Simple Spelt Bread -- Cheese Deal

My turn. Heather tried the "Very Simple Spelt Bread" recipe and said it wasn't that bad. I finally tried it and hated it. Not sure what I did wrong, but I couldn't eat the bread. It was dry, WAY to heavy and tasted strongly of baking soda. It was aweful!!
I did a few variations - is that what happened to this recipe? I used flaxseed rather than sesame seeds, I threw in 1 teaspoon of xanthan gum, and used honey rather than molasses. So? Any ideas? (Although, even if you have ideas, I might not try this recipe again.) It went bad really fast, too.
I think our cows enjoyed it, so the bread didn't totally go to waste.

Here is the photographic evidence that I really made the bread:
It kind of looked like pumpkin bread when it came out of the oven:


Now, on a happier note, I got a phone call recently, and was asked if I had any friends who might want to share a 40 pound brick of cheese with me. It was a steal of a deal, so I said I would call around. Everyone I talked to wanted in on the deal. So we got this 40 pound brick (which turned out to be closer to 44 pounds) and learned a lot about cutting cheese with a 16 gauge guitar string into 5 pound loaves. (The 16 gauge worked really well, by the way.) We wrapped each brick in saran wrap. (How do like that Sam's Club roll of saran wrap? It lasts us like 10 years - I love it!)

And here is the final stack (minus one). It was awesome to have that much cheese on my kitchen table.
I love a good deal!

I made the Very Simple Spelt Bread!

Yes, it was very easy. A simple quick bread that could be used for breakfast (as toast), lunch (for a sandwich), or dinner (in place of roll). We actually had it alongside our steak, potatoes, salad, and green beans for dinner tonite. It was good with a bit of butter and even better with a drizzle of honey.

The recipe calls for sesame seeds (which I don't care for), but I used half flax & half steel cut oats instead. I also added one tablespoon of honey (as I saw in variations on the recipe link). It was very good- a tad on the heavy side, but that's what you get with a whole grain, non-yeast bread.

Other variations included raisins and cinnamon, which sound fabulous for this type of bread.

So, there you go- I did it, you can too! Happy baking!

*note, if you don't have spelt flour, any whole grain flour (especially wheat) would probably be just as good, but you'd want to check for substitution amounts- you'd likely use 1/2 c to 1c less flour if not using spelt.

New easy spelt recipes - spelt crackers and spelt bread

Today is a day for research. I am researching new recipes and new ingredients. My main search today deals with Xanthan Gum (as you may have noticed on my Twitter/Tweet - in case you follow me).

I have found a couple of interesting recipes I want to try. Haven't tried them yet, but they look so incredibly simple and like something my blog and website friends might enjoy that I am just going to share them with you here:

This one is whole spelt flour crackers - make your own crackers at home!
The article is from the New York Times by a Heidi Julavits. Check it out here:

Spelt-Flour Crackers from the New York Times Magazine
someone else's variation - same basic recipe

AND DON'T FORGET you can get spelt berries from us to make you own very nutritious spelt flour at HiStakes-Spelt.com/spelt

And this one is a new spelt bread recipe with no yeast, no gluten (other than fragile spelt gluten) and it is super simple to make. Check it out on

AllRecipes.com - Very Simple Spelt Bread

I am looking forward to trying these out. Let me know if you beat me to it and how it works. Enjoy!

FREE Bread Class

I have had a few people ask, so I will publicly answer:

Question: Can I (Jamie) do a bread class at your house (meaning: you who are reading this)? Do I travel? Can I do a bread class for church enrichments or preparedness fairs?

Answer: Yes. All are entirely possible. It depends where you live to say if I will travel to your house. Maybe, if you have lots of friends that want to take the class, too, that might entice me to travel farther than normal... (hint, hint)


Question: How do I schedule a free bread making class?

Answer: Just ask. Send me an email or call me. Suggest a few dates that are good for you and we can figure out which days are good for both of us and voila! We have a class. Not hard and I'm pretty easy to work with. (Unless you live really far away and I am supposed to travel to where you are. I might have to wait for better weather! But I always love a good excuse to travel!)

IMPORTANT NOTE: At the class, you will get all of my secrets for making excellent bread as well as a copy of the best recipe for making any kind of whole wheat (including spelt) bread.


Any more questions? =)

p.s. I hope to see you in a class soon...

FREE Bread Classes Available

I've decided to teach {FREE} bread classes to all who want to come and refine their bread techniques, or who want to learn about different kinds of wheat, grinders and flour, or who just need a social outing!

Wanna come?

We just had a class last week. We had a LOT of fun and learned lots of tricks. It was a hands-on class, so you know how to "feel" when the bread is ready when you try this at home. It was a totally custom class. We chose to work with hard red wheat and spelt. We learned to make bread and then voted to make cinnamon rolls with the extra. We swapped recipes, talked and shopped while the bread rose and then when the cinnamon rolls were done baking, we each got to eat one.
They were DELICIOUS!!

More classes are available upon request.
I have a few scheduled and would be happy to work something out to fit your schedule.

It is a lot of fun and I hope you'll join us for a class sometime soon.

Bread Day

Today is bread making day. Everybody loves when I have a bread day. My little boys love to help add flour and even shape loaves. They are such good helpers!
I will probably make bread a lot this summer - every 6-10 days. We go through a lot of bread for sandwiches in summer. I promise that I won't tell you every time I make bread this summer. Just every once in a while. ;)
I just want to report that it turned out beautifully. The dough was a little sticky as I shaped loaves, but it turned out okay in the end. Hooray for small successes. I dare say that my recipe is almost fail proof. Is that possible?