breadflour
I heard Spelt flour is lighter and easier to digest. Can I substitute spelt for white flour in my standard white bread recipe that I make all the time? Or, do I need a spelt specific recipe?
What kind of dough does spelt flour make? Is it very sticky? Hard to work with? Any tips to keep in mind before giving this a shot?
I don't think you're doing anything wrong, I think the dough is just more slack than you're used to. As @Jay noted, it can take some practice to work with a wet dough. But once you do, you'll be rewarded with a much more open crumb and a better final product. In my experience, I've found wetter dough and higher oven temps = better artisan bread (in general).
The recipe appears to assume the reader is familiar with the process, but does offer some hints. She talks about scraping the dough out onto the work surface, then stretching-and-folding.
The recipe isn't as wet as the ciabatta I'm making below, but the process will be similar, so I hope this is helpful. I start by putting a bed of flour down, then scraping the blob of wet dough out onto it.
Then comes the stretch-and-fold part, which is just as it sounds. Using a wet pastry scraper and/or wet hands, just get under one edge, lift and pull it away, then plop it back on top of the main dough blob. Then do the same with the other side. Cover with plastic wrap and walk away. There's no process of kneading like you're used to. This photo is after a few stretch-and-folds at 20-minute intervals (I think!), and you can see the dough has started to smooth out and become cohesive.
By the time you're ready to shape, the dough should be a lot more cohesive and easier to deal with. I folded mine into little slippers and put them on a couche to rise.
Add 500 degrees and a baking stone, and I'm rewarded with an open and gelatinized crumb, and a nice crisp crust.
In quick breads, as opposed to yeast raised breads, it gelatinized starch that creates the structure of the bread, and holds the leavening.
However, according to my research, most spelt flour (which is in fact a variety of wheat) is whole grain flour, so the bran will interfere with structure development.
My quick research indicates that spelt flour recipes requires less liquid to hydrate than standard wheat flour. According to What's Cooking America, this is because spelt flour is more water soluble than standard wheat flour (I interpret this to mean that the starches in it are).
If you google "spelt biscuits" you will find a variety of recipes that are tuned to its characteristics, such this one from All Recipes or this one from King Arthur.
Best Answer
Spelt can be substituted 1:1 for whole wheat flours to generate about the same characteristics in the final product.
I'd say spelt bread is more coarse, and tastes like grain, but there's a matter of preference and perception on that.
Recipes calling for white flour have overshadowing variables and variations, so trying with a blend and seeing how you like the result is the way to come to your answer... Try making a batch with half of the flour replaced and a quarter of the flour replaced and see if you like what happens.