July 1, 2009

French Bread with Spelt flour

I add whole grain spelt flour to my french bread recipe.

2 cups unbleached white wheat flour
1 1/2 cups whole grain spelt flour
1 1/4 cups warm water
2 tablespoons sugar
2 1/4 teaspoon yeast
2 1/2 teaspoon salts (garlic, onion, celery or sea salt)

Place yeast and warm water into a bowl. Allow to sit for 10 minutes. Add sugar, flour and salts. Knead bread for 10 - 12 minutes (8 minutes if you are using a bread hook and a mixer). Let rise until doubled (about 1 1/2 hours). Punch down and form into loaf or place in a bread pan. Let double again (about 1 1/2 to 2 hours). Bake at 350 degrees for 25 -30 minutes. When you remove the loaf from the oven, rub the to with butter and cover with a towel. Let sit 5 minutes. Uncover and let cool before slicing. Enjoy!
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3 comments:

Jennifer said...

Does adding spelt flour still keep the bread crunchy and french like? I might make your recipe for my bruschetta because I always like to include whole grains but sometimes it doesn't work like I hope.

Anna said...

Yes, Jennifer you will still get a crunchy outside to your bread. I recommend shaping your dough into a long loaf. Also, if you add a bowl of water to the stove while the bread is cooking (just a small oven safe bowl full of water) then the stem will help form the hard crust you are looking for. One more hint would be to not cover your bread when you take it out of the oven. This way the crust will harden too. Let me know how it turns out! -Anna

Jennifer said...

Ok, thx Anna.