The Most Amazing 100% Sprouted Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
UPDATE April 15, 2020: I just uploaded onto YouTube a video on how to make your own Sprouted Wheat Flour. Homemade Sprouted Wheat Flour from Scratch
Believe me, I would not have called this "The Most Amazing..." if I did not truly believe this. This is my story, and then the recipe.
While I have made many loaves of bread successfully over the years, from white sandwich bread, french bread, sourdoughs, bagles, pretzels, etc. etc., there was one thing that just eluded me time and time again.
My quest for a WHOLE WHEAT bread (with absolutely no white flour) that was as light and fluffy as the white Wonder Bread that I had grown up with.
The story was the same no matter where I looked on the web: 'With whole wheat, you'll not get the same light and fluffy result as with white flour.'
Now, while I made one tasty brick after another, unless I had 'some' white flour in the mix (usually around 50/50), I came to appreciate the health benefits of SPROUTED wheat flour.
So now, not only did I want to find a way to make 'wonder bread-like' 100% whole wheat bread, but I wanted it to be 'sprouted' wheat. No biggie with the sprouted, as this is a 1:1 replacement to non-sprouted wheat.
Then I found a recipe recently on the web where this baker states his 100% whole wheat bread is the "go-to" recipe for sandwich breads, implying that it is light and fluffy. So I decided to try it but switch out the whole wheat with sprouted whole wheat.
WHAM!!! The best 100% sprouted whole wheat bread I have ever baked! My family and friends love it. They say it is the best.
Yes, I modified it a little, by taking what I have discovered to add flavor and including it into the mix along with changing the flour. Absolutely amazing bread!
So, if you have been looking for that one sandwich bread recipe that has the texture of light and fluffy 'wonder bread' characteristics, but using 100% Whole Wheat (sprouted) with absolutely no white flour, this is it!
This bread will rise wonderful, with a nice domed soft sandwich bread crust.
You can make this with non-sprouted wheat if you like, but I'll give the details on sprouting below just in case you really want a healthy bread.
Sprouted Wheat
=============
Soak Wheat Berries with in water at least 2 inches above the top of the berries in a nice big bowl and cover. Leave for 24 hours.
Drain out water using a colander and then set the colander in bowl and cover. This allows further draining.
Once or twice a day, depending on dryness of the air, wet the berries while in the colander so they remain damp.
As soon as you can see the little white nub breaking out of the berry, it is time to dehydrate them at a low temperature, for at least 12-hours or more. You want them completely dehydrated before putting them in your flour mill to grind into flour.
Ingredients
==========
6 cups Sprouted Wheat Flour
1 T. Chia seeds (optional)
1 T. Flax seeds (milled, optional)
1/3 cup vital wheat gluten
4 tsp instant yeast
2 1/2 cups hot water (around 130°F)
1 T. salt
1/3 cup coconut oil (melted but not hot)
1/3 cup honey
4 tsp lemon juice
Directions
==========
1. In a mixer with a dough hook, mix in 3 1/2 cups of the flour, wheat gluten, yeast (and optional Chia and Flax seeds...recommended!).
2. Add in the water and mix for about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides and mix for an additional 30 seconds.
3. Cover and allow to rest for 10-15 minutes.
4. Add the salt, oil, honey and lemon juice and mix for one minute.
5. With mixer on low speed, add the remaining 2 1/2 cups flour a half cup at a time.
6. Knead in mixer for 10-15 minutes, until the dough pulls away from the bowl and the dough feels more smooth than sticky.
7. Preheat the oven at the lowest temp (around 170° most ovens) for a couple of minutes and then turn off, leaving the oven light on. Grease two bread pans.
8. Turn dough out onto oiled surface (do not use flour for this) and fold a couple times, shaping into a log so that you can divide it into two equal loaves.
9. Form each half into a loaf and place into a bread pan, gently pressing to fill the bottom. Place the pans into the oven to rise, about 20-40 minutes.
10. When you see that the dough has domed above the bread pan, turn the oven on to 350° and set a timer for 30 minutes. Be sure to start the timer once the oven alerts you that it has reached temperature.
11. Take bread pans out and turn out loaves onto a cooling rack. Let these loaves cool before you cut into them.
If I can give any advice here, don't try to cut corners or modify these instructions until you've at least done it this way once. You are in for a real treat!
Your recipe sounds wonderful, just what I have been looking for. I do have one question, though - what kind of wheat berries (hard red, soft white, soft red winter...) do you use and where do you get them?
I just ordered a grain mill, so now it's time to get the berries...
