This recipe is dedicated to my mother. This bread precisely is her type of bread. She’s never been a fan of fluffy white breads, at least not in my memory. As kids we’d plead for a sandwich loaf that didn’t look like a bird feeder. But, since we cannot help but turn into our parents, my recent love affair with seedy loaves probably shouldn’t come as a surprise.
This bread is dense and nutty. Two slices of it and you’ll feel full until noon. I’ve been tweaking the recipe for a few weeks and now it comes close to a few really great spelt breads that you can find around San Francisco that kicked off my recent obsession.
This is a quick bread, which means you just mix and bake. With no waiting for dough to rise and loaves to proof, you can have a hot loaf of bread in about an hour and a half.
Spelt Quick Bread
4 cups spelt flour
1/2 cup sesame seeds
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon molasses
3 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 egg
2 – 2 1/4 cups milk
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
butter for greasing the pans
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour two 9 x 5 loaf pans. In a large bowl, mix together the flour, sesame seeds, baking soda and salt. In another medium bowl, whisk together the molasses, honey, brown sugar, egg and milk. Combine the wet and dry ingredients in the larger bowl, stirring to combine. Spoon half of the batter into each loaf pan. Top generously with sesame seeds.
Place both loaf pans side by side with some room between in the middle rack of the oven. Cover both with a baking sheet. This will help get a nice even brown crust on the top that doesn’t split open. Bake 40 minutes – 1 hour, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
We love this bread topped with goat cheese for lunch or dinner. It is also lovely for breakfast broiled with butter and cinnamon sugar.
-Emily
