Quick Spelt Bread – no knead, no rise

All you have to do is stir together some ingredients and then let the oven do the work

Have you noticed that when you sit still time seems to rush by even faster than when you are occupied.
The last few days just raced past as I did nothing much more than sit on the couch with a box of kleenex. I caught a cold – not nasty enough to tie me to bed, but bad enough to keep me from going into the office. So the last few days were spent half lying on my couch,  doing a little work, browsing recipes and doing not very much else.
And somehow the hours just rushed by.

By the second day I had to do something to slow down time. Also I had run out of bread and felt starving (I always feel ravenous when I have a cold). Heading outside just did not seem an option (sniffle, cough). So I decided to find a bread recipe that required less effort than going to the shops.

I have a lovely recipe for a sturdy whole wheat bread that takes about 30 minutes to rise and 45 to bake. But even the wait for it to rise seemed like too much work. So I tried this super quick, super easy recipe. No kneading, no rising, no effort. Not much more than a sift and a stir and you are done.  A quick bake and the result is a fluffy bread with a lovely crunchy crust. The seeds give the bread some texture and a lovely flavour (do not leave them out).

And guess what: as I sipped my tea and bit into a fresh slice of bread with jam – the moment expanded and time slowed down.

Ingredients
(from the blog ‘Cinnamon and Thyme‘)
1 loaf (best eaten the same day)

260 g whole wheat spelt flour

2 full teaspoon baking powder (or cream of tartar)

1/2 tsp salt
1-2 tbsp sunflower seed + 1 tbps for sprinkling
1 tbsp flax seed (ground or whole)
1 tbsp hemp seed (I did not have any so added a little more flax)
250ml (mineral) water
2 tbsp olive oil
1 generous tbsp yoghurt (I used 0% Total Greek yoghurt. The original recipe states sour cream also works)

 Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 190-200C.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl.
3. Add the sunflower-, flax- and hemp seeds Stir.
4. Add water and oil. Mix briefly with a spoon.
5. Add yoghurt and quickly mix again. The dough will be quite sticky and wet.
6. Cover a baking sheet with wax proof paper.
7. Turn the dough out onto the paper and shape into an oval loaf.
8. Sprinkle with remaining sun flower seeds.
9. Place the loaf into the oven and bake about 40 (-50) min. Test with a skewer to ensure it is done.
10. Wrap in a clean kitchen towel and allow to cool on a wire rack.
11. This bread is best eaten the same day. Should you have some left over the next day you might want to toast it.

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