Spelled and walnut bread

Today is the perfect day to start making bread at home! Miriam, author of El Invitado de Invierno, brings us a delicious recipe for whole wheat spelt and walnut bread , a very suitable recipe to get you started in making bread at home. Let's get to work!

There is nothing more comforting to make at home when the weather gets colder than a good loaf of bread . And to top it off, this recipe not only has walnut crumbles to brighten up our breakfasts, but we also use spelt flour, a cereal similar to common wheat with an excellent flavour.

This bread actually contains only 50% spelt , and it is also wholemeal for the sake of health, because spelt has a weak gluten content and we use a strong flour. This flour is very good with pre-ferments, so we will use a poolish , a ferment made with equal amounts of flour and water, plus a pinch of yeast.

To make this bread we use an excellent ceramic oven from Emile Henry , which collects and transmits heat wonderfully and, as it has a lid, retains the bread's own moisture and helps it rise as much as possible.

Emile Henry rectangular ceramic oven and Triana recycled glass plates

Ingredients (for approximately ¾ kg of bread)

• 215gr of whole spelt flour
• 215gr of white strong flour
• 285gr of water
• 9g of salt
• 10gr of honey
• 1 pinch of dehydrated baker's yeast
• 50g chopped or whole walnuts

Elaboration

1. We prepare the preferment the night before with 80g of water, 80g of strong flour and a pinch of yeast. We mix, cover and let it ferment until the next day at room temperature.
2. We then add the rest of the ingredients from the list that we have left. We knead by hand or with a food processor , with short kneading sessions of 1-2 minutes and intermediate rests of 10-15 minutes.
3. When the dough is smooth and elastic (more or less, since whole wheat dough is never as smooth as white dough) we make a ball and put it in a greased container . We cover it and let it double in volume.
4. Once fermented, we transfer it to the counter and press it down well with our hands to remove the gas. We divide it into two equal-sized portions, stretch them into a square and place the nuts on top of one of them. We place the second portion on top, like making a sandwich, and knead lightly to distribute the nuts.
5. We stretch the dough into a rectangle and roll it up.
6. Grease and flour the bread oven thoroughly and place the dough roll in, seam side down. Place the oven lid on and let it rise again until it almost doubles in size.
7. We put the ceramic oven with the lid in our oven and bake the bread at 230º for 15 minutes, without air, only with heat from above and below; it is not necessary to put any tray with water or to steam since the oven with a lid keeps the humidity given off by the bread itself inside.
8. Then we lower the temperature to 180º and continue cooking for another 20 minutes, until the bread is golden.
9. We take out the bread, unmold it carefully so as not to burn ourselves, and let it cool completely on a rack .

Emile Henry rectangular ceramic oven and Bra Bella coffee maker

And now we have a magnificent bread for breakfast with loads of flavour and that fibre that we are told is so necessary. Let's enjoy things well done.