(Flourless) Sprouted Wheat Bread... oh my!

That "Oh my!" in the title there is not as in, "wow, this was so tasty!"  It was more as in, "Lions and tigers and sprouted wheat, oh my!"

I have had some wheat berries sitting in my pantry for weeks & weeks waiting for me to try this recipe for flourless sprouted wheat bread.  It sounded so amazing, making bread by sprouting the wheat berries and then making dough by running them through the food processor (and *not* having to grind them into flour).  This week I finally got up the nerve to try it... with mixed results.

It's a fairly simple process.  Day one:  take 3 cups of wheat berries, cover with generous amount of water & allow to soak for 24 hours.  I started mine in the evening & had to add more water in the morning (did you see my post yesterday about all the stuff I had soaking?)

Day two: drain in sieve, rinse thoroughly, leave in sieve & cover with damp towel.  Rinse at least every 8 hours and allow to sit for up to 24 hours.  Since I started in the evening, I rinsed them again when I woke up, and again the afternoon.  But in a warm summer kitchen this is what I found after 24 hours of sitting...

I don't know if you can tell in this picture- but these wheat berries are way over- sprouted.  The sprouts should not be longer than the wheat berry, and quite a few were already too long, some even with multiple sprouts...  ::sigh::  But despite her warnings about them being no good for bread baking, I was not to be deterred that easily.

The next step is to seal & refrigerate over night, which worked out perfectly since this was the evening/end of the second day.  The next afternoon I got them out & prepared to make the bread recipe:

Sprouted Wheat Bread
6 cups sprouted wheat berries (my 3 cups turned into more than this)
1 teaspoon yeast
2 Tablespoons warm water
2 teaspoons salt
3 Tablespoons honey
loaf pan, greased
clean kitchen towel
gallon zip lock bag

Dissolve the yeast in the water in a small cup.  Put half of the wheat, salt, honey, and yeast mixture in the food processor (that means 3 cups wheat, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 Tablespoons honey, + yeast mixture).  Process 30 seconds & then scrape down sides.

This is what mine looked like.  Now the next step is to continue processing until a ball of dough forms.   Do you know what happens when wheat over-sprouts?  It turns very starchy.

After several minutes of processing I still did not see what looked like dough, and it smelled like my food processor motor was starting to overheat.  Maybe it had something to do with what I saw when I lifted up the bowl...

Eww!  Look what it did!  The "stuff" went up inside the blade & down under & eww....  At this point you are supposed to repeat the process with the remaining ingredients.  I do (after cleaning up the first mess) but I don't process it for as long this time & the mess is much less, but I don't think this is what your dough is supposed to look like.

Again, I am not deterred that easily!  I decided to add 2 cups of spelt flour to the glob and knead it for several minutes.  Now, put your dough in a greased bowl & let it rise for several hours.  I figured it has yeast & flour, it should rise...  (I had to help mine out by putting it in a warm oven with a pot of boiling water.)  Eventually my dough did rise, my hopes are going up now!

Next form it into a loaf & place in a greased pan for the second rise.  I put mine in a warm oven again & after a few hours, it looked like this (I was also making sourdough bread at the time so I put them next to each other).

And look at me: I even remembered to slash my loaves!

Now, bake at 350 for 30 to 40 minutes.  The sad news is the sprouted wheat bread did not do it's third rise in the oven.  The good news is my sourdough loaf did & this was the first time for that!  My best sourdough loaf ever!  Wrap your sprouted loaf in the towel & place inside the zip lock bag for 45 minutes.

The taste of the sprouted wheat loaf was very starchy & chewy- no big surprise there.  I still had sprouted wheat left, so my next post will be about the pancakes I tried to make from it.  How about you?  Have you tried making sprouted wheat bread before?  Give it a go & let me know how it works for you!

Enjoy!

Lisa

This post is a part of Real Food Wednesday
Fight Back Fridays
Family Food Fridays
and Monday Mania