About five years ago when visiting my sister in Switzerland, we traveled to the French Canton surrounding Lake Leman. There, my sister took me to a bread museum in Echallens, Switzerland’s bread basket.

The museum features exhibitions of baker’s tools, ovens and assorted history documents and artifcats around bread. Of course, what got me were the baked goods, including a loaf of spelt bread.

It had a rustic shape, not pretty but interesting. Biting into it we found a tight crumb studded with sunflower seeds and sweet flavor of spelt.

We decided to eat outdoors, enjoying saucisson, bread and some beer while exploring  a beautiful chateau.

This bread was my introduction to spelt. Later in my sister’s kitchen, I tried my hand at replicating that bread, not always succeeding. But I’ve managed to reproduce the loaf back at home in my New York kitchen. My latest version included some hemp, a throw back to hippy granola days, but something that’s good for you.