Spelt Flour Questions
How do I get spelt to rise properly?
I let the dough rise once for 20 minutes, shape into rolls and put in oven without rising and it still doesn’t work. They come out flat.
Hello and thank you for writing:
Spelt flour rises and bakes differently than wheat. Keeping this in mind, the first rising of just the dough should be the full hour or ‘until doubled in bulk’. This is what activates the gluten, yeast, etc. After you shape it into rolls, preheat the oven to 400 F. let the rolls rise only about 15 minutes if its hot inside or 20 minutes if not and then bake immediately . This should keep them from spreading and becoming flat. They rise quicker than wheat and spelt is also a much softer flour and dough. Spelt is gentler/ softer on the digestive tract too which is why many who are wheat sensitive, turn to spelt.
If your dough is very soft to begin with you should also decrease the water in it a bit more, start by decreasing by 1/2 cup. Any very wet or loose dough will make your breads spread, and this is especially so with spelt flour doughs.
How much yeast would you use for 4 cps of spelt flour?
4 cups of flour is approximately a bit more than a half kilo. For one kilo (about 2.2 lbs.) I would use for wheat, a tablespoon of dry yeast, for Spelt I would do a bit less, about 2 teaspoons plus another 1/4 teaspoon.
So for a half kilo, I would try 1 teaspoon and a half of dry yeast.
If the dough is too airy after the first rise, you will know for next time to cut down the yeast and the water too, by even a bit more.
I also make my own spelt low sugar bread loaves for weekday use, no bread machine and it comes out great. They are always high and nice. To keep them at their freshest, I slice each loaf after it is cooled and then store it in freezer bags in the freezer sliced and only remove what I need each time.
Just to verify further, how much yeast were you using for 4 cups of spelt flour prior to this email?
1 & 1/2 tablespoons dry yeast to my four cups of spelt flour
NO WONDER your bread over-rose so quickly and flattened out!! This is far too much yeast for so little flour. Plus, just digesting so much yeast is also hard on the system and makes a person tired and is unhealthy. I’m sure once you cut the yeast down — by more than half if you do the 1.5 teaspoons instead of that large amount of yeast, to your four cups, I’m sure you will also feel better after eating the bread, aside from it also looking better
Just to get back to you, I tried your suggestions and they did help a lot. Thank you for your time.
