Seeded Spelt Bread with Honey
Recipe by Nicole Thom-Arens
Makes 2 Loaves
I love seeded bread, but I found the ones in the grocery store were often a white flour base, which I wasn’t crazy about. I adapted this recipe from a whole wheat honey loaf recipe from the Betty Crocker Bridal Edition Cookbook we got as a wedding gift more than 20 years ago.
This has become my favorite bread recipe. It makes two huge, soft loaves. I cut each in half and freeze them individually. Like most freshly baked breads, this is best eaten the day it is baked or first removed from the freezer. I use the remaining loaf for toast and homemade croutons, like in Dakota Scandi Summer Salad.
You’ll notice the loaves do split while baking. If this bothers you, you can experiment with slicing the dough before baking. Because it is a wetter dough, it likely splits because the steam needs to escape.
Ingredients:
1 cup seed mix, soaked overnight in the fridge, then drained2 packages regular active dry yeast1/3 cup honey2 1/4 cups very warm (but not hot) water1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (save the wrapper)3 cups spelt flour3 cups bread flour1 Tablespoon kosher salt
Instructions:
1) Measure one cup of seed mix and add to a bowl, cover with water, and refrigerate overnight. (I use King Arthur’s Harvest Grains Blend, which contains whole oat berries, millet, rye flakes, wheat flakes, flax seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds. I can’t find it in stores, so I order it from KingArthur.com)2) When you’re ready to make the dough, remove the seeds from the fridge and drain them. Set aside. 3) In a mixing bowl, combine the yeast, honey, and water. Stir to dissolve. Let bloom for five minutes. (This is how you’ll know your yeast is alive. If it doesn’t bloom, discard and start again.) 4) After the yeast has bloomed, add the softened butter, and spelt flour. Mix with a dough hook on low for one to two minutes. (I let it mix while I measure the bread flour.)5) With the mixer off, add bread flour. Mix on low until combined. 6) Add salt. Mix on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. 7) With the mixer off, add the drained seed mixture. 8) Mix. (The dough will be sloppy at first. Keep mixing.)9) Once the dough has formed, remove from mixer to kneed by hand. (I have a standard KitchenAid mixer, and this is just too much dough for it to kneed. During my initial test, the dough ball repeatedly jumped out of the mixer and wrapped itself around the top of the dough hook where it connects to the mixer, where it collected grease—not good—so I now kneed by hand.)10) Kneed by hand for 10 minutes or until it passes the windowpane test. (The dough is sticky. Use just enough bread flour to keep it from sticking to the counter. I find the dough sticks just a bit to the palms of my hands, but I want to keep this dough as moist as possible without it being wet.)11) Using the butter wrapper, grease a large bowl with butter. 12) Add the dough to the buttered bowl and turn to coat all sides.13) Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let rise for an hour or until doubled. 14) Grease bottom and sides of two standard loaf pans with cooking spray.15) Once the dough has doubled and finger indents remain in the dough when pressed, it is time to shape the loaves. 16) Using a food scale, weigh the dough—I weigh in grams. Divide the total by two. Cut the dough to weigh out equal amounts. (You can do this by eye if you don’t have a food scale.)17) Shape the dough: Pat the dough into a rectangle so that its narrow end if facing you, fold the top of the rectangle toward you, fold the bottom up like a letter. Turn the dough 90 degrees so that the narrow side is still facing you. From the top, start rolling the dough toward you. Keep the dough tight as your roll by pushing your thumbs toward the underside and pull your hands forward. Once you have a tight log, form it to the size of the loaf pan by keeping your hands on top of the log and gently rolling to stretch the log to the length of the pan. (I use the Bread Bible’s method for shaping loaf pan loaves—see picture below.) 18) Place the rolled loaf in the pan seam side down. 19) Cover pans with the tea towel and let rise for 35-40 minutes. (If it is cool in your house, they may take up to 50 minutes to rise past to the top of the pans.) 20) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 21) Bake loaves on the bottom rack for 40-45 minutes. (You can use an instant-read thermometer to test doneness. When it reads 190 degrees, the bread is fully cooked.)22) Remove loaves from the pans immediately and cool on a wire rack. 23) To freeze, cool completely. Wrap each loaf or half loaf in plastic wrap. Then wrap each in tinfoil. Store in a freezer bag. Freeze loaves for up to 3 months.
