Wholemeal Spelt Quick Bread Loaves

Tasty bread but as one other reviewer has mentioned, far too much liquid. The dough could not be mixed or kneaded as it stuck to everything! It was like trying to deal with melted Blu tack. I left it to rise for at least an hour when it just about made it to the top of the tin. Very heavy consistency, not like crumpet, but delicious anyway.

Lovely recipe made with white spelt flour. Slightly to much liquid and over flowed my bread tins. We love the texture and taste but going to tweak it slightly and add seeds to make it more to our liking. It didnt raise like in the picture so picture maybe slightly miss leading

I have been making bread with this receipe for about 10 years ever since I made loaves for a Roman style banquet, I never bake it in a tin, but shape the loaves into ovals and place on a baking sheet Always comes out well and is a great favourite.

This loaf has long been a firm favourite in our household, where we like to add sunflower or pumpkin seeds to the mix. We have a friend who is a beekeeper and it's a good way to use up her ivy honey, which is an acquired taste! Conveniently, this recipe is printed on the back of Dove's wholemeal spelt flour. Note that the dough is a little wet and I think it is supposed to be like that. Instead of kneading it, you can stir and turn it with metal spoons or use some kind of mixer with a dough setting as previous reviewers have mentioned. Alternatively, I have made firmer but equally satisfying loaves by splitting the dough in two and kneading each half with enough extra flour for it not to stick to your hands! (Doesn't seem to rise quite as high, but still a great texture.) Top tips: 1) Use goose fat or coconut oil to grease your tins. The loaves practically jump out of the tins as you are going around the edges with a butter knife. 2) Definitely use two tins. I have had lots of trouble with the loaf splitting or tearing with one large tin and it is hard to get the timing right. Clearly one tin would need longer, but how much longer?? Enjoy, bakers!

Help! I followed the recipe carefully, but it did not say whether or not to oil the tins. I did so. The rise was good but the finished loaf would not come out of the tin. I had to run a knife round the inside of the tin, then cut across and dig out a chunk. I then ran a spatula under the rest and levered out more chunks. Can anyone advise, please.

Forgot to add that this was actually with white spelt flour, I'm sure you will need more water with the whole meal flour!

Lovely recipe, used menu 2 setting on Panosonic bread machine, 1hour 55mins, as others recommend, I only use 290ml of warm water, no honey, and vegetable oil, I have also started to add seeds, 2tbs sesame seeds 1tbs sunflour seeds, + 1 tbs pumpkin seeds 1tbs poppy seeds + 1 tbs golden linseeds I have found great success with this, hope others do too, thank you Doves Farm.

Wonderful recipe - a little tip - instead kneading with hands i use tablespoon or tablespoon with large fork,u could use two T spoons - so easy - no mess - no extra flour required. I have made 6 batches this way (one T spoon) PERFECT EVERY TIME - TRY IT AND THANK DAVID

I think this is a great recipe which produced two excellent spelt loaves first time I used it. The only variation I made on the recipe was to do two rises, as is standard for wheat-flour bread. Sadly the wetness of the dough is essential to produce the desired crumb - however it's not really a problem if you have a good food processor with a dough-kneading action (I used my Thermomix, which was brilliant), and then spoon it directly into a loaf tin after the first rise. I always get my yeast going by putting it into the sweetened liquid when the liquid is at blood-temperature. Once it forms a good foamy head, it goes in to Thermomix with the other ingredients. The bread rose very fast, both times.

I should also add that I make this up with 1Kg flour at a time, so doubling all the ingredients as listed and dividing into two medium size loaf tins. Dividing 500g batches makes for very small loaves.

I have been making this bread for a couple of years now. As with recent reviews the dough is too wet with 400ml of water. Reduce to 350ml and use hot water (just about too hot for your hands). This will speed up the proving time. Prove in the oven at around 80C also helps. Half teaspoon of VitC will help it rise too!

