Spelt Bread

I get a lot of recipes from the internet and sometimes have trouble remembering where I found a particular recipe or how I got there. Last week I asked google for spelt bread and somehow ended up on the Joyous Birth forum. Crikey. But this was strangely appropriate because my little nephew arrived last week and it was indeed joyous. And so was the bread. It was very easy to make and came out quite soft and lighter than any spelt bread I have bought. I enjoyed it most for toasted for breakfast - one piece with avocado and slow-roasted tomatoes, the another with labnah and apricot jam.

Spelt Bread

(adapted from a recipe by Metismorphia at the Joyous Birth forum)

3 cups spelt flour

1 cup warm water

2 tsp instant yeast

1 tbs honey

1 tsp salt

2 tbs oil

Oil or butter a large loaf tin.

Pour warm water into a large bowl, sprinkle yeast on top, then add honey, stir gently and leave aside for 10 minutes.

Mix in 1 cup flour, then the salt,, then another cup of flour, then the oil, then the last cup of flour. Leave to rise until warm place until doubled - around 2 hours.

Knead on a lightly floured surface, adding more flour if the dough is very sticky. Shape loaf and place into tin, lave to rise to just over top of tin - 30 mins to 1 hour. Perheat oven to 21oc.

Bake for 15 mins at 210C then reduce temp to 180 and bake for another 30 mins.

Remove from oven, allow to cool a little in the tin, then turn out onto rack and try to resist slicing until it is completely cool.