Thanks for the advice fellow bakers! Lorrie, I'm going to convert your recipe into English measures (we don't really use cup measurements over here) to get the proportions of flour to water. You cook yours a a much lower temperature than I've been using, but I think your recipe has a higher water content so it wouldn't have the drying out problem we've had. Hmmmm.

Anhata, we've tried keeping a portion of the dough back as a starter for the next loaf, which is kind of the same technique as sourdough if using a different yeast, and things have been much more successful so I think you could be on the right lines there. The last loaf we made had a really nice structure, but the top was too cooked (perhaps we need that lower oven temp?)

Anyway, I'll muse some more and we'll bake some more, but I'm certainly encouraged that it can be done.

I'm going to try spelt banana bread, which would give me a wheat and dairy free cake. I'll let you know how it goes!

I've just noticed that DMIL has a load of raspberries in her freezer so I'm off to look up that spelt raspberry muffin recipe!

Zillah