Jitka
I use the hard wheat variety and had purchased in bulk online from various sources. Most if I recall from Honeyville.
Sorry for late reply but I may not have noticed it until now.
I have used hard red, and I've used Einkorn. Next I'm going to use spelt (they are soaking now). So far it's all been good. I'll be updating this thread for each addition that is successful.
I bought from Honeyville 50 lb bags, as well as Bob's Red Mill from Amazon.
Thanks for the info, I can't wait to get started (and to see some pics of your loaves!).
Jitka
Although I've used Einkorn as part of the mix, my best results are with the hard wheat. I've used White and Red both with very good success. I prefer using all hard.
Hmm, that sounds interesting. Wonder bread results without the wonder bread synthetic additives. Chia/ flax act as moisture binding agents, honey as a sweetener and tenderizer, coconut oil as a softening agent for the bran in the wheat in addition to flavor, Vital Wheat gluten as an additional strength to the weak dough structure, and finally lemon juice that contains ascorbic acid that strengthens the dough structure further. Nice recipe!
Khalid
Yes, I was pretty excited about it once I saw it was consistent each time. Just have this thing for soft bread, but normally that means not healthy. So now I can have it both ways.
Just re-read your post made some years ago where you mention "coconut oil as a softening agent for the bran". One of the things that I've been doing to achieve the lightness is to remove the bran by sifting the sprouted flour. You can see me doing this in my latest YouTube video on RixCanMakeBread channel. Homemade Sprouted Whole Wheat Flour from Scratch
:)
I did not know that I was going to post anything until we had devoured the bread and received the feedback. Made two more loaves yesterday but have it all sliced up and in bags.
So next time I will provide pictures, although it looks just like regular sandwich bread on the outside and light tan inside. Soft and light.
Until then.
I took pics from sprouting to baking to completion, only to find that my phone camera skills are not up to snuff.
So here I'll provide the pics that did come out, and will post the finish product pics at a later time when I make the bread again (as I now have 4 loaves in freezer and one on the counter...need to finish them first!)
Here is a photo where I just took the 'sprouted' spelt wheat berries out of my dehydrator.
Then they were placed into my WonderMix Mill.
Made into 'sprouted' whole wheat flour.
Here are two 'post' bake pics that survived.
This one was to demonstrate how soft and fluffy the bread is. Notice how it just lays over in my hand. (little blurry, sorry).
And here is where I toasted two slices for my grass-fed burger. It is important that your bread is not heavy/dense for this function, and my bread is light and gave just the right little 'crunch'. Yum!
Notes: These pics were taken today as I made this recipe with SPELT WHEAT (sprouted) for the very first time. It came out great, just like it did with the hard red and the Einkorn (both sprouted) beforehand.
One thing I did notice different this time was that during cooling the 'dome' indented a little. This may be due to not turning on the oven for baking soon enough, mildly going too long on the rise period. So be sure that as soon as you see it dome during rise above the bread pan, get that oven on.
Points to consider:
What is really great about making this recipe is that you do not have to do a first rise, punch down, form loaves and then rise again.
Rather, when you mix and knead for 10-15 minutes (I use a Bosch Universal Plus mixer, awesome!), you form the loaves on an oiled surface (not floured), place in pans and put right into the warmed oven (not covered) for the first and only rise.
This bread will rise very fast, so keep an eye on it. Once it domes over the pan, turn on the oven. This bread will go through some serious oven-spring and rise higher!
Once your oven beeps to tell you that it has reached temperature, start your timer for 30 minutes. I literally sat in front of the oven and watched it grow taller (with the oven light on of course to see through the window). I took a picture of this, but it did not come out as I moved my hand too quick after snapping it. Same with the finished loaves.
In addition, I had to use my electric knife to cut slices because I was smashing down the bread with my serrated knives (they're probably dull) and the bread is just so light and fluffy you do not want to put any weight on it.
Until later!
Thanks for the pictures and for the detailed instructions. I must confess that I was never a fan of wheat bread (the kind you buy in your local supermarket), have almost exclusively baked sourdough bread, but some health issues made me reconsider and give wheat bread another chance. I tried some store bought Ezekiel bread made from sprouted grains and loved it, that was a start. And when I saw your post, that really motivated me. I just bought a grain mill, am going to buy some wheat berries and possibly even a dehydrator, and bake happily away.
Thanks again!
Jitka
I also mostly bake Sourdoughs due to health concerns. But you just get tired of the same o', at least for me. And I also don't like nor trust store bought wheat bread. While I have purchased Ezekiel from time to time and it is okay, I don't like the rough texture too much. That is why this particular recipe gives me both the sprouted healthy bread with the soft texture I prefer.
