Spelt Bread and Pizza: HBinFive

The second bread in the HBinFive April 1st Bread Braid, is Olive Spelt Bread. I don’t particularly like olives so I omitted them.

I made a free-form artisan loaf.  However, once I tasted it, I realized this dough would make great sandwich bread.  The addition of yogurt makes it very moist and delicious! I also like that it’s made with mostly spelt flour. 

 

Spelt Bread with Yogurt

Adapted from: Healthy Bread In Five Minutes Olive Spelt Bread by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois

This recipe is easily doubled or halved.

 

I used a mixture of KAF all-purpose flour and spelt flour that I got from the farmer’s market.  I couldn’t find plain yogurt the day I went shopping so I ended up using low-fat vanilla yogurt.  It added a little sweetness.  I liked it!

Ingredients:

• 4 cups spelt flour
• 2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast, or 2 packets
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten
• 2 cups lukewarm water
• 2 cups plain whole milk yogurt (or nonfat)

 

Directions:

1. To make the dough, whisk together the flours, yeast, salt, and vital wheat gluten in a large bowl. 
2. Combine the water and yogurt and mix them with the dry ingredients without kneading, using a spoon or Danish Dough Whisk. 
3. Cover and allow the dough to rest at room temperature until it rises and collapses, approximately 2 hours. 
4. Refrigerate in a lidded container and use over the next 7 days.
5. On baking day, dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1-pound piece.  Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.
6. Allow the dough to rest, loosely covered with plastic wrap, on a pizza peel prepared with cornmeal or lined with parchment paper for 90 minutes.
7. Thirty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F, with a baking stone on the middle rack and an empty steam pan underneath.
8. Just before baking, dust the top with flour and slash the loaf diagonally with 1/4-inch-deep parallel cuts, using a serrated knife or lame.
9. Slide the loaf directly onto the baking stone.  Pour 1 cup of hot water into the steam pan, and quickly close the oven door.  Bake the loaf for about 35 minutes, until richly browned and firm.  Remove the parchment paper about two-thirds of the way through the bake to ensure the bottom is browned evenly.
10. Allow the bread to cool on a rack before slicing or serving.

 

I really liked the flavor of this loaf.  I tested it with my trusty peanut butter test and it passed with flying colors.  I didn’t take a photo of the slice with peanut butter on it.  I just ate it!

 

This bread also tastes good toasted and spread with Carrot Marmalade.   

 

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Spelt Pizza with Pesto and Pine Nuts 

I also made pizza using the Spelt Bread dough.  I wasn’t sure how this dough would work for pizza, but necessity is the mother of invention as they say.  The evening I decided to make this, my son had a track meet and when we got back, I wasn’t up to making anything time consuming for dinner.  I already had this dough fermenting in the refrigerator so I decided to use it for pizza.

 

To make the pizza, I spread the dough out as thin as I could with my hands and shaped it into a round pizza.  Then, I parbaked it on the baking stone for about 7 – 10 minutes.

 

 

Then, I added some pesto and pine nuts.  I didn’t have much in the way of toppings in my refrigerator except pizza sauce and pepperoni and I wasn’t sure if that combination would taste right with this dough.  So I opted for the pesto and pine nuts instead.

 

Then, I sprinkled shaved parmesan cheese over the top.

 

 

And baked it until the cheese was melted.

 

Then I ate it!  It had an interesting flavor but I enjoyed it.

 

I think some grilled chicken would be good with this, but the pizza was good as is. My taste tester liked it as well.  I sent some home with him for lunch, but he ate it for breakfast instead. ;)

I definitely think the spelt dough is a keeper.  I have some spelt grains that I plan to mill into flour. I think this is the perfect bread to experiment on. This one and the Pesto Pine Nut Bread.

 

This Spelt Bread has been YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

 

Thanks for joining me in the bread-baking blog.  Check out the blog BigBlackDog to see the April 1st Bread Braid roundup.

Happy Baking!
Cathy

 

About the HBinFive Baking Group

The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the  Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book. For more information on the new HBinFive baking group, check out Michelle's blog.