My wife is gluten sensitive so she was trying some gluten free breads and they are nasty and go bad fast. I was able to make some gluten free breads from scratch but they are not as good as real bread. One night I made up some experimental kamut bread (using whole grain kamut flour that I milled my self in the WonderMill grain mill) and she had some and it did not cause her issues like other wheat products did, spelt grain and Kamut grain still have gluten in them but they are much easier to digest than regular wheat. So I decided I needed to develop a really good kamut bread so my wife could have some real bread that is easy on her tummy.
I have used kamut grain a lot in the past but not much for breads. One problem I have had with spelt grain and Kamut grain is that the bread dough has less gluten than regular wheat so it tends to not rise as well and is prone to collapse. It can also tends to come out very dense, which is OK but not ideal.
I have found that using a narrow bread pan helps in supporting the frame of the rising bread better than the regular shape of bread pans commonly found at stores. The narrow width keeps the bread from collapsing while rising and it seems to rise better, giving you a better crumb in the finished bread. I also found that it helps in cooking the bread more evenly through to the middle if the pan is narrower.
I also like dark color bread pans better as well since they conduct heat fast and don’t take long to get hot. Do not use glass bread pans, they will fail you.
Get a good bread pan, it will make a big difference in your bread, especially whole grain breads. The bread pans I now use is the Norpro 8 inch bread pans as shown in the photo to the right. This pan is narrow, dark, a nice non-stick beveled sides, and is a great price too.
After quite a few experiments while my wife was on vacation in California I got the kamut bread close to the way I wanted it to turn out and got it nailed down over Thanksgiving vacation. My little 8 year old enjoyed eating all the experimental bread with me, especially with our homemade peach jam.
So here is the recipe for two 1 1/2 pound loves of 100% KAMUT grain bread, with no added dough enhancers or added gluten.
KAMUT Bread Recipe:
Ingredients:
- 2 cups hot water
- 1/3 oil (I use vegetable oil)
- 2 tablespoons agave (honey or sugar will work too)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 egg
- 5 cups KAMUT flour (fresh ground in the WonderMill Grain Mill)
- 2 teaspoons yeast (I like Saf yeast)
Directions:
Add water, shortening, sugar, and salt to the WonderMix mixer bowl.
Add 3 cups of the flour to the mixer bowl and sprinkle the yeast on top of the flour.
Add the egg on top of the flour.
Turn on the mixer and add the remaining flour (you may need a little more or a little less than 5 cups).
Mix for 5-6 minutes, just until the dough looks good.
Remove from mixer and place in a oiled container to let rise for 1 hour.
Punch down dough and form 3 loaves and place in 1 pound bread pans.
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees while the dough rises in bread pans for about 30 minutes.
Put bread in the oven and reduce heat to 350 degrees.
Bake for 26 minutes.
Remove from bread pan and let cool for at least 15 minutes (1 hour for best results but we all know how hard it is to resist bread right out of the oven).
*NOTE: you can use this dough recipe for rolls if you cut the KAMUT flour down to 4 1/5 cups so it is a stickier dough, which is better for rolls.
My Kitchen Mixer
I use the WonderMix Revolution kitchen mixer for all my breads, it does an excellent job developing the dough’s gluten for a silky smooth elastic dough. For batches of dough smaller than 5 loaves I like to use the dough divider attachment, I do spray it with oil before I put it on the mixer so it works much better instead of dough sticking to it.
How to grind your own kamut flour
I use the WonderMill electric grain mill for all my grain grinding, it does the job fast and it has a top brand motor in it that will last and perform. It is so awesome to pour 5 cups of grain in the WonderMill and it is done in a minute or so, and the flour is so fine and perfect.