Nice job. Well worth the effort, as sprouted flour are quite overly expensive in retail stores (not that i have any here where i live). That is a handful of Vital gluten!
This hands down beats any commercial Whole wheat wonder loaf.
Khalid
Disclaimer: I'm not a Nutritionist. :-)
With that said, I think it is generally excepted that Whole Wheat is better for you than white flour.
But then I started to get concerned about Whole Wheat as well, because of the negative effects of phytic acid and the debate going on about gluten itself.
So that led me to sprouting, which is said to change wheat basically from a grain to a vegetable, enhancing nutrients, decreasing phytic acid and making it more digestible (perhaps a benefit for those sensitive to gluten, which I am not.)
Due to a lot of the negative press on gluten these days, I want to try to 'lower' my consumption of that while not really a big fan of gluten free bread.
The use of sprouted wheat in this recipe is a good first start to increasing healthy nutrients and decreasing phytic acid. However, it does not deal with gluten, especially that gluten is ADDED!
As soon as I'm done milling my next batch of sprouted wheat flour, I will be continuing my experiment by looking for ways to replace the 1/3 cup vital wheat gluten. As for the gluten already in the sprouted wheat, I'm okay with that.
:-)
Why don't you preferment 10-15% of the un-sprouted whole wheat flour using a sourdough starter? There are studies out there that prove the benefits of a sourdough starter in breaking down phytic acid and allowing hidden nutrients in wheat to be accessible. In other words, Natural fermentation is another way to make grains more healthy and easier to digest.
Khalid
It just so happens that I'm currently working on something similar to what you suggest. But in this case, the preferment is using regular white bread flour at about 1/3 the total flour. I'm allowing for the white unbleached flour in my latest work because it is going through at least 24 hours of fermentation. The reason is to capitalize on the additional gluten and bond strength and to do away with the added wheat gluten. We'll see.
True, fermentation will reduce anti-nutrients and make the bread more digestible. But you must soak all the flour, not just the starter.
The benefit of sprouting over fermentation is both in convenience and in a higher nutritional profile.
With sprouting, you can store the flour until ready to use. With fermentation based on soaking, you usually do this the day or two before you are going to bake. Sure you can store the fermented dough, up to two weeks in the refrigerator or freeze it, but both are not as convenient as pulling out flour and getting right to business.
And since sprouting increases the nutritional profile beyond fermentation, that's a plus.
Now I'm not addressing 'flavor' profiles when talking about fermentation and sprouting. Fermentation obviously adds flavor (tang), and sprouting has its 'sweet' notes. Just discussing the nutrient and phytic relations.
I've got two 'mothers' going (San Francisco sourdough) that I feed often, to use as a starter in many of my breads. When it comes to 'wonder bread' breads for sandwiches using 100% whole wheat, I have to go with the sprouted wheat formulation mentioned in this thread. So far it's been the best I've pulled off so far.
Rick
Well, I decided to try and replace the wheat gluten in the original recipe. Here is how things turned out.
For experimentation purposes, I halved the recipe so that it would only make one loaf. I did not want to waste a whole additional loaf if it did not turn out.
Test #1 : Replaced the Vital Wheat Gluten with Xanthan Gum.
While this is not a gluten-free recipe, I thought to see what would happen if Xanthan replaced Gluten.
The bread took more than twice as long to rise and I ended up baking the bread before it reached a preferred height. Absolutely no oven spring was evident. Thus the loaf, while a good bread (and tasty too), was shorter, heavier and denser, although not too heavy or dense. It was good, but not a good replacement for the original recipe.
Test #2: Use Eggs in place of Wheat Gluten
This proved quite interesting. The bread rose nicely and produced a nice dome (see pic below).
At this point I decided to bake it.
Here is how it turned out.
No dimples on the dome, so I probably could have gotten away with a little more rise before baking. However, it was high enough for sandwiches.
Now to check out the texture of the bread.
The bread was light and soft, but a very close examination and comparison to the original made it clear that the original was softer and lighter (wonder breadish).
In this next pic you can see that the original (left) next to the egg replaced gluten (right). The height of the left appears shorter only because I had a loaf sitting on top of the loaf this came from overnight. That's how soft it is!
The original (left) was a tad softer when you press on it than the one on the right. It seemed to be slightly more open crumbed, but you really have to look very close for this. The original was more 'melt in the mouth) in comparison to the right, although it was very close. I did the "squeeze" test, and the original (left) squished like wonder bread while the one on the right tried to spring back some.
