Spelt Rolls

Not made these, but I saw the recipe, and thought it was worth a pop. Let me know how it is. 

1kg wholemeal spelt flour, plus extra for dusting

10g powdered dried yeast 

20g fine salt

600ml warm water

A little sunflower oil



 

Combine the flour, yeast and salt in a large mixing bowl. Add the water and, with one hand, mix to a rough dough. Adjust the consistency if you need to, with a little more flour or water, to make a soft, easily kneadable, sticky dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and clean your hands. 


Knead until the dough is smooth, stretchy and no longer sticky – about 10 minutes. Shape the dough into a tight round. Oil the surface of the dough, put it in the wiped-out mixing bowl, cover the bowl with cling film and leave to ferment and rise until doubled in size, which should take about an hour. 


Pre-heat the oven to 250C/500F/Gas Mark 9, or as high as it will go. Deflate the dough by tipping it onto the work surface and pressing all over with your hands. 


Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Shape into tight rounds, coat with flour and press flat with the palm of your hand to about 5cm high. Lay them on a lightly-oiled baking tray, so they are just touching each other. Leave to prove for about 30 minutes, or until nearly doubled in size. 


Put the tray in the oven, and close the door as quick as you can. Bake for about 15 minutes, until well browned, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Wheaten Bread

Wheaten bread is a brown soda bread- This is an Irish recipe, and tastes fantastic. Mary showed me how to make it- she passes the recipe onto anyone who wants it- so I’m doing the same. You need to find a course wholemeal flour. I’ve not seen it in England or Scotland, so when in Ireland, stock up!

3/4lb wholemeal flour(coarse)
1/4lb plain white flour
1tsp salt
1tsp bicarb soda
Handful of pinhead oatmeal (for topping)
Sm handful brown sugar
small pot of Buttermilk

Mix to wet sticky dough, lightly kneed, and slap onto a baking tray
Hot oven to 450f for 30-45min

I love this stuff with a bit of butter, and fresh sliced tomatoes! mmmm.

(recipe 2)
Wheaten bread #2
4 cups brown bread flour
2 cups sr white
1/2 pt butter milk + water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
180c for 1hr

White bread

Right – for a super simple staple food, there’s a lot of complexity I didn’t expect, and its taking me a long time to get to grips with whats going on. kneading is the bit that gets me right now. I will hopefully build a guide for myself at some point to balance out the protein vs water vs fat mixes that seem to be the bit between bread, and reliable repeatable bread.

But whilst I’m researching/trying to understand that from the metric-shit ton of reading, heres a basic bred dough recipe to get started with. Its here cuz I keep coming back to it, rather than doing new work. I’m basically a lazy breadmaker..

  • 500g white bread flour
  • 350ml luke-warm water (21ºc ish)
  • Bakers yeast. Whatever the packet says for 500g flour. I’ve been using fresh yeast – and keeping spare in the freezer (fresh yeast freezes – who knew?)
  • 10g salt
  • 1 tsp of sugar – if you must. depends what the yeast needs.