This nutritious Whole Grain Spelt Bread Recipe with flax and sesame seeds is super easy to make. It is also much better and more economical than store bought bread.
How to Make Whole Grain Spelt Bread
I don't make homemade bread often, but whenever I do bake my own loaves I wonder why that is. It always tastes delicious, I know exactly what's in it and although it may not be a quick process, it is really easy with little hands-on time.
Growing up in Germany has set me up with high standards for healthy, hearty bread. If you ever walk into a German bakery, you will probably be surprised at all the different varieties they have. And none of it is even remotely like fluffy white Wonderbread toast.
And neither is my Whole Grain Spelt Bread. Instead, it is hearty and somewhat dense, because it includes 100% whole grain spelt flour plus wonderfully nutritious flax and sesame seeds. This means it is clean eating bread.
To start making this spelt bread recipe, you have to whisk the dry ingredients together in a bowl. This includes whole-grain spelt flour, flax seeds, sesame seeds, yeast, and salt. Next, you add liquid honey and warm water and knead the dough until it becomes smooth and elastic. I knead it by hand for about 15 minutes. The 'window pane test' works to a certain extent for this dough, although whole grain dough always tear more easily. Alternatively, you can knead the dough in your stand mixer with the dough hook. It should take only about 5-7 minutes.
Warm water is essential to making good bread as it helps activate the yeast, however, you don't want it too hot as that could also kill the yeast. Generally, 95° F is ideal for instant yeast which I use here, but the temp can vary depending on the type of yeast you use. For example, active dry yeast requires a slightly higher temperature of between 105° F and 115° F to proof.
The dough for this healthy spelt bread recipe undergoes two rises. The first one is as a ball of dough in a bowl and covered with a kitchen towel. You want to let the whole wheat spelt recipe dough rise until doubled in size, which should only take about 1 and a half hours. Next, you shape the dough into a loaf to place in your loaf pan and allow it to double again. Once your dough loaf doubles, it will be ready to bake into a beautiful bread!
Is Spelt Bread Good for You?
Often, people cannot have bread because of gluten and wheat intolerances. Sometimes people prefer not to eat bread because it contains white flour, which has few nutrients as well. This whole grain spelt bread is excellent because it contains highly nutritious spelt flour. Spelt is a whole grain that is a nut-brown colour. It has a nutty and earthy taste as well, which makes this bread great for those who love the depth of flavour that whole wheat gives.
Spelt does contain gluten, so it isn't a great choice if you are on a gluten-free diet. Gluten helps make the type of springy loaf that everyone loves, though. Beyond that, spelt flour contains a wealth of nutrients and minerals like manganese, phosphorus, and iron. Spelt flour also has plenty of fiber and protein.
Tips on Working with Yeast
Yeast is an essential element to baking bread like this spelt bread. It promotes flavour and causes the dough to rise. Even a sourdough bread that relies on a sourdough starter rather than fresh yeast includes yeast. The starter grows the yeast that naturally occurs on the outside of grains. SOme also say that it picks up natural yeasts from its surrounding environment to help raise dough during baking.
One problem people encounter when baking with yeast is that their yeast isn't fresh enough. To test whether your yeast is active or not, add 2 ¼ teaspoons of it to a ¼ cup of warm water with a teaspoon of sugar. If the mixture bubbles after 10 minutes and develops a yeast-like aroma, it will still be good to use in this healthy spelt bread.
Next, it is important to recognize that salt can potentially kill yeast leading it to be inactive in your bread recipe. This is a little difficult considering that salt is so crucial to bread baking. However, as long as the yeast isn't in direct contact with the salt for too long, it should still sufficiently raise your loaf into a puffy, fluffy bread.
Both the temperature of your water and the atmosphere that you rise the dough in are important, too. As mentioned above, 95° F is the ideal water temperature to activate instant yeast. Meanwhile, if your environment is too cold, your dough might be very slow to rise. If it is too warm, your dough might over-proof or start to crust around the edges. The results of an over-proofed bread loaf will be that the bread won't rise very much in the oven and will be dense. You should put your dough in a warm, draft-free spot in your kitchen to you get a perfectly proofed dough every time.