My opinion: I think replacing the Wheat Gluten with one egg per loaf and removing some of the water to compensate for the liquid from the egg is a 'very good option'.
The bread was very satisfactory for sandwiches and toast, and the loaf was FAR FROM being another whole wheat brick. This recipe, even with the egg replacing the gluten (if you desire to keep the gluten down), makes a very nice and light loaf of bread.
Will I personally be switching to the egg version? No. I don't have gluten sensitivity and I have been searching way to long for a 'wonder bread' type whole wheat (sprouted) to leave it now. However, I will keep testing!
Try using Vitamin C instead of the wheat gluten, it can help with the amount of lift. I have read 30 mg to 100 grams, but I may be mistaken. I use Vitamin C with most of my home ground breads, and it helps with the rise. BTW, the first sprouted grain flour loaf I made was 100% sprouted flour, and while it came out of the oven okay, and the taste was out of this world, it fell as it cooled. Since then I have been using 30 to 50% sprouted, and don't have as much of the falling issues. I had not been adding Vit C at that time, and not sure if that would have prevented the problem. i usually use the white wheat, the sprouting really improves the flavor. For red white, I like the flavor as is, so the sprouting did not do much for me.
That's a good idea.
I have vitamin C in my home made dough enhancer, which I am not using in this recipe. But I will definitely give it a try with the VWG removed to see what happens.
This recipe has made great 100% sprouted wheat without any falling as it cools without the optional items (flax and chia). However, with the optional items I have had some dip a little during cooling, but not enough to matter. When I sprout, I immediately stop the process as soon as the little white nub appears. Allowing it to go further can cause issues (gets sweeter but stickier too and tends to be really weak structurally).
Hi RixterTrader -
I've failed on my artisan bread multiple times and experience bakers here advised I should take a "break" from it! I'm mostly intrigued by this recipe because it sounds like it would fit PERFECTLY for me as I'm a vegan and baking a simple, soft sandwich loaf turns out to be a bit tricky as I find most recipes require eggs.
I don't have a lot of experience with baking a sandwich loaf, so when I first came across your recipe, I immediately wanted to try and wanted to follow your recipe EXACTLY. However, of course, I do not have sprouted wheat flour, and decided to go ahead and try the bread/ AP flour. And so, here are my questions, after baking the first loaf using bread and AP flour.
Instead of following your recipe in cup measurement, I weighted the ingredients based on the calculator posted via traditionaloven dot com site and it came out as follows:
375 gr. AP flour - King Arthur
381 gr. bread flour - King Arthur
20 oz. hot water
2.7 oz coconut oil
2.7 oz. maple syrup
Then, the rest of the listed ingredients were measured in Tbsp. and tsp. exactly per your recipe.
Here are my two questions:
1. I set my KA mixer with the dough hook, and mixed the dough for 15 minutes and the dough did not come together. It was very, very sticky and there was no way it could come together easily. The mixer was set to speed #4 (I hope I will not destroy it!) Also, I could not get the windowpane test as the dough was easily torn apart...
2. After mixing the dough for 15 minutes non-stop and seeing that my dough did not come together as a smooth mass, I decided to turn the mixer off and turned the dough out to an oiled working surface and folded the dough several times, using the "envelope" folding technique. The dough did not come together very smooth at all! Desperate, I quickly "threw" the mass into the pullman loaf (13 inches) and let it rested for 40 minutes as instructed.
3. After 40 minutes of resting in the oven, the dough did rise above the rim and I decided to proceed with baking per instruction.
4. The loaf tastes delicious, and the texture was not too dense, but definitely not very light either - I think it is a pretty good balance between denseness and fluffiness.
Can you let me know the right water to flour ratio if I want to make this loaf but using white flour ,i.e. AP and bread flour, or should I just stick with bread flour only?
Thank you so much for your help!!
Hello Alamar,
When you change a recipe such as my 100% Sprouted Whole Wheat flour to white flour (ie. AP and Bread), you are changing the major ingredient and therefore it becomes a completely different product altogether.
I don't recall why I posted the recipe using cup measurements as I use 'weight' 99.9% of the time.
I believe the hydration is around 55%.
You should expect it to be somewhat sticky because of the maple syrup. And the Sprouted wheat itself is slightly sticky anyway.
Setting your KA to #4 is way too high in my opinion, and for 15 minutes I could only imagine that you went well past the sweet spot for kneading this bread. Note that my recipe instructions states "With mixer on low speed...". For the KA, you're talking about speed 1 and 2 maximum. If I am not mistaken, I believe that the manufacturer does not recommend higher than 2 for bread dough.
