Spelt is one of the so called “ancient grains”, grown in parts of Europe from the Bronze Age to medieval times. It’s related to modern day wheat, but with a noticeably different flavour and some purported health benefits. These include a broader nutritional profile, and a more easily digestible protein structure, which makes spelt accessible to some people with wheat intolerances. However, it does contain gluten, which means it’s not suitable for coeliacs.
Spelt flour is very expensive – a kilo costs six times as much as regular bakers’ flour, and twice as much as organic bakers’ flour. Having said that, it makes little difference when you compare the cost of using it at home to the price of purchasing ready made – an organic spelt loaf might cost $2.50 in raw materials, but a loaf of sourdough (made with regular bakers flour) from a reputable bakery could set you back $8 or more.
As we were delighted with the results of our 100% white spelt loaves, I thought it might be fun to experiment with organic wholemeal spelt.
The 100% spelt sourdough loaves I made were slow to prove, and despite a surprising amount of oven spring, the wholemeal crumb didn’t display the huge holes of the white spelt. That didn’t detract from the bread though, which was deliciously nutty and, as Pete put it, wholesome. The rising dough and baking loaves exuded the most gorgeous aromas and our sons, who don’t usually like anything other than white bread, ate an entire loaf between them for lunch, smothered in peanut butter and jam. The spelt baguettes formed the backbone of a vegetarian dinner we had on the weekend, and went perfectly with Pete’s beetroot dip and guacamole.
Emboldened by this success, I tried using the wholemeal spelt in Dan Lepard’s Guardian cookie recipe. I substituted cranberries for the dried blueberries (which are prohibitively expensive here) and omitted the almond essence. Dan’s recipe was written for regular wholemeal flour, and the essence was included in part to mask any bitterness in the flour. As the spelt has a nutty, sweet flavour, I didn’t think it was necessary here.
The end result were these chewy, moreish treats, reminiscent of old-fashioned oatmeal cookies. I’ve already eaten two this morning!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Spelt flour was first introduced to me by a nutritionist who had identified a wheat intolerance in me. I believe the Romans brought it to Britain.
Peter, it is supposed to be much easier to digest than modern wheat. We use it for flavour more than anything else – it’s very tasty! :)
You should have a cooking show!
I’m going to make your beet dip tomorrow for dinner guests. I’ll let you know how it goes. :-)
Ha! You’re kind, but that would involve cooking in something other than my dressing gown! Hope you enjoy the dip, M! :)
Lovely post! Is this the imported spelt? I am sure I read somewhere that there were organic Australian farmers growing spelt, khorazon (kamut) and some of the other older forms of grain. How do they get on with it? My experience of baking with spelt is very different from yours, which makes me wonder if our spelts are the same? I can’t remember if you said if you baked these breads with only spelt or if you mixed the spelt with bakers flour. I know when I tried making a loaf with only white spelt we were disappointed, and usually if I use wholemeal spelt I mix it with another flour as it proves very fast and makes very flat loaves for me. I think it’s so interesting how we all get such different results from similar basic materials, makes baking quite a challenge!
Jo, I’m trying to figure that out. The white spelt loaves in the previous post were made with imported Canadian spelt, milled here in Australia, but the wholemeal spelt is older Australian spelt. Some of the ancient grains are being grown here,and I’ve heard they’ll be a lot more on the market in the coming years.
I baked these wholemeal loaves and the white spelt loaves with all spelt flour – with exception of the starter, which is fed with white bakers’ flour. I put 100% in the post, just so people would know that’s what I meant, even though it’s not a true 100% spelt. Interestingly, when I first started baking with spelt, the results were quite disappointing – heavy, clunky loaves, and I needed to add vital gluten to get anything resembling a decent bread. Now I add nothing, and I’m not really sure why it works so well – probably a combination of this particular batch of spelt and a little experience…
I do bake mixed spelt/bakers flour loaves, but was feeling indulgent recently when all the bags of spelt arrived. As I mentioned it’s quite expensive, so as the bag runs down, I’ll find myself making 50% loaves, and then 30% loaves, right down to 10% ones.. :)
Celia, did you find you had to adjust other quantities at all, particularly liquid? I haven’t worked much with wholemeal flours, but I have a nagging thought in my head that they absorb much more liquid than white, and recipes must be adjusted if they are not to turn out dry. What’s your experience with this?
