This easy spelt bread recipe is 100% whole grain and makes wonderfully hearty toast. It’s made specifically for breadmakers, but if you don’t have one, you can make it by hand.
Whole-Grain Spelt Bread without a Bread Machine
Whisk 2 cups of the flour, sugar, yeast (regular active dry yeast), and salt to combine. Add the milk beverage and oil and stir to combine. Add the flaxseed or grain mix, and then flour, 1/2 cup at a time, kneading as it become thick. Knead it for 7 to 10 minutes. Cover and let rise in a warm draft free place until doubled, about 1 hour. Punch dough down and let rest 5 minutes. Shape and place in a greased and floured large loaf pan or two smaller loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled again, about 1 hour. Bake at 350ºF until golden and the loaf sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom. This is usually around 30 minutes or so.
Special Diet Notes: Bread Machine Spelt Bread
By ingredients, this recipe is dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, plant-based, and vegetarian. Just be sure to select the milk beverage that fits your dietary needs.
- 1¼ cups dairy-free milk beverage
- 2 tablespoons sugar (or your sweetener of choice)
- 2 tablespoons grapeseed oil or your favorite baking oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 4 cups spelt flour
- 2½ teaspoons bread machine yeast
- ¼ cup ground or whole flaxseed or seven grain mix (optional)
- Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer.
- Select the cycle for a 2 pound loaf and press Start.
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10 Comments
Spelt flour can be tricky to use in a bread machine. It would be helpful if you listed whether it was whole spelt flour or light spelt flour that you are using. Also, if your machine did not have a “whole grain” setting, it would be helpful to know the length of the cycle that you did use, so that we can more easily match it to a comparable cycle on the machine that we are using. For instance, my machine’s basic cycle is 3 hrs 50 minutes, but my whole grain cycle is 4hrs 10 minutes with a longer rise period, which doesn’t always work with spelt flour.
As mentioned in the post, title, and linked up to, we use whole spelt flour. You can certainly substitute light spelt flour if you prefer. There are so many varieties of bread machines, and we don’t have access to test them all. If you have one with a whole grain setting (we’ve never had one with this), then you can certainly use that whole grain setting. As noted, it makes about a 2-pound loaf. It sounds like your machine is more dialed in, so it should have come with a guide that tells you the cycle to use for the different loaf weights. There really is no way for us to easily know the length of the cycle for different machines. Ours definitely wasn’t 4 hours, but yours might be. I tried to research it for you, but only came up with cycle times vary by machine. Again, the 2-pound loaf weight, listed on the yield, should help guide you.
I like the recipe for its simplicity. I am not lactose intolerant and I love milk so I used regular organic whole cows milk and I don’t like the taste of flax much so I used ground pecans. I used honey instead of sugar. Mine was very good. I never follow recipes exactly…I just use them as tools. Thank you for a nice basic spelt bread. I am sure I will try it many more ways.
That’s wonderful! Pecans sound delightful. I hope every loaf turns out wonderfully.
have you this recipe in weight grams or ounces not cups ?
No, I’m sorry I don’t. I looked it up though, and 4 cups of spelt flour looks to be about 460 grams.
Hi. Do you use the whole wheat setting or the basic? Thanks!
The bread machine that was used didn’t have that setting, but I would use the whole wheat one.
BTW just wanted to give a tip (I have been making spelt bread for the last 3 months) : if you want the bread to stay nice and soft for up to 3 or 4 days (sometimes more), add about 2 tsp of soy lecithin granules to your flour. I think most of us can say spelt bread gets dry & crumbly within a day or so . . . but this REALLY does help ! I have also used xanthum gum or guar gum with great results too ! Cheers
Which cycle do you suggest??