At speed 2, and with Whole Wheat flour, I start looking for that thin membrane (windowpane) to form around the 10 minute mark. If it shows any weakness at all (tears too soon even though I get the thin membrane), I will knead one minute more, test, minute more, test, till it hits that sweet spot of holding the membrane against mild pressure before doing a 'clean' tear. This comes from experience in kneading.
But you are using white flour, and I would suspect you will hit that point BEFORE you would with 100% Whole Wheat flour as called for in my recipe.
So I would suggest you do not turn your mixer above #2, and you start to check it at the 7 minute mark.
Another thing you need to understand is that Wheat Flour absorbs more water than white. So if I'm using around 55% hydration with WW flour, I would suspect you need a little less hydration. However, your conversion using white flour appears to be around 75% hydration, which is REALLY REALLY WET! This would be the hydration you'd use for a no-knead recipe to bake in a vessel, or for a flat bread (ciabatta or focaccia).
If I were to provide ratios for the Sprouted Wheat Flour recipe, it would be roughly:
100% Flour
55% Water
13% Honey/Agave (perhaps your maple syrup)
8% Oil
1.5% Instant Yeast
3.6% Wheat Gluten
So try your recipe out using 50% hydration and see it if is enough. You can always add a tablespoon more water at a time if you feel it may not be.
If you are going to change the recipe using white flour, why not simply find a regular white sandwich bread recipe? Then you'd have all the right instructions for that type of bread.
I've found several great White Sandwich Bread recipes online and have selected one as my personal favorite for softness and taste. Of course you can throw out the "healthy" for such a recipe. Sometimes I just want nice quick soft white loaf without care for the glycemic issues.
Use my recipe if you want HEALTHY bread. Change it to white flour and you might as well locate a White Bread recipe as already stated above.
I have some Sprouted Spring Wheat Flour that i bought in whole foods is this good? Is this spring wheat considered whole wheat?
It certainly is "whole wheat". And as long as it is made from "hard" wheat variety, I don't see how it would not work.
Does your bread taste of coconut from the oil?
Wish it did. That might be a good thing. :-)
No. And I use the oil that actually smells/tastes like coconut oil, although you can certainly buy the kind that does not.
I'm an advocate of coconut oil in some baking but would never use it in bread, not that a good loaf of honest bread needs any kind of butter or oil anyway ! I'm unclear why you have added it here.
I've used coconut oil when making Italian biscotti biscuits and the coconut flavour simply dominated and took over everything else, just not pleasant at all. Used in dark chocolate brownies the coconut taste wasn't apparent due to the other strong flavours so there it was fine. In bread? No, I wouldn't want coconut flavoured bread.
If I'm honest I don't really "get" this bread recipe though that might be inexperience on my part. It appears to have a "brute force" element to it. In trying to remove any white strong bread flour you've had to dump a quantity of Vital Wheat Gluten in there instead. Adding oil and honey makes it denser and so you've upped the yeast content to raise it but the amount is huge. 4tsp yeast is approx 12g which in terms of fresh yeast would be 24g !!! Your flour content is about 680g!
I use just 5g of fresh yeast in a simple (FSYW) 500g loaf.
I do get that you want to up your intake of wholegrain, but if that comes at the expense of adding VWG, oils, sugars and a ton of yeast to raise it all then in all honesty, I'd rather stick with a no-fuss (FSYW) 50/50 loaf. Actually I reckon you could get away with 75% sprouted flour and 25% white flour in a simple loaf. Have you tried that? Is this recipe the way it is because you want to replicate a specific taste?
I'm not sure how to respond to you ElPanadero. If you don't like coconut oil, I guess that's a personal choice. This recipe produces a great tasting, soft and fluffy whole grain bread where the whole grain is sprouted.
I would have to guess that you're not in the "sprouted wheat" camp, and thus your comments would be understandable. The issue is NOT gluten, so VWG added is not an issue. This is not a gluten-free bread by any stretch.
Like any bread recipe, you make any change or adjustment and you simply have a different recipe. This is the recipe that worked for me in the "sprouted wheat" arena, and for those like me who appreciate the benefits (perceived or actual) of sprouted whole grain, and who appreciate the feel and fluff that comes from nutrient void "Wonder bread" type white bread, this is one recipe that fits.
As to your suggestion of adding white flour, you are missing the main point here in that this recipe is for those who do NOT want any white flour at all. I have many, many recipes that use white flour (sourdoughs and others).
