Sweet bread recipe, or Albanian Easter bread, made with coconut sugar and spelt flour. This healthy homemade bread has a dough consistency that is simple to work with. Make this bread into rolls or braided bread. Either way, the mixing methods are easy and the outcome is a light and fluffy bread one can not resist!
(This recipe does contain Spelt, which is not gluten-free but is a better flour in place of wheat and ok for those with a mild case of gluten-sensitivity. I created this recipe before transitioning into a gluten-free blog.)
Quick Look
- 🕒 Prep Time: 250 minutes, most of it hands-off rising
- 🌡️ Cook Time: 20 minutes at 375°F
- 🍽️ Serving: 12
- ⚡ Calories: 210kcal
- 🥣 Ingredients: 12 (spelt flour, yeast, milk, coconut sugar, coconut oil, eggs, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves)
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: Lightly sweet coconut sugar and nutty spelt, warm with nutmeg, cinnamon and clove
- ✋ Difficulty: Three stages: yeast settling, dough rising, baking. Slightly tedious, worth the wait.
Quick Answer
Scald ⅔ cup milk until it bubbles at the edges, cool it to lukewarm, then combine it with a package of dry yeast, 1 teaspoon coconut sugar and ½ cup spelt flour and let it sit 1 hour in a warm place. Add ½ cup coconut sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, salt and 2 beaten eggs, then slowly mix in ¼ cup melted coconut oil and 2 ½ cups more spelt flour. Knead 3 to 5 minutes, let it rise again, then shape into a braid or 12 rolls, baste with egg yolk and bake at 375°F for 20 to 25 minutes. Makes 12 servings at 210 calories.
Jump to:
We rarely buy store bought breads in our house. I am a control freak and I love to control the ingredients. It is kinda more work for me, but I can not resist sinking my teeth into warm fresh fluffy bread straight out of the oven! There really is no comparison.
If you happen to be close-by you can probably smell the sweet coconut sugar melting into nutty spelt flour in my oven at any given time. I only bake with white spelt flour and I think it gives bread the same consistency as white flour just without the stomach bloating gluten. The dough consistency is the same as well.
This sweet bread recipe is not as easy as a quick bread like gluten free pumpkin bread, cranberry nut bread or my gluten free banana pecan bread recipe, but it sure is worth the rising wait!
Why This Recipe Works
Click to see the technique science
- Scalding the milk changes the proteins. Scalding the milk improves the bread rise due to certain chemical changes it caused to milk proteins. These changes improve some bread recipes and yogurt recipes.
- The yeast gets its own hour first. Only a bit of the flour and sugar goes in at the start, which makes a very liquid yeast base that proves fast before the heavy mixing.
- The oven is the proofing box. Place the dough in the oven, turned off, with a bowl of warm water on a lower rack. This allows no draft to get in but keeps the dough able to rise in a cozy warm place.
- Kneading removes the air pockets. Three to five minutes of kneading also allows the chemical leavening process to continue.
- White spelt behaves like white flour. It gives bread the same consistency just without the stomach bloating gluten, and the dough consistency is the same as well.
- Egg yolk on top. Basting the dough with egg yolk before baking gives a crunch and added flavor to the exterior of the bread.
Why You'll Love This Bread
- A family recipe from my godmother, passed down to my mother, who passed it down to me.
- Coconut sugar instead of white sugar, and coconut oil instead of butter in the dough.
- Braid it or roll it, the same dough makes a wreath or 12 pull apart rolls.
- Freezer friendly, which is why I double the recipe every time.
- A change from quick breads like my pumpkin bread and Irish soda bread.
- Holiday table ready next to gluten-free Thanksgiving rolls or gluten-free chicken pot pie.
Key Ingredients
- 1 package dry yeast, the rising agent.
- ⅔ cups milk, I use cashew milk or coconut milk. Homemade works too, see my almond milk recipe.
- ½ cup plus 1 teaspoon coconut sugar, the teaspoon goes in with the yeast.
- 3 cups spelt flour. I only bake with white spelt flour. For a gluten-free loaf instead, see my gluten-free flour and starch guide.
- ¼ cup coconut oil, melted, and 2 tablespoons warm water.
- 2 eggs, beaten, plus 1 beaten egg for basting.
- ½ teaspoon pink Himalayan salt, ¼ teaspoon nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon ground cloves.
- Optional sesame seeds to sprinkle on top.
- Measuring as you go? My ounces in a cup and teaspoons in a tablespoon charts sort the cups and spoons out.
Full recipe ingredients and measurements are in the recipe card below.
How to Braid It, and How to Make Rolls
To braid this sweet bread recipe: Divide the dough into thirds. Roll each piece out to form three long strips. Connect the three pieces at the top and start braiding. Then pinch the three pieces at the bottom to seal it together. Stretch it into a circle to form a wreath before baking.
For rolls: Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Place 2 inch dough rounds about ½ inch apart so you have a total of 12 rolls. Let rise 30 minutes. Baste the tops of the rolls with 1 egg yolk, sprinkle with optional sesame seeds and bake for 20 minutes. When I made it into rolls I did not add much extra flour. After baking it you easily have delicious pull apart bread!
Serve with homemade honey butter: 1 tablespoon of honey whipped with ½ cup of butter. If unsalted, add a pinch of salt. It is the same spread I put out with gluten-free cornbread muffins.
How to Make Healthy Sweet Bread
1Heat a small sauce pan on the stove at medium-high heat to scald the milk so it bubbles slightly around the edges but does not boil. As soon as the edges start to bubble remove from the heat and let cool to lukewarm.
