What is Spelt Flour?

Spelt Flour is an ancient relative of modern common wheat. It has a unique nutty flavour and can be used as an alternative to wheat flour. Although high in gluten it is more easily digested and can be tolerated by some gluten intolerant individuals.

Baking with Spelt Flour

The gluten in spelt flour is a different type to the gluten found in wheat flour and has different characteristics when used in baking.

Yeasted dough made with spelt flour will rise, ripen and mature more quickly than ordinary wheat flour dough. It tends to produce a firm crust and crumb texture which is open yet dense.

Spelt flour is more suited to quick breads or single rise bread recipes. It needs a much shorter rising time to prevent over ripening which can cause the dough to collapse during baking.

Using Spelt Flour in Bread makers

Bread maker programs have been carefully designed for use with conventional wheat flour. As the proving time for spelt flour is much shorter than ordinary wheat flour, bread made exclusively with spelt flour will tend to rise and collapse before the baking cycle has completed.

For best results either use the dough setting and then manually shape and bake in a conventional oven, or blend with strong white bread flour in a 50/50 mix and then use the Eco/Rapid setting.

Spelt flour recipes (Please note the above advice)

Regular loaf

250ml water

350g spelt flour

3 tsp skimmed milk

1 tsp salt

2 tsp sugar

15 g butter

1 tsp easy blend yeast

Large Loaf

315ml water

450g spelt flour

4 tsp skimmed milk

1.5 tsp salt

3 tsp sugar

25g butter

1.5 tsp easy blend yeast