I even have a Whole wheat (not sprouted) bread that comes out super light and fluffy. But that's another recipe, not this one.
"Sprouted Whole Wheat", "Coconut Oil", "no white flour", I hope you can see the theme here. There is a large section of the bread eating population that understands why I did this recipe the way I did. It is beyond the scope of this thread AND the limits of my scientific or medical expertise to get into the debate of white vs. whole grain, sprouted vs. not, gluten vs. gluten free, Phytic acid (good or bad?), etc.
Please feel free to modify the recipe to your own tastes. :-)
As long as you like the loaf and its taste that's all that matters.
Just to clarify a couple of your points:
As I said, I am an advocate of coconut oil, as a healthy replacement for butter in various baking recipes but due to its very strong coconut flavour I find it suitable only in those recipes that contain other strong flavoured ingredients which will mask the coconut. Simple bread in general does not have strong enough ingredients to mask the coconut imo. I make reasonably healthy versions of biscotti using 100% spelf flour but found the coconut flavour totally took over.
In terms of sprouted grains, again I am an advocate and have been making loaves with sprouted spelt for the past 2 weeks and as it happens I have 2 large jars of spelt and rye currently soaking. I do like the flavours that sprouted flour affords but I don't currently buy the "revolution" marketing that's currently going on in this field. The cost of store sprouted flour is simply ridiculous so I can't see any way that bakeries would buy into it until that situation changes. I'm happy to sprout my own at home but I doubt that kind of hassle is suitable for everyone. I found that a 50/50 loaf seemed to work very well and produced a great sandwich/toasting loaf but I will continue to up the sprouted flour content until I reach the point that the dough structure becomes an issue.
Personally I don't mind some white flour content in my loaves provided there is plenty of wholegrain in there. The white flour after all, is still a part of the grain and I can add seeds and other goodies to the loaf to maximise nutrition whilst still keeping to the basic principle of flour, salt, yeast and water. I'm not one for putting fats or sugars into my daily loaves TBH. For enriched luxury breads like cinnamon rolls, English muffins etc yes, no problem as they are a treat but in sandwich / toast breads I prefer not to as typically it's going to get buttered before I eat it ! Each to their own of course.
Anyway, ATB and good luck with your sprouted bakes.
It tastes really good and I don't taste coconut, though I would welcome it if not overpowering. And as I mentioned in a prior reply, you can use the tasteless version commonly available.
Why do you bother with sprouted? Most who go this route are trying to avoid white flour completely. Your comments suggest you are not of this camp. As stated prior, I also do white and mixed breads, so I am not a diehard in any camp, but simply keep to moderation in all things.
With that said, this recipe is designed for those who want 100%, not 95%' not 80%. There is a debate on phytic acid and whether it is bad or not, and whether sprouting helps to lower or rid if you believe it is bad. So you can't add white flour if you feel strongly that it is bad and sprouting makes it better. That's my point.
Again, I prefer not to debate this because I don't know what is true and what is not.
But don't you think you should first try a recipe exactly as outlined before passing judgment on it?
Cheers!
PS: I don't suggest buying sprouted. I sprout my own.
"you can use the tasteless version commonly available"
Yep you could, and those would be refined coconut oils, but there are currently a lot of concerns about the processes that manufacturers use to remove the coconut flavour. Since the primary purpose for using coconut oil is the many health benefits it would seem counter-productive to use a refined one. Here's what one website says about this:
"Most are refined using a chemical distillation process dependent on lye or other harsh solvents, or they’re made from the rancid oil byproducts leftover from creating dessicated (dry) coconut flakes. Sadly, these are refined, bleached, and deodorized in an effort to create a palatable product that can be sold to consumers. Many coconut oils are even hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated! (Avoid these at all costs as the hydrogenation process creates synthetic trans-fats"
Personally I will only use raw, unrefined, cold pressed coconut oil.
"Why do you bother with sprouted? Most who go this route are trying to avoid white flour completely"
Not sure I agree with this. I would think most who go this route do so because of all the extra health and nutrition benefits of the sprouted grain. So, if one could swap out the "ordinary" wholegrains in any loaf for sprouted wholegrains instead, then that would seem an obvious thing to do. My use of sprouted grain has nothing whatsoever to do with white flour. I simply want the extra nutrition. The fact that sprouted flour has different properties and affects the dough structure means a swap out isn't that straightforward so I believe people are looking for the best ways to introduce it into loaves without too much compromise of other ingredients. I do appreciate the phytic acid debate and like you I am keen to see where the science of that goes. Either way I'm sold on the use of sprouted grains for nutrition and taste alone. I just need to understand the limits of using sprouted flour and determine some simple healthy recipes (FSYW).
