Cooking with Spelt

My mother asked me why is it that people have been eating gluten forever and yet just recently have been having problems. Well, the answer to that is that wheat we are ingesting today is nowhere near what wheat started out to be. 

I am definitely not an expert on it, but I do know that wheat (along with lots of other things) has been manipulated (whether hybridized or genetically modified) to the point that it is no longer the same wheat our ancestors (or even our grandparents) ate.

Anyway, I have been attempting gluten free, but decided to play around with spelt today. What is spelt? Basically, it is the "antique wheat". Click here to read up on it a bit.


So, here is what I did today:

Spelt Banana Spice Cake

2 1/2 cups Spelt Flour
2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Cloves
1 tsp Nutmeg
1/2 cup Butter
1/2 cup Honey
1/2 cup  Pure Maple Syrup
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
2         Eggs
1 Tbsp Vanilla
3         Large Ripe Bananas, mashed
1         Large Banana, sliced

• Preheat oven to 375
• Mix spelt flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and spices in a mixing bowl.
• In a separate bowl, beat butter, honey, brown sugar, maple syrup, vanilla, and eggs with an electric hand mixer until fluffy.
• Add a third of the bananas and beat well. Follow with a third of the dry ingredients. Repeat until all ingredients are mixed.
• Pour half the batter in a 9x9, greased baking dish.
• Place the slices of banana on the batter.
• Pour the rest of the batter on top of the sliced bananas.
• Bake for 35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
• (I actually ended up turning it down to 350 for a bit to finish it off.. the 8x8x2.5 pan made for a deep cake!)

This cake had RAVE reviews by EVERYONE who tried it.  Most people would take a bite and then their face would show surprise as they tasted it. 

I'm going to try it again as a bread loaf and maybe see if it turns out differently with regular flour.

Acorn Banana Bread

Acorn Banana Bread

1 cup acorn flour
2 tsp baking powder 
¾ cup corn meal
½ tsp salt 
¼ tsp baking soda 
1/3 cup butter, softened
2 eggs, beaten
3 bananas, mashed
1/3 cup maple syrup 
¼ cup honey


Grease an 8x4 inch loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350° F. 
In medium bowl sift all dry ingredients. Flour, corn meal, baking powder, salt and baking soda.
Mix eggs, butter, bananas and honey in large bowl and slowly add flour mixture and beat until well blended. 
Pour batter into greased loaf pan and bake about 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.

 (You can also use wheat flour instead of acorn flour. Also walnuts or pecans in place of acorns and it’s still delicious).

I used the mix of honey and maple syrup because well, I only had 1/4 cup of honey. So, I think it came out a bit sweeter than a straight honey recipe would. If you are going to use just honey, use 2/3 cup. 

It's a little crumbly, which I believe is because it is gluten free. I might look into adding things such as xantham gum, arrowroot, or.. maybe just another eggwhite!  

I used my mother, my son and one of his friends as taste testers and they all liked it a lot. When the boys were told what it was they were REALLY impressed and said "Well knowing what it is, it REALLY is good!"