Spelt Egg Bread

I’ve made this bread so many times, you would wonder if I really meant that I don’t eat many carbs. Truth be told, JT adores it, so whenever we have carb-eating company, this is my go-to bread. I ran out of flour so I added a bit of spelt and it worked out amazing! Thanks Angie for inspiring me to try Spelt flour.

I also discovered well into the bread-making that I didn’t have sesame seeds. Sigh. So I improvised and omitted them from this version of the recipe. I also only wanted one loaf so I cut the recipe in half.

Fresh out of the oven, all steamy and hot!

Makes 1 30cm loaf,

Original Sesame Bread (from Sawsan, Chef in Disguise)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup spelt flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp powdered milk
• 1/3 cup warm water (it should feel slightly warm to the touch not hot)
• 1/2 tsp vinegar
• 2 tsp yeast
• 2 tsp sugar
• pinch tsp salt

Directions:

1. Combine the yeast, sugar and 1/3 cup water, stir gently and allow to bubble up and foam.
2. In the bowl of your stand mixer add the flour, spelt flour, salt, powdered milk, eggs and vinegar. Rub the eggs into the flour with cookie dough hook and then switch to a dough hook to incorporate completely (apparently the powdered milk makes the dough more elastic because of the sugar content in it).
3. Add the yeast water mixture and knead the dough for 10 minutes until you get a smooth slightly sticky dough (you may or may not need to add more water depending on the type of flour you use — spelt absorbs more water).
4. Place the dough in a slightly oiled bowl, cover it and allow it to rise in a warm place till it doubles in size (this only takes about 45 minutes).
5. Pre-heat your oven to 500°F.
6. Begin by rolling out the dough to about 30cm x 25cm (12″ x 10″), then roll the dough tightly on the long end and pinch to seal. Pinch the seam along the edge as well so it doesn’t unravel. If the dough is not sticky enough, it WILL unravel, so I sometimes wet my hand and brush the entire rectangle with the water and leave it for a couple of minutes to get sticky before you roll up.
7. Allow to rest about 20 minutes in a warm, draft-free place.
8. Bake for 5-7 minutes on the high heat, then reduce to 400°F and bake for another 7-10 minutes or until the bottom is golden.
9. Allow to cool slightly and serve warm. Enjoy!

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Spelt Fajita Shells

We’re celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving at my brother’s place on the Muskoka’s and it’s pretty chilly. Although on the way up the trees seemed to be at their height of Autumn colours, the trees along Lake Rosseau aren’t quite there yet.

I set up a couple of posts before our holidays knowing that I would be busy when I returned; I’m still trying to organize all my photos from the trip, but that is a full time job. It’s great to have the camera (iPhone) at your disposal all the time, but it does make it too very easy to take too many photos. I have more than 300 and JT has over 150 photos (he didn’t bother taking too many because my phone takes better pictures!). I am hoping to have the Paris part of our trip next week sometime, in the meantime, I hope you enjoy this post…continuing on the tapas theme.

We had a tapas dinner party for some friends the weekend before we left and I made Spelt Fajita Shells; I made them myself instead of buying them at the store because I wanted smaller shells, so that we wouldn’t fill up on one tapa. They worked out great, and I’ll be making them again.

Can you guess what this is?

How about this?

We had a garlic shrimp skillet to stuff these little babies with. It was quite successful as the shrimp vanished in no time!

I made mini fajita shells so that we could eat more of them!

Original recipe can be found here.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup spelt berries, ground in a mill or 1 cup spelt flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 tablespoon oil
• 1/2 cup hot water

Directions:

1. Combine all the ingredients (I used my food processor, but don’t over process) and mix into a ball of dough. It should have a little elasticity but not too much.
2. Cover and let sit in a warm place for 20 minutes.
3. Divide the dough into 16-20 equal parts and let sit, covered, another 20 minutes (these will make a tortilla about 10cm or 4inches in diametre).
4. Take each ball and place closer to the hinge of the tortilla press (not centre) and press down. To get it even thinner and bigger, pulse the press a few time so that the dough reaches to the edges of the press. Repeat until all of the dough balls have been pressed. Keep covered with a damp cloth so they don’t dry out.
5. Preheat a skillet on medium high heat. Spray with non-stick cooking spray.
6. Cook each side of the tortilla until golden (or slightly brown, like mine)
7. Cook all of the tortillas, watching carefully. The instructions said to place the tortillas in a plastic bag, with wet paper towels in between them to keep them soft and moist but if you forget, you can steam the tortillas just before serving and they will become soft and moist and fresh again.
8. Freeze leftovers and reheat by steaming.

Yes, that is a glazed ceramic flower pot bottom, you caught me ;-)!

Sizzling garlic shrimp with cilantro and lemon

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