Nancy, yes, I should have mentioned that, sorry. I reduced the liquid in both these loaves and the white spelt loaves by about 10% – more because they’re made with spelt flour than because the flour was wholemeal.
I actually haven’t had any experience baking with wholemeal wheat flour – we don’t particularly like it. The wholemeal spelt are the first brown bread loaves the tribe has been willing to eat! :)
Your loaves look gorgeous Celia, and I’m glad your whole family enjoyed them. I’ve since made another loaf with a yeasted white/spelt mix as I enjoyed the first one so much!
I’m really impressed by those cookies – they look lovely and thick and chewy. I really must get round to making them! I’m not much good at biscuits on the whole though – I tend to over-bake!
(P.S. I love the little snippet about your contrasting eggs – hopefully Rosemary’s will get bigger!!! What did you use them for?)
C, thank you! The cookies are definitely worth trying – they taste a little like a cross between oatmeal cookies and Anzac biscuits!
Ah Rosemary, she didn’t lay one at all yesterday, despite my calling out encouragement from outside the coop.. :) We added her little egg to the others we were using for homemade pasta…
Spelt flour is not one I have toyed with yet, I’ve eyed it off but thats as close as I have got….a whole loaf you say? See this is what makes me nervous, boys turn into teenagers with insatiable hungers. I think the Monkeys eat a lot already and they are still pint sized!
Its interesting the price comparison, I was just yesterday trying to work out how much a sourdough would be costing me to make.
Biscuits look delicious, if they are a cross between an oatmeal and an anzac- a sure hit.
Brydie, earlier this year I wrote a few posts on frugal living – in a couple of them I crunched numbers on how much our sourdough bread was costing (saving!) us. You might be interested – we figured out baking our own saves us thousands each year! Obviously that’s not the case if I keep baking 100% spelt loaves.. :)
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2010/01/05/frugal-living-1-bread-and-milk/
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2010/05/22/freezers/
I’ve not yet tried Spelt loaves, but after seeing your post I think I need to give it a go. And those cookies. They look delicious. Keep up the great work Celia, I get so excited every time I see you have a new post!!!
Those loaves look lovely. Unfortunately spelt does not agree with me. A good friend baked me a cake with spelt for a treat as she knows I can’t eat wheat. I decided to give it a go…. not a wise decision. It did taste good though!
Those cookies look very tempting indeed. Being wholemeal spelt makes them a ‘wholesome breakfast food’…right? :)
I baked a batch of 50% spelt loaves on the weekend. Big hit with the family which surprised me as I was sure they would complain (like they do when I make rye loaves). I might be bold and try a 100% spelt loaf next…
Hi Celia – I’m pretty impressed with your baking. Wholemeal spelt is usually really difficult to rise, especially in colder weather like this; so you must have had a great warm place to let it do the business of rising well to get these results. The bickies look great though.
I haven’t worked much with spelt- mainly because it is more expensive.
The cookies are beautiful.
Maybe I will experiment a little this fall.
Thanks for the informative postQ
wonderful loaves, celia! i like spelt very much, but haven’t had much luck with it. i think experience is a bigger factor than i was willing to admit :)
I get a great spelt quinoa and soy sourdaugh loaf from the markets each week and I get it cause it really does last a week. I don’t eat much bread so it cost me $6 a week.
I don’t like buying large quantities of wholemeal flour as it is sometimes racid when you get it. If any kind of wholemeal is “bitter” it’s actually going off. I have a grain grinder for this reason but don’t get around to using it that much. Freshly ground oats are quite different to rolled oats.