Can I Substitute Whole Grain Spelt Flour with Sprouted Spelt Flour?
Yes, you can turn this whole grain spelt bread into a sprouted spelt bread with the use of sprouted spelt flour. Sprouted spelt flour is flour from whole sprouted grains rather than the dried seed. You should be able to replace the whole grain spelt flour in this bread for an equal amount of sprouted grain flour with equal success.
The main difference will be that it will be even healthier because allowing grains to sprout increases their amino acids and overall nutrition.
How to Keep Homemade Bread Fresh
A challenge with making homemade bread is how to keep the loaf of bread fresh. This is especially important if you have a small family and can't enjoy a low in a single day or two. Luckily, this spelt bread recipe should keep successfully for up to 4 days if you wrap it tightly. Simply wrap the loaf of bread in a bread bag, plastic wrap, or a freezer bag. You can also add it to a very large airtight container for some extra protection.
If you don't want to enjoy your loaf right away, you can also freeze it. Preslicing before freezing is also a great option because it means you can just pull a few slices out as you need them to toast for the morning.
More Whole Grain Bread Recipes:
- Sourdough Sandwich Bread
- Whole Wheat Beer Bread
- Spelt Irish Soda Bread
- Rustic Sourdough Bread
- No Knead Sourdough Bread

Whole Grain Spelt Bread
Ingredients
- 4.5 cups whole grain spelt flour
- ¼ cup flax seeds
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
- 2.25 teaspoons instant yeast 1 0.25-ounce packet
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1.75 cups warm water
- 2 tablespoons honey
Instructions
- In large bowl whisk together spelt flour, flax and sesame seeds, yeast and salt until combined.
- Add water and honey and stir until a dough starts to form. When you can no longer stir, turn out the dough on a floured surface and knead into a firm dough ball. The dough should be stretchy and elastic. When tearing of a piece, you should be able to stretch it gently to become transparent. This is called the "Window Pane Test". Alternatively, you can make the dough in a stand mixer with dough hook attachment.
- Place the dough into a clean bowl, cover with a dry kitchen towel and let it rise until doubled in size (about 1.5 hours).
- Lightly grease a loaf pan (9x5 inches). Turn the risen dough out onto a floured surface and stretch it out gently. Shape it into a loaf by first folding in the sides towards the center. Then roll the dough up from the bottom and gently tuck under the ends.
- Place the dough in the loaf pan - seam side down. Brush the top with water and sprinkle with extra seeds. Cover the loaf and let rise for 30 mins to 1 hour. The loaf should look obviously bigger than before, but doesn't exactly have to be 'doubled in size'.
- Preheat oven to 400° F. With a sharp knife make 3-4 diagonal cuts across the top of the risen loaf. Bake the spelt bread loaf for about 40 minutes until the top is golden brown and crusty. When tapping the bottom of the baked bread there should be a hollow sound. If using an instant thermometer, the internal temperature should be 190° F. Let the spelt loaf cool on a wire rack. Slice only once fully cooled.
- Tightly wrapped the spelt bread loaf keeps for about 4 days at room temperature. You can also wrap it airtight and freeze for later.
Nutrition
Florence Auboux
Hello I tried the recipe the dough was very very sticky had to add a lot of flour… maybe I don’t understand the proportions as I am French what does 4.5 cups mean??? 4 and a half cup? I know a cup is less than 250ml… Help!
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Hi Florence, yes, 4.5 cups is 4 1/2 cups. Bread dough will often be a little sticky. You could try dusting both your hands and the loaf with flour to make it easier to shape.
Regina
Hi Regina,
Just started about a month ago to bake bread. The bread is not brown,
and it is very hard. Did not rise enough either. The yeast I used was
fine. Not sure what I did wrong. I was raised in Germany too. It is
so difficult to find similar bread in the US, even more difficult trying
to bake. I have a long way to go. Will try this recipe again.
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Hi Regina,
It is so wonderful you are starting to bake bread!
