Wednesday, August 4, 2010

(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

11 comments:

  1. This looks awesome. Thank you for sharing!

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  2. I haven't managed to do GOOD sprouted bread before. I did a loaf with my go-to unsprouted recipe and it was okay. About like yours turned out. But my quick-bread type recipes (tortillas, biscuits, muffins, etc.) have been awesome. Love it.

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  3. @ Brandon- thanks for stopping by!
    @ Ktieje- way to go on the quick bread recipes!

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  4. I love your adventure, it looks great! I would love for you to share this at my new Family Food Fridays blog carnival!

    Family Food Fridays

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  5. @ Julie- thanks for the invite- sounds like fun, so I joined in!

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  6. Hi Lisa, would love it if you would consider sharing this post or another of your insightful blogs at Monday Mania. Hope to see you there!

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  7. I made her sprouted bread once, and followed the recipe to the letter. I loved the bread very much, the taste was the most amazing thing. It was too dense to use for sandwiches, but it made the most delicious toasting bread I've EVER had. I would encourage you to try it again, it is so worth it.

    Naomi

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  8. @ Sarah- thanks I will try to do that!
    @ Naomi- I believe you & I hope that my post did not appear to be saying anything bad about her recipe- it was all my fault for letting them over sprout. I do plan on trying it again & this time babysitting my little sprouts more intently!

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  9. Lisa, thanks so much for stopping by to share this recipe at Monday Mania! Your little over-sprouts are so cute!! Great way to use them up!

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  10. @ Oddity- I don't know if you'd call that brave or stubborn- LOL!

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  11. Thank you so much! Going to start my sprouts tonight!

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