LJ, Chef, thank you! Chef, I’m sorry to hear the spelt doesn’t help with your intolerances though…
SG, this batch of spelt does seem to be a good match to our sourdough starter…
Anna, thank you. Truly, I think it has a lot to do with this batch of spelt. Some of my earlier attempts ended up as bricks! I also think roller milling is relevant – I never got as much rise from a dough made with stonground flour.
Heidi, it is ridiculously expensive, but hopefully more will be planted in coming years and the price will come down!
Dana, I don’t have much joy with spelt in yeasted breads. Not sure why – the flavour combination just doesn’t seem to work for me. Spelt and sourdough, though, I adore…
Frances, we have a dedicated flour freezer – bought for $100 nearly 20 years ago! It doesn’t keep the flour super cold, but it does stay fresh for years, particularly as we seal it in airtight bags. I don’t normally buy wholemeal flour at all – this wholemeal spelt is our first real foray into brown bread.
Morning Celia
Your loaves and cookies look absolutely wonderful.
Good morning to you too, friend Gill. And thank you! :)
Celia I am in constant awe at your baking skills! Love the look of those biscuits too. I can imagine the cranberries add a lovely bit of tang.
I’m really loving your snippets – worth visiting just for these even when there’s no post.
Ditto, Sarah! :) I’m making KK’s deep-fried eggs for lunch now, thank you for the inspiration!
In our area of Tuscany, near the Garfagnana, spelt is a staple food. The local farro soup is made with a type of spelt. It is still served in many local restaurants and is delicious. I guess it is the same type of grain.
Deb, thank you for that – I’ve never used spelt as a grain, but I’d read it cooks up like wheat or barley. I didn’t know it was used in farro though..must go research more!
Hi Celia,
Your spelt loaves look great. The spelt flour is expensive but the wholemeal is not too bad. I pay $4.50/kg for wholemeal spelt from a mill here in Victoria, but $7/kg for the white (which I think is from Queensland). I love the flavour as well -wonderfully sweetly wholesome. Last week I used a dough to make fruit scrolls, without adding sugar and they made for a yummy and wholesome tasting treat.
Thanks for your inspiring post – I’ll have to give the cookies a try.
Craig
Another beautiful bunch of bread! Your crumb is more open than I usually get. I do agree that the roller milled flour seems to give a better result. There is a huge variability in spelt flours, I’ve had one imported flour that was impossible to make bread with. It gave no gluten development at all. I used it to make some yummy muffins.
Craig, I’m paying about $4.75/kg for the wholemeal and $6/kg for the white. I’m impressed that you’ve found locally grown spelt though – I was told there wasn’t any this year. The flavour is just wonderful, isn’t it? I think you’ll enjoy Dan’s cookie recipe. :)
Liz, thank you, but again I really do think it’s the flour. The first spelt loaves I made were heavy bricks, and I had to add gluten to get them to rise at all. I think you’re absolutely spot on about the variability in spelt. I’m not sure if you’re in Australia, but if you are, the current white spelt from Santos Trading has really been a joy to work with – http://www.santostrading.com.au .
I haven’t tried baking with spelt flour. I was always confused about what ratio of bread flour it needed to be mixed with for it to have enough gluten to rise. Amazing that you do a straight dough! I confess, I do gasp slightly when I see the price of it in my health food shop. Your bread looks absolutely wonderful, Celia! :)
Chris, thank you! From what I understand the protein content of spelt varies enormously. The safest bet is to mix it 50/50 with bakers flour, although this batch of spelt seems to be very high protein and responsive – hasn’t been the case in the past! I think I mentioned this above as well, but I don’t find spelt and bakers yeast a good match – for me, it’s far more suited to sourdough.
Glad you’ve become a convert to spelt Celia. As you know it’s my grain of choice. I’ve been using it for years and think it works really well in baking.