2Transfer the milk to a large mixing bowl. Combine the milk, yeast, 1 teaspoon of coconut sugar and ½ cup of flour. Mix well. Cover and set for 1 hour in a warm place, or in the oven with it off and a bowl of warm water on a baking rack below.
3After 1 hour add ½ cup of coconut sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, ground cloves, salt and 2 beaten eggs. Mix well. Slowly add the melted coconut oil and continue to mix so the oil does not harden. Stir into a dough, then stir in 2 ½ cups of flour and knead 3 to 5 minutes to remove air pockets. The dough consistency will be slightly sticky. Spray a bowl with cooking spray and set the dough there to rise in the oven the same way as the first time.
4Remove the dough from the oven and preheat the oven to 375°F. After the second rising, add as much flour as needed to have the dough manageable to form into a mound, strips for braiding, or rolls.
5On a floured surface, divide the dough into thirds. Pinch at the top and braid. Pinch at the base and make into a circle. Baste the top of the bread with 1 egg yolk and sprinkle with optional sesame seeds. Bake 20 to 25 minutes.
As always, be sure to check out the full recipe details in the recipe card below.
Expert Tips
- Lukewarm, not hot. Scalded milk has to cool before it meets the yeast or it kills it.
- Use the oven as a proofing box. Oven off, a bowl of warm water underneath, no drafts.
- Slightly sticky is right. Add only as much extra flour as you need to handle the dough after the second rise.
- Add the coconut oil slowly and keep mixing so it does not harden into lumps.
- Double the batch. I double up the recipe and I suggest you do the same. That way you can freeze half the rolls for another time.
- Serve it warm with honey butter, at a random happy hour or dinner party in little sandwiches, and be the star hostess! It goes with corn chowder or tomato basil soup.
The Story Behind This Bread
Maybe I am slightly biased because the original recipe came from my godmother, passed down to my mother, who passed it down to me. And of course I tweaked it to be healthier. Growing up we had this sweet bread recipe (Albanian Easter Bread) every holiday that I can remember. My mom especially made it at Easter and Christmas holidays. It is the kind of bread that is like a bag of potato chips, you can't just have one, you have to eat the whole bag (if it were served in a bag!)!
The history behind Albanian Easter bread is that in Albania, on Easter, they pick a goat, slaughter it and bake traditional Easter bread. Since we don't eat red meat, we will just enjoy our holiday bread even when it is not the holidays. It sits on the same table as my gluten-free gingerbread house and spinach cranberry mushroom wreath.
Sweet Bread FAQs
No. This recipe does contain spelt, which is not gluten-free but is a better flour in place of wheat and ok for those with a mild case of gluten-sensitivity. I created this recipe before transitioning into a gluten-free blog.
Scalding the milk improves the bread rise due to certain chemical changes it causes to milk proteins. These changes improve some bread recipes and yogurt recipes. Heat it until it bubbles slightly around the edges but does not boil, then cool it to lukewarm.
About 4 and a half hours total, but most of that is hands-off. There is an hour for the yeast base, a second rise, 30 minutes of settling for rolls, and 20 to 25 minutes of baking.
Yes. Spray a 9x13 baking dish, place 2 inch dough rounds about ½ inch apart for 12 rolls, let them rise 30 minutes, baste with egg yolk and bake 20 minutes for pull apart bread.
Yes, and that is why I double the recipe. Freeze half the rolls after baking and cooling, then warm them in the oven when you want them.
Lightly sweet from coconut sugar, nutty from the spelt, and warm with nutmeg, cinnamon and clove. The egg yolk basting gives the crust a little crunch.
Healthy Sweet Bread Recipe Made With Spelt Flour
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Ingredients
- 1 package dry yeast
- ⅔ cups milk I use cashew milk or coconut milk
- ½ cup + 1 Tsp. coconut sugar
- 3 cups Spelt flour
- ¼ cup coconut oil melted
- 2 Tablespoons warm water
- 2 eggs beaten
- ½ teaspoon pink Himalayan salt
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 beaten egg for basting
- *optional sesame seeds to sprinkle on top
Instructions
- Heat a small sauce pan on the stove at medium-high heat to scald the milk. Scald milk in the pan on the stove top so it bubbles slightly around the edges but does not boil. As soon as the edges start to bubble remove from the heat. Let cool to lukewarm.
- Once the milk has cooled to lukewarm transfer it to a large mixing bowl. Combine the milk, yeast, 1 teaspoon of coconut sugar and ½ cup of flour. Mix well. Cover and set for 1 hour in a warm place or in the oven with it off and a bowl of warm water on a baking rack below.
- After 1 hour add to your yeast mixture ½ cup of coconut sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, ground cloves, salt, 2 beaten eggs. Mix well. Slowly add melted coconut oil and continue to mix so the oil does not harden. Stir into a dough. Stir in 2 ½ cups of flour. Knead for about 3-5 minutes and add more flour if needed. Spray a bowl with cooking spray and place dough in the bowl to rise. Cover and let rise in a cooled oven with a bowl of water underneath for about 3 hours.
- Remove from oven the preheat oven at 375 Degrees F.
- On a floured surface, divide dough into thirds. Pinch at the top and braid. Pinch at the base and make into a circle. Bast the top of the bread with 1 egg yolk. Sprinkle with optional sesame seeds. Bake 20-25 minutes.
- *FOR ROLLS: Spray a 9x13 baking dish with cooking spray. Place 2 inch dough rounds about ½ in apart so you have a total of 12 rolls. Let rise 30 minutes. Baste the tops of the rolls with 1 egg yolk. Sprinkle with optional sesame seeds. Bake for 20 minutes.
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