Have you dreamed of being able to make homemade soft flat bread like the ones you get in restaurants but thought it was too difficult? ME TOO!!!! But with a simple spelt bread recipe like this, you’ll be whipping up fresh bread all the time.
We went for years without eating grains when we realised it was causing our children health complaints, but since we reintroduced them a few years ago, we’re enjoying spelt, quinoa and gluten free oats a few times a week.
Even though they are back, because grains are notoriously challenging on the digestive system, I still exercise caution when feeding them to our children so as not to trigger anything, hence the “once or twice a week limit” to this spelt bread recipe for now.
We typically enjoy these flat breads with scrambled eggs (when we’re eating eggs), vegan butter and salad or as the base for our pizzas, but you can basically do what you want with them. To use them as sandwich bread, i’d suggest rolling them so they aren’t too think and making 10 instead of 8 bread from this recipe.
Is this spelt bread recipe gluten free?
Spelt is a gluten containing grain so if you are gluten intolerant or want to completely avoid gluten then this recipe isn’t appropriate for you. I have found that of the gluten containing grains (wheat, barley, rye, rice & spelt), there are varying degrees of symptoms that I’ve noticed from them. As the wheat plant has been tampered with so heavily, their is an almost instant reaction when ourselves and our children have wheat, but red rice (soaked and well cooked) and spelt give us no noticeable reactions, which is why I’m happy for us to enjoy them for now.
So let’s get to the recipe!!!
Quick Easy Spelt Bread
Wheat Free – Nut Free – Dairy Free – Yeast & Sugar Free
Prep Time – 10 mins
Cooking Time – 15mins
Yield – 2 x large flat breads
Ingredients
3 cups of wholemeal organic spelt flour
1 cup of warm water
1tsp of good quality salt
4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil or coconut oil
1 tsp of baking powder (aluminium free preferably)
Optional
1 tsp of garlic powder or 1 clove of fresh garlic crushed
or 1/4 tsp of cayenne pepper
or 1/2 tsp of dried basil or 1 tbsp of chopped fresh basil
Or 1/2 tsp of ground cumin & 1/2 tsp of Turmeric
Directions
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder and optional seasonings if using them, by stirring well.
2. Then pour in the warm water and 1/4 cup oil and mix into the dry ingredients well with a spoon. Once it’s mostly combined, with clean washed hands, use your hands to finish combining the ingredients, scraping all the flour from the sides of the bowl and pressing them into the dough, then remove the dough from the bowl, and knead it for a few minutes on a clean lightly floured surface. You can use the remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil to pour onto your hands while you knead the dough
The top picture is what i did just mixing it with a spoon and below is the results of getting my oiled hands in there to knead it a bit.
3. move the dough to a lightly floured or oiled surface and give it a good kneading for 2-3mins minimum. Once the dough is soft and smooth, roll into a ball and put in back in the bowl, covered with a towel for 20 mins to rest. You can preheat the oven at this point to 200C. Admittedly, I have skipped the 20 min wait when I need to get the food on the table sharpish, and haven’t noticed a huge difference, but the dough is a bit softer when you do let it rest.
4. Next, split the dough into 2 balls, then half them, then half them again until you have 8 lumps of dough. sprinkle each lump with flour and roll out into whatever shape you want your bread. Without having to get a ruler out and measure it, you basically don’t want them to be too thin and evenly rolled out.
5. Place them in the oven on an oiled baking tray for 5mins on one side, then flip them over and bake for another 4-5 mins on the other side then enjoy.
Leah’s Tips
These are best enjoyed warm and fresh from the oven.You can sprinkle some sesame seeds and oregano on top and mix some sliced olives into the dough, or sprinkle some paprika on top and mix some chopped sun dried tomatoes into the dough, to try out some different flavours.
If you have a busy life but want to enjoy these regularly, why not double or triple the ingredients so you have enough to make lots at a time and freeze then reheat them in the oven as needed.
Get The Children Involved!
As you may know, I homeschool our 6 children and cooking and recipe creation is becoming a favourite for them, especially our 9yr old who wants to be a singing chef!
Teaching them from a young age that they can make healthy yummy whole foods from scratch without having to rely so heavily on very processed shop bought foods, is an important part of their learning I feel, and they often hep me make this simple recipe with ease, lots of mess, but still with ease. Why not get your little ones in on the act too, it’ll be just like playdough for them!
If you make a batch, let me know how they turn out or better still post it up and tag me in!!!
Have a wonderful day.
Take care, stay healthy & see you soon
Leah
About the Author: Leah Salmon, The Naturally You Coach, is a bestselling author, speaker, nutritionist and life coach, focused on womb & pregnancy health and premature birth prevention & on a mission to help 100,000 black women to eat for health, think for happiness and live in harmony by 2020 or what she calls Becoming Naturally You. She does this through her books, programs, coaching, events, workshops, videos, articles, a free weekly ezine and free gifts like her 3 Part Womb Wellness Gift Set which you can download here