"But don't you think you should first try a recipe exactly as outlined before passing judgment on it?"
I appreciate this comment and I am not for one second suggesting it doesn't work. It clearly does provide a great looking bread and presumably just the kind of bread you set out to achieve so please don't take my ramblings the wrong way.
is if it smells and tastes of coconut. Personally if you choose a refined coconut oil then it's a waste of time. Surely you have it for the health benefits. And when used in cooking you really won't know the difference. Sometimes I even take it by the spoonful or put it in my coffee. I personally like the taste.
I bought a dehydrator and going to give it a try this weekend. I love the idea of sprouted flour all good. The only thing is timing from what i read hear on TFL sprout to long bread gummy inside. Never tried before i hope my Red Wheat Berries sprouts are good length
.
Once you can see the sprout, you are ready to dehydrate and mill.
Good Afternoon Rixter Trader:
I read with interest your blog above and want to give it a try. One question please, I don't have a dehydrator so can I dry my wheat in a low oven or in the room? It is cold where I lived and we have fireplace on at night, The room is pretty dry.
Thank you.
thaichef.
Hello thaichef,
The only way I personally have dehydrated sprouted wheat is by use of a dehydrator. I'm aware that there are different ways to do so, such as placing your wheat between two air filters strapped together and attached to a box fan, as well as placing out in the sun.
You are best served by going on YouTube and doing a search on dehydration. I'm sure you will find several ways of accomplishing this.
Regards.
Hello Rixter trader. Thank you for your quick reply. I will follow your advise.
Thaichef.
I dehydrated just after seeing the sprout protruding the wheat berries . Not a tail at all just a white dot. Then milled when completely dry. First rise was good , second in oven was not as good .Baking in oven NG loaf flattened in oven & crumb was very gummy inside. Internal temperature was 200*. This happened on several sprouted recipes that i have tried? Store bought flour was good. I am getting Little puzzled with this sprouting processed.
Tony, it is important to follow the instructions exactly as laid out.
Assuming you are using a hard wheat, you mentioned a first and second rise. My recipe does not call for a second rise. This suggests you are doing things differently.
Please follow the instructions I provided exactly as stated. Your first rise is your only rise and this is done in an oven that is not on, but only briefly warmed and then with the light left on.
Once the bread crowns nicely over the pan, start the oven to bake. It then will be light and fluffy.
Thanks RixterTrader my sprouted hard white wheat came out tasting delicious. Nice oven spring nice crumb the only thing is that dome had caved in just a little when taken out of oven ? Ill try to post pictures latter. When you made your sprouted spelt did you knead the same way 10 to 15 minutes in a stand mixer? I know spelt is delicate should i stand mix or S&F? Thanks again for your recipe.
Tony, I don't remember. Sorry.
I followed this recipe exactly except I substituted a agave syrup for the honey. I ended up with a brick. No oven spring whatsoever.
Also, even at 15 minutes with the dough hook on speed one or two it never pulled away from the sides of the bowl.
During the rise, at 20 minutes it had risen above the edge of the pan but never 'domed' even after bringing up the oven temp.
I did go beyond just a couple of folds because I had difficulty getting an even log before splitting the dough.
I'm going to try again using honey, and be more gentle after the dough leaves the bowl.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Chris, did you dry the berries, or did you use commercial sprouted ground flour? It sounds like you had too much water. If you dried your own berries, they may have sprouted too long, I did that the first few times I made a sprouted flour bread. Try using less water and report back
Anytime a recipe is changed, just a little, it can turn out completely different.
With that said, however, Agave for Honey is perfectly fine and I often do the same. If you are using the same amount as called for in the recipe, then that is not your problem.
A 'big' difference between my recipe and what you are using is the flour.
I sprout my own wheat. Stop the sprouting as soon as it sprouts and no further and dehydrate.
Grind into bread flour with a burr grinder. You may also want to SIFT it, although I did not do this when I originally posted this recipe but do so now for additional insurance of softness.
The amount of water you use can vary from the recipe due to the flour you are using AND the humidity. This is where it gets difficult to describe and is often an experience thing.
If the dough did not pull from the sides, it is either too wet or too sticky. If sticky and you did not overdo it with the Agave, then I can only imagine it came from the flour and perhaps (as already stated) was allowed to sprout much longer.
When wheat is sprouted beyond the 'just sprouted' point, it gets sweeter, stickier, but also starts to lose its ability rise well and you start getting into adding more gluten or white bread flour and the whole recipe goes out of whack.
