Simple Spelt Bread - no wheat, no yeast!

I halved the recipe and baked it in a 9x5 pan, and it made a pretty flat loaf.

The availability of non-wheat flours has really improved over the years. I remember having a friend in high school who had a wheat allergy, and how she had to go to specialty stores just to get bread. Although I can easily buy wheat-free bread, the price is pretty steep. I don't know if making it yourself is that much cheaper but hey, at least it's fresh.

I like this recipe because there is no yeast, and you can use a more natural sweetener like molasses or honey, and best of all, it only calls for about a tablespoon for 2 loaves.

I do still long for wheat breads like baguette, foccacia, rolls, pizza dough and just plain ol' sandwich bread. Unfortunately, this spelt bread is nothing like any of them, but as long as I can't eat wheat, I don't really have a choice. I do however, think this bread tastes better than some of the stuff they sell in stores. I'm really glad I found this recipe by Jean Roberts.

Instead sesame seeds, I used millet, which you can see peeking out from the crack.

This loaf has a thick, hard crust, and the bread itself is quite dense. It was really hard for me to cut through but that seems to be the case with most wheat-free breads. I won't be able to use this bread to make sandwiches but I think I'll top it with stuff (pesto and chicken) and have it open-faced. Maybe sprinkle a little goat cheese on top and put it in the toaster? I'm curious to see how it would taste if I made french toast with it. Maybe the milk/egg mixture would soften the crust up a bit?

Super-thick, hard crust.

From Jean Roberts on All Recipes. (makes 2 loaves). I halved the recipe to make 1 loaf.

Ingredients

• 8 cups spelt flour
  
• 1/2 cup sesame seeds (I used 1/4 millet)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
  
• 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
  
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
  
• 4 1/4 cups milk (I used 2 1/8 cups soy milk)
  

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 9x5 inch loaf pans.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the spelt flour, sesame seeds, salt, molasses, baking soda and milk until well blended. Divide the batter evenly between the prepared pans.
3. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden. Placing a tin of the same size over the top of the loaf while baking gives it a lovely crust.

Dairy-free,spelt gingerbread cookies

I loooove gingerbread! A few years back, I started making Martha Stewart's recipe which calls for some ground black pepper. Wow, that pepper really made those cookies pop!

Fast forward a few years and the naturopath's advice to avoid dairy and wheat... Boohoo! Well, I knew a girl with a wheat allergy in high school, and she ate a lot of spelt products so that was one of the first grains I turned to for baked goods.

Through an internet search, I came across this blog, which had a great-sounding recipe. I accidentally added the sugar to the dry mix rather than the melted butter/molasses, which resulted in some sugar crystals in the cookies but hey, that's not the end of the world.



Compared to regular GBC (gingerbread cookies) made with wheat flour, these ones came out lighter and a bit puffier. I guess with baked goods, spelt will never yield the same results as flour. I'm not sure if you could poke a hole in the top of these and hang them on your tree, but they are excellent to nibble on while decorating your tree!

Puffy man and snowman

I modified the amount of spices, and ended up adding about 3 tbsp of spelt flour to the dough because it was quite soft.

Spelt Gingerbread Cookies
Adapted from Rackle's Ramblings
Yield: About 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients:

2 cups unbleached organic whole grain spelt flour, sifted (plus more for rolling)
1/4 - 1/2 cup finely chopped (minced) crystallized ginger (optional) I omitted this
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1-2 tbsp ground ginger (I used 2 tsp)
1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon (I used 1 tsp)
1 tsp ground cardamon (omitted)
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground coriander (omitted)
1/4 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 cup unsalted organic butter (I used Earth Balance)
1/3 cup Sucanat (organic fair-trade evaporated cane juice) (I used yellow cane sugar)
1/3 cup unsulphured molasses
1 large organic/free range egg, beaten

Method:

In a sauce pan over very low heat, melt butter (or butter substitute) and add molasses, then sugar, stirring until dissolved. Turn off heat and let cool a few minutes, then add beaten egg.

In mixing bowl combine flour, spices, salt and baking soda. Gradually add liquid ingredients to flour mixture, stirring each time until flour is completely absorbed. When the dough becomes too stiff to stir, it should be ready to be kneaded by hand. If dough sticks to hands, add small amounts (1 tbsp at a time) of flour until dough no longer sticks and is firm but pliable and shiny. Shape into a round, wrap in plastic or cover in a bowl and place in the refrigerator to chill at least 4 hours.

