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Today I want to tell you a bit about Spelt and give you this recipe of a Spelt sourdough bread made with rye and wheat sourdough. A bread with a special soury, nutty and sweet taste and with unique properties given by this special grain.

T. spelta is part of the wheat family  (Triticum). This grain started to be grown in southern Germany since the year 4000 bc, but there is evidence that it started to be grown in Asia from 7000 bc. Today, it is popular in northern Europe, specially Germany, Switzerland and France.

Spelt is characterized by having high amounts of protein (17%), a moderatelly strong gluten quality but not so elastic. It is usually recommende to mix the spelt flour with normal wheat (T. aestivus) or other wheats that give a strong gluten if you’d like to have as a result a bread with a non-compact structure.

Comparing it to common wheat, spelt has a higher carbohydrate, protein, fibre, vitamin B1 and B2, plus a higher amount of minerals and aminoacid content. It provides a sweet and nutty taste to bread. It is highly soluble in water and easy to digest.

A special property is that the grain has a very strong skin, dificult to eliminate providing a high resistance to plagues and diseases, making it an ideal cereal for ecological growth, due to its natural resistance without the need to use transgenic seeds or pesticides.

Spelt is therefore the most ancient wheat grain, with no genetic modifications since its use, a high resistance to plagues, perfect for ecological growth, with excellent nutritional properties and which also provides a unique taste to bread.