This is a hard one to answer as yeast can be very challenging. If the water is too hot, it may kill the yeast when you mix everything together. Meanwhile, if the water is too cold, it may not be able to activate the yeast. Too much salt can kill the yeast too.
Measuring slightly too much of the dry ingredients can also cause the loaf to be too dry or adding too much honey may result in the bread not being able to rise properly.
It's really hard to say exactly what your challenge may have been but if you have an instant-read thermometer, you can check that the water isn't too hot before mixing it with the yeast and other ingredients. The temperature should be between 105 F and 115 F.
Happy baking and let us know how your next bread-baking experience goes.
Regina
Thank you for your reply. I am not giving up.
Kathy Funke
Mine did not turn out. I have arthritis so I usually use my bread machine totally scrape them down and eat the dough and then I’ll make it in the oven afterwards. Mine did not rise at all it was very dense.
Kathy Funke
Sorry I was talking into my phone. My bread did not rise and was too dense. I use a bread machine to kneed the dough. I use the dough mode. It just didn’t turn out.
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Thanks for your review, Kathy! Bread baking can definitely be a challenge sometimes. I'm not sure if the bread machine would have been the issue although it could have resulted in the bread being over kneaded which may be why the loaf was a little more dense than you would have liked. Overkneading can also impact the dough's rise in the oven. I like kneading dough in a standmixer fitted with a dough hook attachment as it keeps the process hands-off while giving you more control over the kneading process.
Diane
It turned out great. I added some walnuts and figs to it, because when we were in Germany this summer our host would make a walnut fig bread. She gave us the recipe but it was for a bread machine. It was 280 ml water, 22g yeast 225g wheat flour (1050) 225g spelt whole grain 100g waluts 100g figs a little bit salt and a little bit honey. I could not get the conversion right. So when I found your recipe I had to try it. We will be making a lot more of it. Thank you.
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
I love the sound of the walnuts and figs in this bread recipe. It seems so festive! Thanks for your lovely review, Diane.
Sherry
This is a fantastic recipe! I have tried with whole grain spelt, kamut, and whole wheat with very good results! Thank you so much!
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Thanks for your high praise, Sherry! 🙂
Jan
I let honey dissolve in the warm water before I added....was that a bad idea? It doesn't seem to be rising
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Hi Jan, Dissolving the honey in warm water shouldn't be an issue. Do you mean that the dough wasn't rising or the bread wasn't rising during baking? If the dough wasn't rising, it could be that your kitchen is too cold, or your yeast isn't viable or is too old. Meanwhile, if it doesn't rise in the oven, it could be because the yeast isn't as fresh as it should be, you over-kneaded the dough or you added water that was too hot (killing the yeast). Baking bread can be a little finicky. Let us know if you have any other questions or can provide more details so we can help you better. 🙂
Priscilla A Bombard
Can you make this bread using a bread machine?
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Hi Priscilla, yes, you should be able to adapt this recipe to your bread machine. Let us know how it goes!
Michaela
Great taste and texture!
I added 2 TB of unrefined coconut oil to my liquids (only deviation I made).The dough was great to work with - it was my first time working with spelt flour. However, it stuck to the pan terribly! Next time I will utilize parchment paper.
Oh, and it was done baking at 29 minutes at 400F - it was at 200F internal temp! I used the same loaf pan size as the recipe called for and prepared as recommended. My oven doesn't seem to bake hotter in general, so I was glad I checked it early! Not sure what that was all about! But it tastes beautiful and will definitely make again with added parchment and decreased baking time.
Thank you!
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Thank you for your review of the recipe, Michaela! I am glad you enjoyed it!
Delcia
Love this bread!! I have a B&B and make it for my guests. Never failed - yet.
Have you ever tried this with a mix of spelt flour and w/meal rye?
Regina | Leelalicious
Hi Delcia, I am so glad to hear you are having such great success with the recipe and that your guests get to enjoy it too. What an honor.
