The Spelt Bread Adventure

 Turns out spelt bread is not that easy to knead. Spelt is sticky. At first, it is not. And then it is. A very contradictory flour. At first, it is a bit hard to knead as it gives a lot of resistance, but it is not very moist. Unexpectedly, the resistance goes away but the dough gets moist and sticky, gooey. What?!

You can't get it off your hand and fingers. Very inconvenient. Frustrating. The more you knead and add flour the worse it gets.

Or maybe that is a matter of perspective. Or I put more water than necessary. I googled how to make this type of bread and the first thing in the hits was this:

"You will have to pay careful attention to how much water you use when you bake with spelt. Too much water will make the dough sticky and weak. On the other hand, too little water will make it dry and dense. We recommend you reduce the amount of water by 25% compared with what you would use for wheat flour."

So my conclusion is that 400 ml of tepid water and 500 g of flour is not going to cut it. What is 25% of 400 ml? 100 ml? I am not sure that will be enough either. Anyway, the next trial will be in two or three days' time, as soon as we ate this one.

What I noticed is that I wasn`t able to make a loaf because the slices would be too small. So I made "lepinja" or huge pita/pizza slice or whatever it is called. I had to cover it with a casserole so that it doesn`t lose its moisture. It did the trick. Not bad at all. I was worried about how the bread would taste and look. Also, I wasn`t sure about the temperature of the oven. I experimented with 10 minutes of baking at 100 degrees and then switched to 200 degrees Celsius. That was dumb. I should have done it the other way around. Ahhah at least I gained some experience. 

Despite all the sweating, toiling, and worrying, the taste is great and it is easy on the stomach. I ate three slices. They were just enough. The reason I got into this adventure is that I suspect I have wheat or gluten intolerance, or whatever they call it. I am aware that spelt has gluten, but I expect not as much as the dreaded white flour. Especially bread bought at supermarkets that seems to be packed with emulsifiers and who knows what else.

In conclusion, so far this gluten and type of wheat does not bother my stomach and I have yet to see what happens with the intestine where all the real action is.