My personal tips and tricks

Oats are the key: Some people use only spelt flour, but I swear by fine wholegrain oats. They make the bread fluffier and give it a great texture.

Something different every time: What makes this recipe great is that you can hide something different in it each time. Sometimes I sprinkle seeds only on top for decoration, other times I fold them straight into the dough. It’s also delicious with sun-dried tomatoes, herbs, or fried onion.

What I bake it in: I use the small GRANDE tin (27.5 × 15 cm) from Orion. It costs 199 CZK, bakes beautifully, and is absolutely perfect for this amount of dough. I always line it with baking paper just to be safe, so the loaf slides out cleanly. Sometimes I double the recipe and bake two loaves at once.

How to store it: Once baked, I take it out of the tin straight away and let it cool on a wire rack. Never wrap it while it’s still hot. It’s still lovely and moist the next day — just cover it with a clean tea towel overnight; I often leave it right in the tin and cover it up.

This bread is healthier than classic shop-bought white bread. And it’s a real protein bomb thanks to the quark and eggs, so it keeps you full for a long time and you won’t be hungry again straight after.

On the other hand, it’s worth saying that this bread is quite dense and heavy. Without the long proofing process, it’s a bit harder on the stomach to digest than a proper sourdough loaf. And with seeds and perhaps nuts it’s also fairly calorie-dense — so yes, it’s healthy and full of great nutrients, but I’d definitely recommend having two slices rather than polishing off half the loaf in one sitting. Everything in moderation!

Ingredients

1 cup wholegrain spelt flour
½ cup fine wholegrain oats (if you don't have them, you can use 1.5 cups of spelt flour instead) — I use a 250 ml cup
1 tub quark (250 g) — I use semi-skimmed
2 eggs
1 sachet baking powder
a generous pinch of salt
seeds, nuts, herbs, or sun-dried tomatoes to taste

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170 °C and line a loaf tin with baking paper.
2. Simply mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Don't worry that the dough is very sticky — that's how it should be. Fold in whatever you like (sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, nuts…).
3. Smooth or just tip the dough into the tin.
4. Bake in the preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, until the crust turns golden.
5. Once baked, remove the bread from the tin and leave it to cool completely on a wire rack.