Baking With Spelt

Spelt is an essential ingredient in Organico Bakery and in my view is an essential component in the armoury of anyone who wants to bake organically with an view to improving diet.

Spelt is an ancient grain which has not been intensively bred for increased yields. It is particularly of interest because of it's low gluten content and is an important grain for lots of people who have wheat allergies. For more information on the history and benefits of spelt invesigate further at Doves Farm who mill the Spelt I use every day.

I use spelt far more than I use conventional wheat: for baking all our cakes, cookies, brownies, pizza and many types of bread. Spelt gives a delicious nutty flavour to brown breads, and combines very well with herbs and seeds. For cake baking I use a white spelt flour that comes from Hildegard Health in Germany.



Organico Cafe, Glengarriff Rd., Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland. +353 (0)27 55905

Organico Cafe Cookbook

Hi! I'm Rachel Dare.
I'd like to share some of the recipes and methods I use in Organico Cafe to help others who are interested in cooking with organic and locally grown ingredients. (Note - If you see some text in blue it means I've linked to another site or article which gives more information on this topic)

To give you some background, Organico is the name of our family business.
We have a Healthfood Shop, Organic Bakery, and Organic Cafe. I trained in with Darena Allen in Ballymaloe Cookery School and I now manage our Bakery and Cafe. I have extensive experience in cooking and baking with organic ingredients.

Our ethos is to use organic, fairtrade and locally produced ingredients. The rationale for this is that these ingredients are generally:

1. Tastier
2. Healthier
3. Ecologically Friendly
4. Fair

I use Spelt extensively in the bakery as an alternative to conventional wheat. I also champion the use of local produce as I'm committed to reducing food miles.

All our breads are handmade and are fresh daily - this means that Sean and Sue get up at 2.00am to get the bake out for us!

All my recipes have been tested on humans and no animals were harmed in the production of this article! The ingedients should all be readily available at your local Healthfood shop if in doubt are certainly available at our shop in Bantry.


Organico Cafe, Glengarriff Rd., Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland. +353 (0)27 55905