I often add some wholegrain rye flour to my sourdough breads (usually between 10-30%), but I am not too familiar with rye meal. Looking at some pictures even the finest meal looks a bit coarser than wholegrain rye flour. In your case, I would simply try it out. Start by replacing as little as 1/2 cup of spelt flour with the rye meal. And then keep increasing the amount in increments until you find your happy place.
Ennis McCaffrey
Regina:
I made this bread for my wife and myself the other day. I must say that your bread recipe turned out two delicious and healthy loaves of bread! My wife Rita said it is the best bread I have baked yet! Thank you so much for your dedication to providing the internet community with wonderful and healthy baked good recipes!
Delcia
Hi Regina. Love this bread too. Make it most days for our bnb guests. When you said you made two loaves did you half the recipe or make to batches?
Cheers
Regina | Leelalicious
Wow thank you so much for your fantastic comment Ennis! I am so happy to read about the success you are having with this recipe. Enjoy!
Grace Wieber
Looks like a fine recipe.
Do you really have to use the honey?
I am not a fan of sweet breads.
Thank you for your response.
Best wishes,
Gracie
Regina | Leelalicious
Hi Grace, you can omit the honey if you don't want any sweet flavor to your bread. Maybe the yeast will take a touch longer to get going, but it will be totally fine without honey.
Alex
I've made this recipe 6 times since mid July. It is fantastic. I found I loved spelt flour so much I bought a 25 lb bag of it. I also add quinoa to this recipe. Thanks so much!
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
I'm so glad this is a go-to recipe for you, Alex! Thank you for commenting.
Beth F
So delicious. I subbed 1 cup bread flour because i was nervous about using spelt. Still, a delicious nutty flavor. Thanks for the tip about using a thermometer
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
I'm glad you enjoyed this recipe, Beth!
Mary
Great recipe. Easy to make. Best spelt bread recipe I’ve made. I’ve made it twice now
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
I'm so glad it worked out for you, Mary! 🙂
Tracy
Followed the recipe exactly, and the result was a delicious loaf of bread. Thank you so much, this will be a regular bake from now on.
Jennifer @ Leelalicious
Thank you so much, Tracy! I'm glad the recipe worked out well for you. 🙂
Marco
Hello again, Regina. Sorry it has taken me a bit to get back to you. I have made this bread many times. In fact, it has become our go to recipe when we don't have time to make sourdough, and I have to say it's delicious and very easy to make. And you were right, following the recipe in cups works just fine. Precisely the reson you mentioned in your earlier reply about the differences in the conversion of cups to grams is why I don't understand why we would continue to use such inaccurate measuring systems in cooking, where precision is often so important for good results, more so even in baking than anywhere else in the kitchen. But I have worked out my own recipe in grams and now it is working just fine. Thanks for sharing your recipes and knowledge. Have a lovely day.
Regina | Leelalicious
I am happy to hear you found a way to make it work for you. Out of curiosity, I would love to hear how much 1 cup (or 4.5 cups) of spelt flour come to in grams for you.
Esther
Hi Marco, could you please post the gram converted recipe as I also thought the recipe looked like too much water, added most of it but I’ve ended up with a very sticky dough. Added a little extra flour and currently waiting for proofing and hope I haven’t wasted time and money on this.
Thanks in advance, beginner bread maker in Oz
Robin
Does the recipe work with much lower levels of salt and honey? Is there a minimum below which the recipe fails?
Regina | Leelalicious
I think it will be fine. It will affect the flavor but not the outcome of the recipe
Ana
We love this bread and I've made it several times. My question is can I use a bread maker to make this bread? If so what steps stay the same and what steps change?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Regina | Leelalicious
Hey Ana, it's been a very long time since I used a bread machine, but here are a few pointers I can think of.
1. Add the ingredients in the order your machine requires. Usually, liquid ingredients first, then dry ones on top.
2. Select a cycle for a 2 lbs loaf.
Kathy reiser
This is by far the BEST bread recipe I ever made. I can’t thank you enough for sharing with us. I just followed your numbers exactly and magic happened. I wish I can post a picture of my bread because it’s picture perfect too!!!