These wholegrain spelt and oat bread buns were first published on my blog, The Culinary Jumble, in August 2015 under the name of Swedish havrebullar. Although the name has been changed, the recipe remains almost the same (apart from using spelt flour instead of regular flour).

These delicious buns are made with oats along with both wholegrain and white spelt flour. They are based on a recipe for one of Sweden’s favorite breakfast buns, havrebuller (literally translated as oat buns). They have a wonderful nutty taste and a crumb that is a little denser than bread made with white flour, as you might expect.

I really enjoyed recreating these wholegrain and oat bread buns. As regular readers will know, I am very fond of using my bread machine to make my dough. Recipes like naan bread and classic cinnamon buns. However, I find it less unreliable when actually baking loaves in it. I am not sure if it’s just me, but they often over-bake, even if I use the lowest baking setting. So, I decided to use my beautiful KitchenAid (I actually won it in a baking competition) to make the dough instead (so, nope, still no fingers in sticky dough).

Spelt flour is a little unpredictable when making bread. It needs a lot of time and oodles of love and affection. Everything about baking spelt flour is done slowly. This is mainly due to the flour having less gluten than regular flour. This can cause the spelt to behave a little differently when being baked. For many years, I couldn’t figure out why my bread had blow outs and were lopsided. After some investigation, it appeared that I was rushing things. Once I slowed down, the appearance of my bread improved greatly. This means that the proofing time is longer, and so is the baking (at a lower temperature).

Spelt flour is also denser (even the white flour), and this is to be remembered before you bake any spelt bread. It’s delicious, though. The main reason I started baking with spelt was because regular flour (and bread) caused my stomach to really bloat. I don’t have this issue with spelt flour. That being said, Spelt is not the Holy Grail (as indicated above).

If you want to try this recipe for wholegrain spelt and oat bread buns and you are new to spelt flour, The Baker has a great blog post about it.

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Wholegrain Spelt and Oat Bread Buns

Servings 12 buns

Ingredients

• 250ml (1 cup) milk
• 7g yeast
• 250ml (1 cup) water
• 65g (¾ cup) oats
• 50g (¼ cup) butter
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 200g (1 + ¼ cups) wholegrain spelt flour
• 300 to 400g 1 cup + ¾ cup + 2 tbsp to 2½ cups white spelt flour
• linseeds (to sprinkle)

Instructions

• Heat the milk gently until lukewarm and add the dried yeast. Stir and leave for five minutes.
• Place the water and oats in a pan and gently heat until there is no water left and it resembles porridge.
• Remove from the heat and mix in the butter, slowly stirring until it all melts.
• Add the milk and yeast mixture and stir until combined. Pour into a large mixing bowl.
• Add the wholegrain spelt and 200g of the white spelt and either work it with your hands or use a food processor with the kneading tool (this is what I did).
• Add more white spelt flour a little at a time until you are left with a dough that is still slightly tacky to the touch (but not sticky). Don't be too concerned with how much flour you use - the amount varies, so just use as much flour as you need.
• Knead by hand (or in the food processor) for a couple of minutes, then cover and leave in a warm place for 60-90 minutes (if you have time, leave it for the full 90 minutes).
• Knock back and knead again for a couple of minutes, and once more, cover and leave for a second proofing for 60-90 minutes (again, leave it for the full 90 minutes if possible).
• Form the dough into around 12 balls and place on a large baking tray lined with paper. Ensure you leave space in between them (they will continue to rise both before and after baking), so make sure your tray is large enough.
• Brush some water over the top and sprinkle with linseeds (or any other seed you like - oats are also good).
• Cover them and preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F).
• Bake in the lower part of the oven for around 25 minutes. The tops with be slightly brown, and they are ready when the bottoms are tapped. Do not open the oven before 25 minutes are up, as this might interfere with the baking.
• Allow to cool a little, but make sure you eat one warm, as they taste best straight from the oven. They will last one or two days on the counter top (they are amazing toasted), and the also freeze very well.