It's Time to Bake Bread

"The smell of good bread baking, like the sound of lightly flowing water, is indescribable in its evocation of innocence and delight."

The Art of Eating, M. F. K. Fisher, (1908-1992)

For a long time now I have wanted to make my own sourdough spelt bread.  Yet I have no experience in bread baking - my aunty used to bake bread but stopped before I was old enough to learn from her.  Baking bread was something my mother never did in my memory.  She did make a loaf in the bread maker however.

My husband has assumed the bread making role in our family regularly baking spelt bread in our bread maker.  He makes a lovely loaf which my children enjoy.  So do I in recent times as I am unable to buy the lovely spelt sourdough loaf I regularly purchased at Dough at the Adelaide Central Markets before we moved.

However my goal is still unachieved - baking my own spelt sourdough.  I still haven't found a blogger who has found success to this end.  So I'll have to keep searching.  I have however made a couple of friends who are experimenting with sourdough bread baking so I look forward to some baking days with them.  I don't they think are using spelt but at least I will progress further in my quest to bake sourdough bread.

Today, thanks to the inspiration of Rhonda's post yesterday on Five Minute Bread and a Spelt Bread Recipe published by Four Leaf, I have two loaves of spelt bread in the oven.  We are eagerly anticipating a lunch of hot bread dripping with butter and/or olive oil along with some delicious Potato and Leek Soup.  The smell of my home is divine today and while I don't actually feel hungry yet, I am beginning to salivate with the fragrance tickling my nose.

The mix started to be seemingly a little dry, yet I persisted.

After time to rise, punching back and rising again (which I did in a preheated oven turned off due to our cold weather today),

the loaves were kneaded lighty, placed in warm pans and ready to bake.

Just look at the results.  The girls are were very eager to have our lunch when it was ready.

Rosemary and Chickpea Flatbread

My Ess has recently taken to making flatbreads.  Have I told you about her Meatballs with Rosemary Flatbreads and Carrot Salad?  She was inspired by Junior Masterchef.  A definite favourite during the last part of last year.  She took the whole day to make the whole dish but was absolutely focused all day long.  I didn't intervene at all unless she asked for help.  We were hungry for lunch by 4pm but at least Daddy could join us.  And the meal became tea - lucky for me.

I'm not sure what inspired me, but I was certain there had to be a lovely flat bread using besan (chickpea flour).  So the hunt began!   Yesterday we found a nice-looking recipe with besan added.  We made the flatbread and devoured them in one sitting.  This morning we made them again... and yes, devoured them again.

I really like this recipe because the bread is baked in the oven for a short 10 minutes.  The other flatbreads were cooked in a pan which was much more hands, much more effort.

They are very simple, very quick, so you must simply try them yourself, you must.

Find the recipe here at pikelet & pie.  You really should head over there.  She has teamed these with a Zucchini and Feta salad which tempts me but probably not my lassies.  Her photos are thus much more enticing than those you see here. :)