This dough MUST pass the windowpane test before you proceed to making loaves.
I have made this bread numerous times without any issues, so I know the recipe is spot on. The pictures tell the story. So I would start first with your sprouted flour.
Note: If you are not in position to sprout your own for whatever reason, you will have to experiment with the brands you purchase. Make sure it feels fine to the touch and NOT coarse. Also, SIFT it through a metal strainer to filter out the coarser bran parts.
Make sure that water is HOT and do not skip the resting period. All this is to 'soften' the ingredients and allows for autolyse.
Perform the windowpane test starting at the 8 minute mark and keep mixing until it passes perfectly. If it does not and is tearing, it is NOT ready yet.
I tried this a second time and got better results. I may have erred the first time with a measurement, but not the second. I was meticulous with every detail. I also may have done a better job of forming the loaf by rolling and creating a little surface tension (but could that have constricted the rise?)
This time, I used honey (but I agree that wasn't the problem) and I pushed the warm oven proofing from 20 to about 38 minutes. I don't think it could have gone much longer without running out of gas. Poking it produced a very slow returning dimple.
The bread is delicious, but just a little too dense. With a bit more rise it would be perfect. The second loaf was better but still not as fluffy as yours appears. i would have liked to see about 15 to 20 percent MORE spring. I think it came up about 10-15 percent.
I think you're spot on with the flour being the biggest variable.
I am using "One Degree" brand organic sprouted whole wheat flour made from organic red wheat. (because I can get it)
Sprouting my own wheat is not yet a possibility for me. If I were stuck with this flour, what might I do to give it a bit more spring? Increase the yeast, or the gluten? Substitute a little organic bread flour?
We will be sourcing bulk organic sprouted whole wheat flour so I will be looking for that, soon. Hopefully it exists.
I will try again using the window pain test, but what would you suggest I tweak to help get the full rise?
Regarding the initial dough development, I have a standard KA mixer. If I get to fifteen minutes before passing the window pane test, what might be the fix for that, (assuming again using this flour)?
Thank you SO MUCH. If the bread weren't already SO good I wouldn't even bother you with this. My second loaf got a two thumbs up from the cafe owner for whom I will be baking it, but I think my standards are higher that theirs.
With MUCH appreciation,
CJH
There are several factors that go into the rise, including the oven spring.
Does the dough pass the windowpane test for elasticity and strength, or does it just break apart or tear with minimal pressure applied?
If it passes, then what is needed for the rise is a little warmth and enough production of gas to inflate the gluten network.
When dealing with 100% wheat, you have the bran working against you. To offset this, you soak the flour in hot water, you can add more VWG, and you can give the dough some tension when forming the loaves.
Your dough SHOULD NOT be running out of gas or ready to collapse as it starts to dome above the pan. If you used the measurements provided, it would have to go well above the pan before that happens.
When you start the oven with the loaves still in there, you will get some additional rise during the preheat. I would not even start the oven until the bread was already near a satisfactory height. Starting too soon will give you a denser loaf.
Assuming all ingredients are in correct proportions, the two main steps for fluffy bread is to KNEAD it well and to RISE it completely. (assuming your yeast is good).
PS: If you are using the "optional" ingredients, leave them out until you get the product you want. Then look to add them once you know you have it down correctly.
Thanks again.
I have been experimenting for several months to produce a bread as close to the Essene bread (Biblical) as possible. The only ingredients are sprouted wheat berries (used as sprouts, NOT dehydrated/ground into flour), yeast, salt. I am on loaf number 6 right now. All of them have been tasty and edible but I am trying to get more of a rise and so have been changing one factor at a time to see the effect. I am new to breadbaking so this has been a real challenge. But, I read that the sprouted grain breads are actually FDA cateogorized as vegetables, and digested as vegetables. So, my goal is to get the process down so that I can be eating several slices/day of this bread as replacements for some of my vegetable servings. Ha!! Is there anyone on this site who is doing the same thing or has already been successful in making FLOURLESS sprouted grain bread? If so, I'd love to connect with you.
Karen Johnson (kjohnson@prairieweb.com)
Hello!
Did you ever manage to recreate this recipe with sourdough instead of yeast? I was just wanting to know, so I can try it out as I am trying to give up yeast for the health benefits of sourdough. Or if anyone else has experimented with this type of conversion, please let me know your thoughts and results. Thank you!
I could not get the Sourdough to rise it enough to achieve the light and fluffiness I got with yeast. Sorry.