I have not tried to make bread since school days and that's… a few years ago. I am delighted with the way my first loaf in decades has turned out. The dough was wet so `i added a little flour and estimated how much of the other ingredients to add. I proved it in a large ceramic mixing bowl but noticed it was not keeping warm so I warmed the bowl every 10 minutes or so on the hob. It looked great and tasted delicious. Love this recipe Just giving it another go now.

I just love this recipe. Having had some not brilliant results from other spelt flour recipes for bread. At last this one works. I find that I have to prove the bread for anything up to 1.5 hours. Maybe, my house is not a warm one! I have experimented in place of the honey, adding molasses, black treacle these make the bread quite dark but very pleasant tasting. I have also used maple syrup, I like the result of this addition the most. It is a a very easy make recipe. No hassle at all

I have just made this following the recipe and found it too sticky to knead. Will leave to rise longer but has anyone else found this?

Just made this loaf and it turned out beautifully. I followed the recipe on the flour bag, with just a couple of slight variations, namely kneading the dough for about 8 mins, using about 1.5 tspn yeast (a Sainsburys sachet)and sprinkling pumpkin and sunflower seeds over the top. It rose really well and has a gorgeous moist, light crumb. It also works out less than half the price of a Waitrose spelt loaf. Happy days and thanks for the recipe!

Would be most helpful if it said that this is quite a flat bread in the recipe. I threw mine away and started again. I only realised when I came onto the site to trouble shoot. Although I'm not sure the 25 minute rising time was long enough. On my second batch now. Fingers crossed

A friend has just made Roman bread from this recipe for my "Pompeian exhibit" for Leeds Light Night 2013 - it smells amazing and I wish I could eat some! I will be trying it again afterwards for eating.

I love this bread, my brother taught me to make it when we were on holiday. He always replaces about a third of the flour with white bread flour. I usually make it into 8 bread rolls and they take about 20 minutes to cook.

I love making this bread, so easy and tasty but I have just started weaning my daughter and would like her to eat it instead of processed bread but she can't eat honey, does anyone have any suggestions as to how I could make it without using the honey?

A simple substitution to ordinary white or brown sugar will work perfectly well in place of the honey ~ Doves Farm

I've just made this loaf for the second time. The first hardly rose at all and, although the flavour was very good, I ended up with a 2" deep loaf. Having suspected that 25 minutes was far too short a time to leave the loaf to rise, this time I left it for 45 minutes and the result was much better. I also used half milk, half water this time, which has produced a softer loaf. I'm very pleased with the result and will be tweaking this recipe further in the future. My next experiments will probably involve reducing the amount of yeast considerably and giving the batter/dough much more time to ferment.

this is a regular bread in our house. Very easy to make, delicious moist texture and lovely as toast too. Lasts well for few days. I do like to add caraway seeds too...

I have made this bread many times and I've always been really happy with the results, delicious. But the last couple of times I've made it, it has not risen properly and has been flat and leaden. I don't know what I'm doing wrong but any suggestions would be welcomed as it is one of my favourite breads/

I make roman marching bread as an alternative to normal modern wheat breads, I am getting the guides to make it on camp next year as it is so easy to make, needing only 1 rise, and to show the kids how easy baking and cooking from fresh ingredients is!

This is a very successful recipe. I added a handful of crushed pecan nuts and dried cranberries and it worked really well. The bread had a lovely texture with a very satisfying taste. I am very pleased with the results and will try more Spelt flour recipes. I didn't divide the dough as suggested here. I put the whole lot in a tin and left it to rise for a good hour and a half. I slashed the top and dusted it with more flour for a crusty finish before putting in the oven.

I have just baked a loaf this way, it was my variation on a different recipe! I replaced the sugar with honey and used olive oil. It came out like your loaf, and tastes lovely. I had it with a spicey lentil and carrot soup which I had also just made. Will definately be making both again.

Sounds interesting & I'll try this bread using fresh yeast as it's a personal preference. I may add half white flour, wheatgerm & bran. Has any one tried it? Thanks, Odelle.