Well I have had a rather busy weekend - swimming with the boys, housework, an 80s girls' night out, a 5K run, more swimming - so was wondering how on earth I was going to get round to baking this bread in time for the Short and Tweet deadline. Cue a rather splendidly domesticated husband stepping in and making it for me (as well as making THREE batches of peanut butter cookies which I will blog about next!).
This loaf is a variation on the wholemeal loaf I did for Short and Tweet in December. I found this one to be denser and more bitter than the plain wholemeal one which I really loved. Of course, this one is still miles better than a flaccid sliced loaf from a plastic bag. It will be rather great with homemade soup. I couldn't really say I noticed the ale taste apart from the extra bitterness.
I obviously can't really comment on how it was to make this bread but Steve reports that it was straightforward but took a bit longer to rise than his usual breads.
You can get Dan Lepard's recipe in his book, Short and Sweet or on the Guardian website here.
What a wonderful looking loaf. There is nothing like homemade bread.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting well into spelt this week too (mostly in the breadmaker). Made a spelt, smaretto and apple cake yesterday... mmmm!
ReplyDelete*amaretto* :-)
DeleteI adore spelt. Well done you on all that weekend activity! I have the Race for Life 5k in two weekends time. I am new to running this year and I am not a natural born runner I can tell you! I would rather eat bread.
ReplyDeleteI too love the basic wholemeal loaf and am intrigued by this one. I enjoy using spelt but am just not sure I want a slightly bitter loaf. It looks great - love that close crumb!
ReplyDeleteJac - no you can't. It is so homely too and you feel quite smug about it even if, like me, you don't even bother to do it yourself but get other half to get on with it. ;)
ReplyDeleteMacaroon - Can I have the recipe please?
Kath - good luck for your races. I am not a natural either - it does feel like such hard work!
Caroline - I don't know if it was us or the recipe but I think I will experiment with other spelt loaf recipes and try some other things.