Now that we are well into the swing of the new year our bodies seem to naturally crave lighter and healthier foods. Regardless of diets or resolutions I find that after the excesses of Christmas my body and brain at some point start to reject stodgy, junk and comfort foods in favour of nourishing and cleansing ones. For this reason I thought that I would post a recipe for my favourite bread. The original recipe for this came from Blazing Salads but I have adapted it slightly over the past year or so as I couldn’t always get the ingredients needed if I wanted to bake it at a moments notice. Apart from the spelt flour you should be able to get all of the ingredients from your local shop. I bake this bread every 2 weeks and slice and freeze it in batches of 2 slices so that I can just grab what I want from the freezer as I need it. I eat 2 slices each day either for breakfast or lunch to satisfy my bread craving without the nasty bloating side affects of shop bought breads. Enjoy!
Spelt Soda Bread
Just a quick note on spelt flour. While it is generally more agreeable to those who find wheat a little harsh or have a mild intolerance it is not gluten free and therefore should not be consumed by coeliacs. As this is a soda bread and doesn’t rely on a gluten structure to rise it should be fine to substitute the spelt flour for a gluten free brown flour. Be careful also that the fine oatmeal is gluten free, you could simply omit this if you are concerned and use 615g of flour instead of 500g. Finally ensure that the brand of bicarbonate of soda that you use is gluten free.
(makes 2 loaves)
You will need 2 x 2lb loaf tins
500g Wholemeal Spelt Flour
115g Fine Oatmeal*
2.5tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
2tsp Salt
700ml Buttermilk
2tbsp Honey
*You can buy fine oatmeal in health food shops. I don’t always have time to get to a health food shop so I buy a pack of regular oats (porridge but not the instant stuff) and blitz them in the food processor. I do it with a 500g bag at a time to save having to do it every time I bake this bread.
1. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas Mark 7. Line the 2 x 2lb loaf tins with parchment paper, do not use grease proof paper as the bread will stick to it.
2. Add all of the dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl and give them a little stir with a wooden spoon.
3. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the buttermilk and the honey. Stir with the wooden spoon until the ingredients are evenly mixed. Don’t forget to get right down to the bottom of the bowl so that you don’t miss any of the dry ingredients. At this stage the mixture will still seem quite wet, don’t worry about this, it is exactly how it should be.
4. Divide the mixture evenly between the 2 loaf tins, you can weigh (approx 630g per tin) or do this by eye, it’s up to you. Score a line lengthways down the centre of each loaf with a sharp knife.
5. Place the loaf tins in to the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes, reduce the temperature of the oven down to 200C/400F/Gas Mark 6 and bake for a further 40 minutes.
6. Allow to cool slightly in the tins for 5 minutes before removing from the tins, removing the parchment paper and allowing to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy.
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Ever since you gave me this recipe, I’ve been making a batch every Sunday. I halve the recipe as I only need one loaf per week – it always come out perfectly. Thanks for sharing it!
Hey, I just make 2 loaves because I freeze it so it’s handy that way. It doesn’t last too long in this house between the two of us. I need to make more even though I only made 2 loaves last Friday. Hungry horses here.
How long do you recon you can keep buttermilk in the fridge after its been opened? I struggle to use up a whole litre at a time?
I am going to try this just as soon as I get spelt flour…
Would you believe I was asking myself that very same question this morning? I wanted to bake a cake and thought I would throw the remaining buttermilk in. I checked the side of the carton and it says to ‘use within 7 days once opened’. I gave it a bit of a sniff & while it didn’t smell bad it did smell stronger than regular milk so I wasn’t sure. I need to have a good sniff of the next carton when I open it to see how it smells, but I’m sure the guideline on the carton is perfectly safe.
I hope you enjoy the bread.
I am ashamed to admit that I have used buttermilk after I scraped the mould off the top of it. My milkman delivers a litre of it every fortnight and it builds up a bit in the fridge. I also bake huge batches of spelt soda to use it up. My recipe isn’t half as healthy as yours though, I use half white spelt to brown spelt and throw in a yoghurt and some honey.
Oh dear, you sound like my dad. We have to check the milk in his house before making hot drinks because he refuses to buy smaller bottles more often instead of a 2ltr that lasts longer than it should.
Yoghurt and honey is fine. The original recipe used half natural yoghurt/half milk and then molasses. I just changed it to buttermilk and honey because they are easy to get in the local shop and I’m a bit lazy so it cuts out the stage of mixing the milk, yoghurt and molasses in a separate bowl. 
Lovely, have been looking out for a spelt bread recipe to use up the flour Rolling Pin Tales gave me at Christmas. Will try this at the weekend. Going to use the remaining buttermilk for the cinnamon sugar breakfasty things Smitten Kitchen made a couple of weeks ago! Yum!
I hope you enjoy it Adrienne. And cinnamon sugar breakfasty things sound wonderful. I used my latest buttermilk leftovers to make a Lilly Higgins sultana bread which was really good.
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is the wholemeal spelt flour suitable for someone thats wheat intolorant? or cileace?
Hi Noreen, unfortunately spelt flour is not gluten free and so is not suitable for coeliacs. While it is milder than wheat flour and people with wheat intolerance find it easier to digest it is not recommended for coeliacs. Odlum’s produce a Tritamyl Gluten Free Brown Bread mix and I just checked with them there and they have said that it can be used as a flour so you might try substituting that. I would also suggest using 615g of flour and omitting the fine oatmeal to ensure there is no trace gluten in the mix. There is no need for bicarbonate of soda if you use their mix & they recommend milk as opposed to buttermilk. I hope that helps.