My recent mastery of bread baking has led to an outpouring of pane toscane, pain de campagne, ciabatta and baguettes. Which has of course been lovely but there’s been nary a whole grain in sight. The odd seeded spelt baton notwithstanding. So I decided to fiddle around with my pane toscane recipe this morning and make a (mostly) spelt version. The results got the Chez KP stamp of approval…which really just means there’s not quite enough left for breakfast.

Castelluccio Papaveri e Farro, poppys and spelt

poppies and spelt, photo by pizzodisevo, some rights reserved

Spelt and wheat pane toscane
10g dry yeast
pinch rapadura
260ml warm water
300g spelt
200g bread flour
4 tablespoon olive oil

  1. Combine yeast, rapadura and water. Let stand for 10 minutes.
  2. Sift flours together in a large bowl (or pulse three times in thermomix)
  3. Add yeast mixture and olive oil to flour. Combine and knead until pliable (5 seconds on speed 5 then knead for 3 minutes in thermomix)
  4. Let prove, covered in a warm place for 1 1/2 hours or until doubled in size
  5. Preheat oven to 200 degrees
  6. Knock back to expel air and form into oval shape. Lightly dust with flour and leave to prove for another 45 minutes
  7. Bake for 40 minutes or until golden and crusty. Transfer to cooling rack. Keep out of reach of small rodent like children