

Add 1,5 cup cold water and 2 cups boiling water (then the mixture will have the right temperature.) Beat the dough in a machine for 3min or 5min by hand. Add 0,5 cup all purpose flour during the process, and mix until you have a smooth dough. Knead the dough by hand (take some flour on your hands,) on a table for a couple minutes. 

Cover the dough and let it rise for 40min (it almost double it's size in room temperature.)

..after 40min

Place the dough on a floured surface, cut into two pieces. Form the pieces into loaves. (Pat the dough to 12*6 rectangle and roll up tightly.)

Place your loaves on parchment paper and cover again. Let the dough rest there for another 40min.

(For extra stylish bread, use a sharp knife and make some diagonal slashes across the bread before baking.) If you want a crispy outside brush some water on the loaves before baking. I didn't do it, but they turned out pretty crispy anyway. 

Bake the bread in the lower part of your oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 25-30min. 

Let the bread cool down covered, on the baking pan.

Enjoy!

Muesli Rolls

Muesli Rolls

Today my plan was to share a recipe of sweet fudge cookies, that my grandmother in Sweden taught me to bake when I was a little girl. I started to take out all the ingredients and when there was only flour left…there was no white flour in my cabinets! The look on my face must have been a funny one, my 5months old daughter started to laugh out loud.

Well, well..since I had many other kinds of flour I decided to bake something else instead. Funny how that works out, when I for once decide to do something a little less healthy the Universe steps in and say it's clear NO.

I opened all my cabinets to see what I  have in there and what ingredients that possibly would be a good match. My "whitest" flour was a spelt flour, that's a given choice. I love spelt bread. I didn't feel like baking my regular spelt bread though. My eyes lands on my jar of muesli that I have on my greek yoghurt in the mornings. I finally decide to make a bread with whole wheat flour, spelt flour and muesli. I often add muesli in my recipes. I never have the same muesli (I always mix the favorite grains/dried fruit I have for the moment), which gives the bread some variety. 

This is the bread I made tonight.

Muesli Rolls

Mix with a fork in a big bowl:

1,5 cup Whole Wheat Flour

1 cup Muesli (your choice)

1 cup Spelt Flour

1,5 oz dry yeast

a pinch of salt

Heat up 2 cups of milk. Heat until just before the first bubble. Add 1/3 cup maple syrup and 2/3 cup olive oil. Pour over the dry ingredients that you mixed. Stir with a wooden spoon, slowly until mixed. Add 1,5 cup spelt flour and knead by hand for 3mins. I prefer to not use a machine when I bake with Spelt Flour. Spelt Flour have a fragile kind of gluten, if you knead it too hard, too long, the elasticity in the dough will be effected. If you knead it too little your bread will be hard/heavy. This dough is extremely smooth and a pleasure to work with.

Let you dough rest under cover for 30min.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Turn the pieces into big rolls and place them on parchment paper. Let them rest there under cover for another 30min.

Bake your Muesli Rolls 12min in the middle of the oven at 430 degrees Fahrenheit.

Feel free to freeze the rolls your not planning on eating today. They are good in the freezer for 3months.

Enjoy!

Scones with Spelt Flour and Sesame Seed

 

Scones with spelt flour and sesame seed

Today I made a variation of yesterday´s scones. It´s basically the same recipe but with a different kind of flour and liquid. Spelt flour requires some extra liquid so I added a ½cup more in this recipe. This is my personal favorite of fast, healthy and easy to make bread.

 

Scones with spelt flour and sesame seed

1½ cup all-purpose flour

1½ cup spelt flour

½ cup roasted sesame seed

½ tbsp. baking powder

½ tbsp. salt

Mix with a fork in a big bowl.

Add 1 cup canola oil and 1½ cup plain nonfat Greek yoghurt and ½ cup water, stir until mixed. Stir as little as possible. When using baking powder you shouldn´t mix/stir/work with the dough any more than barely mixing the ingredients. Don´t work it one second longer than necessarily! (That´s a good rule to remember when using baking powder.)

Divide the dough in two pieces and place them on parchment paper. Use your hands and warm water (otherwise the dough will stick to your hands) to form the two pieces into round, flat breads.

Use a knife and made a cross on each bread, to make them easier to cut later.

Bake them in 440 degreese Fahrenheit for about 20 min (until golden).

Enjoy warm with butter, cheese, turkey, ham, tomatoes, avocados or jam. Tea or coffee is excellent choices of drinks to go with your scones.

If you try them please let me know! I love to hear about it!