fbpx

Wholemeal Spelt Artisan Bread

Wholemeal Spelt Artisan Bread - Quirky Cooking

Spelt Artisan Loaf

 
Wholemeal Spelt Artisan Bread - Quirky Cooking

Spelt Artisan Couronne

 

Well, the bread was delicious! I love Italian wood-fired oven bread, and this was very much like that, with a moist, slightly chewy texture, and a crunchy, chewy crust – yum! And I’m so happy I’ve found a recipe that incorporates soaking the grains/flour to make it more digestible. Of course, it’s a bonus that’s it’s so easy! I used about one third ground spelt grain, two thirds unbleached plain spelt flour – next time I’m hoping to try half and half to see how that goes.

Grains (and flour) should be soaked overnight (or longer) at room temperature to increase digestibility – so I’m thinking when I make my next batch that I will soak the flours in the water overnight, then the next day mix in the yeast and salt (with the Thermomix), let it rise for two hours, then put it in the fridge.  It will work either way, and if you don’t have time for the overnight soaking, you can just rise the dough for 2 hours (or up to 5 hours) instead.

Note: You can find fine sea salt for this recipe in my online store here!

Wholemeal Spelt Artisan Bread
Write a review
Print
Ingredients
  1. 250g spelt grain
  2. 750g plain unbleached spelt flour
  3. 1 1/2 Tablespoons dry yeast
  4. 1 1/2 Tablespoons coarse salt
  5. 750g lukewarm water (needs to be lukewarm, or rising time will be longer)
Instructions
  1. Grind spelt grain in Thermomix for 1 minute on speed 9.
  2. Add spelt flour, dry yeast, coarse salt, lukewarm water and mix on speed 4-5 until all mixed in, using spatula if needed to help it along. You don't have to knead it, or mix it for very long, only until all the flour is mixed in.
  3. Scrape the wet, sticky dough out of the Thermomix into a large plastic container or dough bucket with a lid that is fitted, but not completely airtight. Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until it has risen to it's height and then collapsed, or has flattened on the top. Longer rising times, up to 5 hours, will not harm the result, and will help to increase digestibility.
  4. You can use some of the dough now, or you can place it in the fridge for whenever you need it. It's a lot easier to work with if you refrigerate it first, as it's less sticky. So for your first loaf, it's probably easier to put it in the fridge for at least three hours first.
  5. Baking Day: First, prepare a pizza peel (or a cutting board or pizza tray with baking paper on it) by sprinkling it with cornmeal or wholemeal spelt flour. Sprinkle the top of the dough in the container with some flour to make it less sticky when you pull some out. Pull out a grapefruit sized chunk of dough, hold it in your hand and add a little more flour to the outside of it, so it won't stick to your hands. Don't knead it or squeeze it - just gently stretch the surface of the dough around to the bottom, turning as you go, and gather it under to form a smooth ball, then place it on the floured tray/peel.
  6. Rest the dough on the peel/tray to rise, uncovered. It will take 40 minutes to rise altogether - you won't see a lot of rising during this time, but it will rise more in the oven. After 20 minutes, turn oven on to 230 degrees C (450 degrees F) with a baking stone placed on middle rack. (If you don't have a baking stone you can use a heavy based tray or flat cast-iron pan. I used a cast-iron pan the first time and it worked really well.) Place an empty grill tray in the bottom of the oven or on another rack.
  7. Once you've turned the oven on to preheat, dust the bread with wholemeal flour or cornmeal and slash a 1/4 inch deep pattern with a sharp knife - criss cross, diagonal, tic-tac-toe, or a 'sun ray' pattern as on the couronne loaf above. Leave to rise for the remaining 20 minutes.
  8. After the 20 minute preheat, open the oven and quickly slide the loaf off the pizza peel or tray, onto the baking stone (or tray or cast-iron pan). Quickly pour a cup or two of hot water into the empty grill tray and close oven door to trap the steam.
  9. Bake for 30 minutes, or until crust is nicely browned and firm - the dough inside won't dry out because it's so moist. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely on a wire cooling rack. Crust will soften a bit at first, but will firm up again after cooled.
  10. Store remaining dough in the fridge in lidded container and use it over the next 14 days. Allowing the dough to mature over a couple of days will improve the flavour and texture. Cut off and shape loaves as you need them - only bake what you can use in a day as it gets quite tough after a day or so. You can have a couple of different doughs maturing in the fridge at different stages, some with herbs mixed in, some plain.
Quirky Cooking https://quirkycooking.com.au/
Note:  When you’re ready to make a new batch of dough, there’s no need to wash out the container from the last batch – just scrape the aged dough down and incorporate it into the new dough and it will give you a head start on the sourdough flavour!

