Rye-Spelt Injera
By: Sheela
Published: Monday, February 22, 2010 - 12:57pm

Ingredients




1 cup yeast starter
1 cup rye flour
1 cup all purpose flour
2 cups water (plus more as needed)
1/2 cup spelt flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
salt to taste

Preparation

1 Mix the starter, rye, spelt, all purpose flour with the water, stir well, cover and allow to rise in a warm place for about 2-3 days, stirring once each day 2 I usually mix them in a ceramic bowl, heat the oven to about 175°F, turn it off and leave the bowl in there to start the fermenting process 3 When batter is well fermented, it will acquire a pleasant sour odor and be a little gooey with sort of latex paint consistency, and when stirred, gets quite bubbly 4 When ready to make the injeras, add the baking powder, salt, stir well, add water as needed to make a thin crepe-like batter 5 Heat a pan, brush or spray with oil as needed, ladle some batter and swirl it around to form a thin layer; bubbles/holes will form at the top surface and as it gets cooked the batter will set and no longer look wet; can remove from pan at this time - no need to flip and cook the second side

About


Over the last few years, I have started incorporating more of buckwheat, rye and spelt flours in my recipes.
Pizza, injera, and even some earthy breads seemed to turn out fine. The trick was to experiment and find the right balance with all purpose flour and gluten when using spelt or rye or buckwheat flours. Many of my breads and naans with spelt and rye flours turned out a disaster - dense and stiff like cardboard.
Spelt especially can be difficult to work with as it doesn't have as much gluten as whole wheat, so, it won't rise as much and tends to stay dense, but tastes pretty good. And precisely for this reason of low gluten it is preferred by many who have gluten-intolerance.