| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| tahir |
Spelt flourHas anyone ever used spelt flour in their bread? I saw it in a supermarket the othe day and was tempted. |
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| tahir |
This google ad looks interesting:
https://www.sharphamparkshop.com/showcat.asp?ID=4 |
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| Treacodactyl |
Yep, and we've seen it made and backed in wood fired clay oven. You can buy your own spelt seeds, but we've not tried them.
The bread was good, but I'll let bugs go into details. |
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| judith |
Tried it once - not an unqualified success. I think I used the recipe on the bag of flour. The bread sort of collapsed and oozed to the edges of the baking sheet. It looked more like a small cow pat than a loaf.
Didn't taste too bad but nul points for presentation! |
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| tahir |
The wife's still in the confidence building stage of the baking process, she's enjoying it but she does get upset when things go wrong, so maybe not a good idea? | ||||
| tahir |
OK what about Barley and Rye flours? Should I start seperate threads for those or just keep everything here? | ||||
| Treacodactyl |
Keep this for spelt and start another thread for the other one.
I've often thought abour barley for home brewing... |
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| Bugs |
I would recommend the spelt flour. It has a quite a different taste to normal wheat. There is something about its consititution - lack of gluten or something - that means it can't stand up to overproving or over mixing, so it's not recommended for bread machines unless mixed half and half with white flour.
You also make quite a sloppy mix with it on purpose. Basically as long as you are prepared for it to look more like soda bread/scone (ie not a well risen loaf) it's an ideal beginner's, lazy person's or pushed-for-time bread. The Dove's Farm one which seems to be about most has you beat it for 10 mins with a wooden spoon, tip out (you don't really use your grubby paws at all!), prove for half an hour, bake (I expect you could do the mixing in your swish Kenwood  ).
I prefer the flatter loaf rather than the tin. I would recommend trying it but if you think Mrs T is a bit uncertain show her this thread first so she knows what to expect. Actually I haven't done any for a while, if there should be some in the shop tomorrow I'll try and make one this weekend to show y'all - she can only do better than me 
Really nice as a bread to enjoy on its own, with cheese or jam/honey, and probably meat too. Not a sandwich loaf. Or alternatively you can mix it with white flour (I think there's a recipe on the pack for this) and make a normal loaf, but I've not tried this. I've also made it for an Italian colleague who has a wheat intolerance, it passed muster with her as well
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| tahir |
All mixing done by swish wife on stone worktop. |
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| Bugs |
Nice - much better looking, and she doesn't need spare parts 
With this though she might get tired wielding a wooden spoon in a sticky dough for 10 minutes. |
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| Treacodactyl |
Ask her to kindly stand on the floor when mixing bread. 
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| judyofthewoods |
Have a look at this discussion on malting barley on the selfsufficientish forum http://www.selfsufficientish.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=163 You can't use just any barley, as the process of removing the rough husk usually damages the germ, and it won't sprout. |
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| Marigold123 |
Sainsbury's To You, (online delivery) have Doves Farm spelt flour for £1.29 for a kilo. I assume some of their stores would stock it too. I've not seen it anywhere else, though I assume health food stores would have it.
I only came across spelt flour for the first time last year, but I'd like to try using it. I'll let you know how I get on. My bread maker has a setting for dough, so I expect it would be OK if I stick a bit of ordinary strong white flour in with it, then use the oven to bake it. We bought a packet of crisp bread rolls while in France last week. It said it contained 6 cereals, (and didn't count the ordinary wheat flour among the six!) I didn't recognise the names of most of them - it WAS in French! One was maize, and another couple might well have been barley and rye, but I have a suspicion that the other half were fancy varieties of wheat, probably including spelt. The rolls certainly were very tasty. I think a bit of Internet research is called for. |
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| sally_in_wales |
Most supermarkets have spelt these days. I'm a huge fan of it as I'm slightly gluten intolerant, but can use spelt with no problems. The Roman army style bread is really nice but does need a lot of mixing, but you can use it as a substitute for wheat in most other recipes like pastry with no problem. Very good for flatbreads as well where the cooking style works well with the low gluten levels. | ||||
| tahir |
Any ideas on the GI rating on spelt, Sally's got me thinking flat breads=chapatti's and both of my parents are diabetic, if it's a fairly low GI then it might be handy for them | ||||
| sally_in_wales |
I think its medium- found this for a comparison on a websearch
Wholemeal spelt wheat flour bread 63 White bread, wheat flour, Sunblest™ brand 70 so it seems a bit lover than bog standard white bread but possibly not enough to make a big difference to a diabetic. |
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| tahir |
Thanks Sally, might give it a go anyway though. | ||||
| tahir |
Just found some more data (if anyone's interested):
Whole wheat bread (average of 13 samples) 95 Barley flour bread (80% barley, 20% white wheat flour) 94 Whole meal spelt bread 88 Whole meal rye bread (average of 4 samples) 81 Buckwheat bread (50% dehusked buckwheat groats, 50% white flour) 66 Oat bran bread (45% oat bran, 50% white wheat flour) 66 |
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| tahir |
Baked our first spelt loaf yesterday, shall be having a spelt and cheese sandwich for lunch. |