25 thoughts on “Wholemeal Spelt Artisan Bread

  1. Cat J B says:

    Today I tried artisan bread in 5 minutes, very tasty and the method worked well. I’d like to see your recipe though, the one I did was mostly white and I used wheat.

  2. Jasmine says:

    Hi Jo – great recipe once again! The bread was really tasty and sooo easy! I have one question though – the amount of salt is too much for my family’s taste – can we safely reduce the amount, or is the high level of salt necessary to keep the dough useable over the two weeks? TIA!

  3. Jo Whitton says:

    Hi Jasmine – glad you liked it! I don’t think it would matter if you reduced the salt… we always use up ours in a few days, so I’m not sure how long it will last. Let us know how you go!

  4. KJ says:

    Jo, I tried this one today, but in my rush didn’t read the recipe right. I forgot to let it rise before putting it in the fridge. What would you try if you were the one fixing this problem?

    Thanks for your time! 🙂

  5. Jo Whitton says:

    Hi KJ, I think what I would do is let it rise out of the fridge for about 5 hrs, then put it back in the fridge (or make a loaf after that rise) – it should still rise okay once it’s room temp. I think! Hope it works!! 🙂

  6. alison says:

    Hi, I love this bread, especially the ease of getting out a loaf and making it daily.
    Can I substitute different flour’s (eg plain bakers flour) and still use it the same way and keep it in the fridge for when I want to make it?
    Thanks

  7. Lara says:

    Hi Jo
    Could I bake this loaf cutting out the spelt grain & only using organic wholemeal spelt flour?
    Thanks I’m new to baking & this will be my first attempt at bread – I just recieved my Thermomix on Thursday! Lara

  8. Heather says:

    Hi Jo, I have recently got a thermomix and found that I am wheat intolerant BUT your recipes are so fantastic that I haven’t even noticed! I made the spelt artisan bread this weened and was wondering if it can be sliced and frozen? I don’t have the room in my fridge to keep a bowl of dough on the go all the time.

    • Jo Whitton says:

      Oh thank you, Heather! Yes you could make it ahead and slice and freeze. Maybe just divide the dough in half and make two loaves in regular sized bread tins – rise for two to three hours in the tins, then bake for an hour. Cool, slice and freeze. 🙂

  9. Lisette says:

    For the spelt flour, should I use plain or self-raising flour? For spelt grain, can I substitute this with rolled spelt? Thanks!

    • QuirkyJo says:

      Just use plain spelt flour as it already has yeast in the bread recipe. And as long as you mill the rolled spelt flour, it should work

  10. kiah says:

    Hi Jo,
    This is probably a silly question but seen as I don’t know very much about spelt grain, instead of also using spelt flour could I just substitute more spelt grain to mill into flour?

  11. Kiah says:

    Hi Jo,
    I don’t know much about spelt grain but I was wondering if you could substitute the spelt flour for extra spelt grain to be milled into flour, or do you need to have both the spelt grain and flour?

  12. Kiah says:

    Hi Jo, I don’t know much about spelt grain but I was wondering if you could substitute the spelt flour for extra spelt grain to be milled into flour, or do you need to have both the spelt grain and flour?

    • QuirkyJo says:

      You can use the same weight of wholemeal (or white) spelt flour instead of the grain, that’s fine!

  13. Nicole says:

    Love this. It is now my Sunday morning regular. I just make when its fisished and leave in the fridge to use. Tastes amazing.

  14. Robyn says:

    Hi Jo
    Can you bake the bread in a tin? Do you have to preheat the tin in the oven or can you simply leave it in the tin for the 40 mins before baking it in the oven? My boys love the bread. Thanks Jo

    • QuirkyJo says:

      Hi Robyn, just let it rise in the tin, then pop the tin in the hot oven on the pizza stone to cook. No need to preheat the tin.

  15. shelley says:

    What an awesome recipe! I used the whey from my home made yogurt instead of water, then after the first prove/knock down I put it in the fridge and have been taking out 1/3 portions.
    So far I have made a normal loaf (best tasting bread ever!!!!!), and pizza scrolls with thermobexta very vegie pizza sauce (huge hit with the toddler!). Both were so satisfying.
    Will definitely be a staple in our house! Thank you very much

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *