Accidental Bread

“Necessity is the mother of invention.”

Recently when Dennis was out of town I started to make bread. I got as far as dissolving the yeast in warm water when I discovered that the whole wheat canister was nearly empty. I’ve cut white flour to a minimum in my diet and wasn’t about to make white bread. We keep a 25-pound bag of whole wheat flour in the basement and I needed some of it.

The problem was that I hadn’t been to the basement since my knee joint replacement. If I fell on the stairs there would be no one to help me. What the heck, I decided to chance it and went very carefully down the steps. Opening the flour container I was dismayed to find an unopened bag of flour. My arthritic hands couldn’t lift it enough to get at the opening, so I trudged back up the long flight of stairs.

Now what? Well, I’d make the sponge using unbleached flour and see how far the whole wheat flour would go toward finishing the dough. When I reached into the cabinet for the whole wheat container I noticed a plastic bag next to it – a bag of spelt flour that I’d bought on my brother’s recommendation, but never used. Ah, ha! I consulted the internet and learned that although spelt is closely related to wheat, spelt flour differs from wheat flour in several respects.  Spelt flour contains more protein than wheat, it absorbs less moisture than wheat, and its gluten breaks down more easily than wheat gluten.

For the bread-maker it is good to know that dough made with a combination of spelt flour and wheat flour will be a wetter dough. It is important to know that the spelt flour should be added last, as it requires a lot less kneading.

I measured the whole wheat flour I had on hand: 2½ cups. I would finish the dough with as much spelt flour as needed, about 2½ cups.

I had little confidence the bread would be fit to eat, but the loaves I eventually pulled from the oven were beautifully shaped. As soon as the bread cooled I sliced the heel from one loaf, buttered it, and ate. It was delicious!

The concensus at our house is that “accidental bread” is superior to 100% whole wheat bread and itmakes extraordinary toast.  I bought more spelt flour and have been making accidental bread ever since. Last time I made the sponge using only two cups of unbleached flour and one cup of whole wheat flour. The bread was just as good. Today I’m making the sponge with one cup of unbleached flour and two cups of whole wheat. I want to know how far I can reduce the less-nutritious unbleached flour. I also want to increase the amount of spelt flour. (Eventually I’ll have it all worked out and will post the recipe.)

Slices of the last loaves of accidental bread were too big to fit in our toaster, so this time I didn't let the loaves rise much above the tops of the pans. Clearly this bread wants to rise because, as you can see in the photo, today's bread had a lot of "oven spring."

Copyright 2015 by Shirley Domer