Grandpa Smith’s Spelt Bread and Buns

One of our family treasures is Charles, Stan’s dad. This spring, he celebrated his 85th birthday, and he is an inspiration to us all with his disciplined and healthy lifestyle. He is always up early, exercises regularly, eats super healthfully and has an amazing garden. I am almost sure to find him and his sweet wife in the garden whenever I stop by for a visit.

Recently, we enjoyed a bread baking day with him, and we are excited to share his Spelt bread recipe with you. We love Grandpa’s bread, and I am quite sure you will agree if you take the time to make it. (His recipe is equally wonderful baked into rolls to use as buns for summer recipes like these Green Lentil Hemp Sliders!)

Thank you, Dad, for encouraging us with your love, wisdom, and example. And also for your delicious baking!

About this Spelt Bread and Buns recipe

Unlike most of the bread and baking recipes on our website, this recipe uses weight instead of volume to measure the ingredients. You will need a kitchen scale capable of measuring in grams to make it.

This versatile dough can also be enjoyed as sliders, rolls, pizza crust, or cinnamon rolls—just about anything you can think to bake with it! For rolls or buns, form the dough into any shape and size you’d like and bake it at the same temperature, checking them after about 15 – 20 minutes, depending on your oven. A hearty dough like this is fairly flexible, so you can experiment and find what works best for you. Happy baking!

(Makes 3 – 4 loaves)

Ingredients

908g (2 lbs) One Degree Organics Sprouted Spelt Flour
725g water
24g flax meal, ground
56g organic cane sugar
80g vital wheat gluten
0.5g ascorbic acid
16g sea salt
16g instant yeast

Instructions

Using a kitchen scale, measure 908g (2 pounds) flour into a large bowl. Be sure to zero the scale with the container before adding the flour.

Place a small bowl on the scale and measure the ground flax meal. Again, be sure to zero the scale with the container before adding the ground flax meal.

Continue this process with each ingredient, except water. Measure each ingredient in a separate container for accuracy.

Measure the water using the same process. The water temperature should be barely warm. (It is crucial that the water measurement is precise in order to achieve the proper softness in the bread).

Add the water to the bowl of your stand mixer.

In your large bowl with the flour, add the ground flax meal, sugar, vital wheat gluten, ascorbic acid, sea salt, and instant yeast. Mix lightly.

Pour the dry ingredients carefully into the bowl of the stand mixer on top of the water.

Using the dough hook, mix for about 8 – 10 minutes.

To check the dough, take a small piece of dough and spread it apart, using your fingers. If you get a good window without the dough breaking up, it’s ready. (If the dough is ready, it will keep stretching until it is very thin without breaking).

Lightly oil the surface of your counter and dump the dough out onto it.

Using the kitchen scale, weigh out the dough for each of your loaves. Each loaf should be 18 – 22 ounces (510g – 625g).

Shape your loaves and place them in oiled bread pans.

Cover the pans with a clean kitchen towel and let proof for about 1 hour and 15 minutes (or until doubled in size).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Place the pans in the oven.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Test the centre of the bread with a thermometer. If it is 190 degrees Fahrenheit in the centre of the bread, it is done.

Allow bread to cool and enjoy!

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