Bread with Emmer Wheat

I baked bread with emmer wheat -wild wheat which was traditional for this region in the past and which is becoming popular today with nowadays hype about everything bio and paleo. I used a mild recipe with only 50% emmer and 50% wheat flour.

Ingredients:

• 250 g emmer flour
• 250 g white wheat  flour
• 250 ml lukewarm water
• 7 g instant dry yeast
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt

I mixed the ingredients, kneaded the dough and left it to rise in the oven at 40C. The dough is brownish and the emmer flour is much coarser and darker than white wheat flour, the dough takes longer to rise.

After the dough had risen enough (for some 80-90 min), I cut it two, kneaded the balls and made two loaves, covered with sesame seeds. This is the second time I'm making this emmer bread and this time I placed the loaves in cake forms. The first time two days ago I baked them as I usually do on a flat baking dish and they spread flat and lost form, so I took precautions this time.

After another hour of rising in the form I turned the oven to 180C and baked the loaves for about 45-50 min.

The taste of the bread is very specific - the other members of the family liked it immediately, but I didn't at first - I've always preferred bread of white wheat flour, enriched with eggs and milk, so liking this more wild taste required for me some adjustment. But on the second day of my first batch of emmer loaves I was surprised to find that I actually liked it better than the industrial wholegrain bread I usually buy.

So I intend to continue my experiments in baking by researching some recipes for cookies with emmer flour and by trying spelt flour too.