Baking with spelt can be trickier than baking with ordinary flour. One issue can be crumbling.
1. Crumbling can be overcome by using a more refined white spelt flour but obviously, whole wheat spelt has more fibre. Unless avoiding wheat, try mixing spelt 50/50 with wheat as wheat flour makes less crumbly baked goods. *(Some say no more than 10-20 % of spelt).
2. Spelt does not absorb as much liquid as wheat flour, so when replacing wheat with spelt , hold back about 1/3 of the liquid. Add more if needed.
3. Spelt does not rise as high as wheat as it has less gluten. You may need to increase the leavening to compensate for it being heavier than wheat. Spelt however, has more protein.
4. Muffins made with spelt do not hold their shape as well as when made with wheat flour.
5. S pelt is more expensive than wheat flour but it is good to incorporate a variety of grains in your diet, depending of course, on any sensitivities you may have. Spelt is often safe for those requiring a wheat-free diet but is not gluten-free so should never be used in diet for people with celiac disease.
6. Spelt has fragile gluten, therefore requires 1/3 the kneading time that wheat flour does.
Have any tips re baking with spelt? I’d love to hear from you!