This has become my favorite bread recipe. It makes two huge, soft loaves. I cut each in half and freeze them individually. Like most freshly baked breads, this is best eaten the day it is baked or first removed from the freezer. I use the remaining loaf for toast and homemade croutons, like in Dakota Scandi Summer Salad.
You’ll notice the loaves do split while baking. If this bothers you, you can experiment with slicing the dough before baking. Because it is a wetter dough, it likely splits because the steam needs to escape.
Ingredients:
1 cup seed mix, soaked overnight in the fridge, then drained2 packages regular active dry yeast1/3 cup honey2 1/4 cups very warm (but not hot) water1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened (save the wrapper)3 cups spelt flour3 cups bread flour1 Tablespoon kosher salt
Instructions:
1) Measure one cup of seed mix and add to a bowl, cover with water, and refrigerate overnight. (I use King Arthur’s Harvest Grains Blend, which contains whole oat berries, millet, rye flakes, wheat flakes, flax seeds, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and sunflower seeds. I can’t find it in stores, so I order it from KingArthur.com)2) When you’re ready to make the dough, remove the seeds from the fridge and drain them. Set aside. 3) In a mixing bowl, combine the yeast, honey, and water. Stir to dissolve. Let bloom for five minutes. (This is how you’ll know your yeast is alive. If it doesn’t bloom, discard and start again.) 4) After the yeast has bloomed, add the softened butter, and spelt flour. Mix with a dough hook on low for one to two minutes. (I let it mix while I measure the bread flour.)5) With the mixer off, add bread flour. Mix on low until combined. 6) Add salt. Mix on medium speed for 2-3 minutes. 7) With the mixer off, add the drained seed mixture. 8) Mix. (The dough will be sloppy at first. Keep mixing.)9) Once the dough has formed, remove from mixer to kneed by hand. (I have a standard KitchenAid mixer, and this is just too much dough for it to kneed. During my initial test, the dough ball repeatedly jumped out of the mixer and wrapped itself around the top of the dough hook where it connects to the mixer, where it collected grease—not good—so I now kneed by hand.)10) Kneed by hand for 10 minutes or until it passes the windowpane test. (The dough is sticky. Use just enough bread flour to keep it from sticking to the counter. I find the dough sticks just a bit to the palms of my hands, but I want to keep this dough as moist as possible without it being wet.)11) Using the butter wrapper, grease a large bowl with butter. 12) Add the dough to the buttered bowl and turn to coat all sides.13) Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let rise for an hour or until doubled. 14) Grease bottom and sides of two standard loaf pans with cooking spray.15) Once the dough has doubled and finger indents remain in the dough when pressed, it is time to shape the loaves. 16) Using a food scale, weigh the dough—I weigh in grams. Divide the total by two. Cut the dough to weigh out equal amounts. (You can do this by eye if you don’t have a food scale.)17) Shape the dough: Pat the dough into a rectangle so that its narrow end if facing you, fold the top of the rectangle toward you, fold the bottom up like a letter. Turn the dough 90 degrees so that the narrow side is still facing you. From the top, start rolling the dough toward you. Keep the dough tight as your roll by pushing your thumbs toward the underside and pull your hands forward. Once you have a tight log, form it to the size of the loaf pan by keeping your hands on top of the log and gently rolling to stretch the log to the length of the pan. (I use the Bread Bible’s method for shaping loaf pan loaves—see picture below.) 18) Place the rolled loaf in the pan seam side down. 19) Cover pans with the tea towel and let rise for 35-40 minutes. (If it is cool in your house, they may take up to 50 minutes to rise past to the top of the pans.) 20) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. 21) Bake loaves on the bottom rack for 40-45 minutes. (You can use an instant-read thermometer to test doneness. When it reads 190 degrees, the bread is fully cooked.)22) Remove loaves from the pans immediately and cool on a wire rack. 23) To freeze, cool completely. Wrap each loaf or half loaf in plastic wrap. Then wrap each in tinfoil. Store in a freezer bag. Freeze loaves for up to 3 months.
How to shape a loaf for a loaf pan. Credit The Bread Bible.
