Let’s talk about Spelt, baby!

At Bakealicious, I have been a busy baking bee for the past few months. Having attended many excellent food fairs, created a new logo, constructed a sparkling new website, finally moved into a new baking space, I am the proud owner of a Pop-Up Tearooms at Sheridan’s Cheesemongers. The summer has been good to Bakealicious, both weather and cake wise.

However, with all this, I have been negligent to The Baker’s Monoblogs. Even though it can fend for itself in cyberspace sometimes it needs some TLC. But I’m back! And this time I am here to stay…hopefully…well until mincepie season comes about but best not mention that until November at least.

So to let you know more about Bakealicious, I have devised a series of blog posts letting me share with you some of Bakealicious’ secrets from the ingredients we use to the washing up liquid that graces our baking trays.

In this blog post, let us share with each other, what spelt is all about and why it is not just the grain of choice among the Winter Birkenstock sandal wearing hippies it once was.

So, now, let us take a few minutes, or if dyslexic you’re like me, take a considerable amount of minutes, to pause and read all about the wonderful grain that is spelt.

Bakealicious have been using organic spelt in all our products since the beginning of 2014 and my o’ my do we really wonder why we have never used it before. I have made many friends and won many hearts with Bakealicious’ spelt cakes and being the glutton that I am, I want to win more in a kind of ‘Gotta catch them all’ Pokemon sort of way.

So what is spelt?

This has been a very, very common question faced by my Bakealicious crew this summer so let me get my Baker’s hat on before I begin our Spelt Tale.

Spelt is an ancient grain, therefore making it in fashion terms ‘vintage’. It is a B.C. grain and was the grain of choice but the Roman Empire and Caesar to drop a few celeb names. Grown north of the Alps during those times, there is historical evidence to show that it  is in circulation since 2000B.C.

However, the tale of spelt is a sad one, as it was cast aside by people during the Industrial Revolution as wheat was the grain of choice. This is due to the fact the wheat yield is greater and its growth period is less than spelt therefore making it more profitable.

Wheat was the champion in the Industrial Revolutionaries eyes, however little did they know that the mass production of wheat would begin to lead to a whole host of food intolerance’s that are ‘trendy’ nowadays. This meant that in less than 300 years spelt flour use was becoming non-existent.

Nevertheless, some baker’s rebelled and stuck it to the ‘wheatened man’ refusing to change their ways. One could liken this to the persistence of Irish people wearing shorts and sandals in the ‘Summer’ even though is 12’c.

Why use spelt?

Bakealicious uses organic spelt in all baked goods. This is due to that fact that spelt is not highly processed therefore retains a lot of it’s nutrients. Another plus of using spelt is that it is not bleached, therefore you are not consuming Parazone. The only down side to this is that your insides are not gonna be as shiny as one would hope.

Also, I opt to bake with organic spelt and this means that the grain has not been sprayed with pesticides or other unnatural stuff that will make your temple like body feel like Sellafield.

But wait there are more perks of why we use spelt, oh yes people, just when you thought it couldn’t get better, it just has. Spelt contains gluten, however the type of gluten it contains is more fragile than the gluten found in wheat flour. The gluten is made up of two components and in spelt the ratio of these components are different to wheat and it is this Ladies and Gentlemen that make spelt more easily digestible than wheat.

So now isn’t it nice to know that you can enjoy Bakealicious’ cake knowing that you are consuming something that is organic, easily digestible AND that is oh so delicious?? Well that’s good enough for me! Until next time cake chums, keep watching the pies!