Place oven racks in the middle and pre-heat oven to 350.

On a floured surface, roll out dough using floured rolling pin. I just put the same piece of cling wrap the dough was wrapped in over the dough and rolled over it with an unfloured rolling pin.
to 1/8" thickness.

Once you cut as many cookies as possible using your cookie cutters, pull away the excess dough and place dough shapes on baking trays lined with parchment (not wax) paper. Place trays on rack positioned in middle of oven and bake for 8-10 minutes, depending on size of cookies.

Cool on wire racks. These cookies get crunchier the more they cool so be patient!

Wheat-free, Dairy-free Maple Syrup Banana Bread

*I jotted this recipe down but didn't write down the source. I've made some modifications to this recipe as well. Sorry if this is your recipe!

I went through a phase where I didn't eat bananas.

1) They aren't native to BC so (according to some sources) they make your body think you're in Hawaii or someplace warm and wonderful, and therefore, your body doesn't produce Vitamin D, and therefore, you don't absorb calcium (whoa, that was long).

2) There's a lot of discussion going on about how unfairly-traded they are. This is just what I read in a student newspaper though, so I clearly need to do more research!

I missed bananas, though. They are a tasty portable snack, that's easy to eat anywhere. So in the past few months, I've been eating them... And then of course if a few days pass since you last ate a banana, and they start looking freckly and sad... I believe that's why banana bread was created. It both sweetens and moistens! How perfect!

I decided to use maple syrup instead of sugar for this particular loaf because I happened to have a jug of it (thanks, Costco!) but it is pretty pricey stuff so I think honey, rice syrup or even regular sugar would be just fine. I'm trying to avoid sugar in granular form (well, basically white and brown sugar) at the moment so that's also why I turned to maple syrup.

The result was a moist, surprisingly sweet loaf that was a bit oily on the bottom. Maybe too much margarine?


Ingredients:

1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup mashed bananas (I used 2 medium bananas)
1/2 cup dairy-free margarine (I used Earth Balance)
1/4 cup rice milk (soy should be fine, too)
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
1/2 cup ground flax seeds
1 1/2 cup spelt flour
1 tsp baking soda
1tsp salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees celcius. Grease a loaf pan.

Beat together margarine and mashed bananas. Add maple syrup, vanilla, rice milk, and eggs. Beat for about 1 minute on medium speed.

In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients and stir well so that the baking soda is well incorporated. Add dry ingredients to wet and fold using a spatula.

Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and bake for *45 minutes.

*I've noticed my convection oven takes less time to bake than a recipe calls for so you may want to check whether the bread is done by inserting a wooden skewer. According to the recipe, this bread could take up to 55-60 minutes to bake.

Vegan cornbread with spelt flour

I'm testing out possible Christmas stuffing recipes. I've never made cornbread stuffing so this should be fun! For now, I'm just concentrating on getting the cornbread part right and I'll cross the what-to-put-in-the-stuffing bridge when I come to it.

Also, I'm not vegan, but my sister can't have eggs, and neither of us can have dairy. Oh, and we can't have wheat either, hence the addition of spelt.

I used a jar labelled "cornmeal" (something my sister repackaged and labelled). It was pretty coarse stuff and the bread itself came out quite gritty. I think in the future, I might do a mix, like half coarse cornmeal, and half medium or fine ground cornmeal.

It was quite tasty though, especially with butter (soy or goat's milk for me) but it's a little crumbly when warm. This recipe''s definitely a keeper!

Here's the recipe from Isa of Post Punk Kitchen. I've put my substitutions in parenthesis and italics.

Ingredients
2 cups cornmeal
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (1 cup spelt flour)
2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup canola oil
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 cups soymilk
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions
Preheat oven to 350, line a 9x13 baking pan with parchment paper or spray the bottom lightly with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, wisk together the soymilk and the vinegar and set aside.

In a large bowl, sift together the dry ingredients (cornmeal, flour, baking powder and salt).
Add the oil and maple syrup to the soymilk mixture. Wisk with a wire wisk or a fork until it is foamy and bubbly, about 2 minutes.

Pour the wet ingredient into the dry and mix together using a large wooden spoon or a firm spatula. Pour batter into the prepared baking pan and bake 30-35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Slice into squares and serve warm or store in an airtight container.