SPELT BROWN BREAD

Juno mixing the dry ingredients

I was dying for some seeded brown bread yesterday but as it was Mother's Day I was too busy lolling about eating chocolates. So, today I got around to it. I adapted a recipe from the Natural Fuel blog. I swapped in a beaten egg for some water, for the nutritional value. I also used more seeds as I wanted a fairly crunchy bread.

I toasted fresh slices to have with soup. Ended up having one with jam - yum!

INGREDIENTS

• 320g wholegrain spelt flour
• 80g porridge oats
• 35g mixed seeds (sunflower, pumpkin and sesame)
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 300 ml tepid water
• 1 medium free-range egg, beaten

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 200C
• Grease a 2lb loaf tin with veg oil (use a piece of kitchen roll)
• Put all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Sieve the baking powder and mix through
• Mix in the water, then the egg, until the dough is evenly wet - it's a fairly heavy dough
• Plop the mixture into the loaf tin, smooth down with a wooden spoon and cut a deep line down the centre
• Sprinkle with sesame seeds
• Bake for 1 hour or so (until the bottom sounds hollow when knocked)
• Cool before slicing

CATHY'S SPELT LOAF MIX

I love spelt flour to bake with so I was excited when I saw this Irish-made multiseed spelt bread mix in Planet Life in Athlone for €3.99. You just add soya milk or buttermilk and mix to a dough, so it couldn't be simpler.

I can't get the link to Cathy's Spelt for Health site to work but I have found the company on Facebook here. They have lots of great products which I hope to try soon.

Here's how the loaf turned out - it looks and smells yum. We're planning to have it with a lentil soup for dinner.