Friday, January 2, 2009

Sprouted Wheat Bread...Day 2

Sprouted Wheat, Day 2
This is the draining, rinsing, and sprouting day.

There is also a list of things for tomorrow...
For those just joining us, day one was yesterday. Drain the wheat and rinse. I do mine in a colander with holes just a little smaller than the wheat.

Make sure you get the fresh water all the way through the wheat. Rinsing is an important step. If not done enough, your wheat will start to ferment and smell like my son's socks after school. You want the wheat to smell fresh and clean. Think of it as giving the little wheat babies a change. You don't want them sitting in water either, just moist.

Once drained and rinsed, cover with a clean towel and tuck them in. Moisten the towel. Repeat this rinsing step about 3 times throughout the day. Just leave them in the colander, rinse getting all the wheat clean by digging you hand in and rinsing it. Cover back up with the towel. This will help the wheat to start sprouting.
These babies will start to show their little white toe heads. I'm repeating myself from day one: The spouting time is pivotal. If you let the sprouts get too far developed, what you will have is a gooey mess, instead of bread it will be like a glue log. So, be sure to look at the pictures I do so you can gauge when your wheat needs to be made into bread. This may be shorter than 3 days if your wheat is especially fresh or your home or sprouting area is warm. The biggest test beside the picture is the TASTE test. If the wheat tastes starchy, it is still good for bread. That is all the sprouting you want to happen. The rule is that the sprout root should not be any longer than the length of the grain of wheat itself. Any farther in the sprouting stage and it will go into a diastatic stage and the starch will be turned into sugars. At this point it will be too late for making bread. Great for salad, but not for dough. Incidentally, if over sprouted, you can still use them in regular whole what bread, but no more than 1/4 cup chopped to a loaf. These little power pellets will actually contribute to great yeast activity! It is called a diastatic malt if these sprouts are dried in a low temperature and then ground. This malt is the sugar young plants thrive on...no wonder yeast loves it! Very sweet, and great for bread in small amounts--once ground use only about 1/4 tsp per loaf.

Tomorrow on dough making day these sprouts should weigh about 4 lb (2 k)--for 2 loaves. You started with 2 1/2 lb wheat, or 1135g) which will be a little more than 3 quarts sprouted. This recipe is from The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, 1984, by Laurel Robertson... one of my heroes in whole grain bread baking!
You will also need for 2 loaves:
Your meat grinder or electric food processor
2 tsp yeast (1/4 oz, or 7 g) [You can double this amount]
1/4 cup warm water (60 ml)
1/3 cup honey (80 ml)
4 tsp salt (22 g)
non-stick cooking spray for coating the pan ( I mix a little oil with a little flour--bit more natural)
2 , 8 by 4 inch loaf pans
1 clean towel
2 gallon size bags

If you are making a single loaf, you will need:
6 cups sprouted wheat berries (if you started with 1 1/4 lb or 575 g hard wheat)
1 tsp active dry yeast (1/8 oz or 3.5 g)[you can double this amount]
2 T warm water (30 ml)
2 tsp salt (11g)
3 T,scant, honey (40ml)
1 8 by 4 inch loaf pan
1 clean towel
1 gallon size bag
One final note:
The grain needs to be chilled overnight. So at the end of the day, put the wheat in a bowl and transfer it to the fridge. It can remain in the fridge 1-2 days before it needs to be made into bread so don't panic if something comes up and you can't use it right away. Just be sure again, not to let the roots get much longer than the grain of wheat.

10 comments:

t5winmom said...

Tess -
My friend Tami Gooch favored me with your sprouted wheat recipe - Woo Hoo! I've been buying the very expensive Ezekiel bread (sprouted) for my autistic son. I'm so excited to try this one out! And a wonderful addition to my food storage recipe box!

A few questions:
#1 - you mention rinsing the wheat 3x. Is that 3x during the day, or rinse the wheat 3x thoroughly?

#2 - after rinsing, do you let the wheat remain in the collander & cover w/ towel, or do you put the wheat back in the bowl, covered w/ towel?

Thanks again! And I love to see all your Pampered Chef items - I'm a former PC lady, & I sure LOVE my stoneware for bread!

Can't wait to hear back from you so I can start sprouting!

Angie

Chef Tess said...

Angie, I am so excited to help out! My nephew is autistic and anything that will benefit you in that area is wonderful!! You have very good questions! Thanks! First off, on the rinsing wheat 3 times, that is just rinsing thoroughly, 3 times during the day. After rinsing I let the wheat remain in the colander and cover with the towel again. It's a low maintenance thing too. I just do the rinsing as I think of it. Oh and on the Pampered Chef...they have really great stuff! I love their stoneware as well! Hopefully that answers you question.
Stephanie AKA Tess.

t5winmom said...

Stephanie/Tess (which do you prefer???)-

THANKS for the answers & encouragement! We're trying a sort-of-gluten-free diet for my son, thru a holistic practicioner (we call her the Voodoo Doctor). I've noticed *some* difference in his behavior, so we're keeping with it. But at $5.00 per loaf, it was breaking my budget! I'm glad to have this truly natural recipe.

Well, my wheat is going swimming tonight - I'll keep you posted... or toasted!

xoxo Angie

Chef Tess said...

Angie,
I do want you to know that this isn't gluten free, but it is flour free. You may want to run it by the "voodoo" lady just to be sure, but I imagine if the Ezekiel bread was okay with her this should be fine. I'm excited to hear your wheat is swimming! I look forward to hearing from you. You can call me Stephanie, but Tess is my pet name so it doesn't offend me in any way. Take care!

Tamster said...

Wow, Steph! You got a comment out of Angie before I did. I was glad to have my suspicions confirmed that she was indeed Angie, as I had seen her comment on friends' blogs before and thought that was who t5winmom was.

Yes, I followed your directions in your e-mail and forwarded it onto LOTS of people; I don't even know how many I sent it to. I've had a few others respond that they appreciated it and were excited to try it.

Now for my ?. You said in your e-mail that you wanted a recipe that you could do in case you couldn't use your grinder, yet this one still requires electricity for the food processor part. Did I misunderstand your reasoning behind not needing a wheat grinder for this? Are there other options besides a food processor/meat grinder? Thanks, Steph! :-)

Angie, if you see this comment, e-mail me back, and we can talk gluten-free. I didn't know you had an autistic son, I don't think.

Thanks again, Stephanie! :-)

Chef Tess said...

Tamster,
This recipe can be used with a hand meat grinder (at the bottom of the meat grinder post it shows how to do it without electricity). That grinder is actually the only one I have. I used my friend Tara's food processor and meat grinder attachment for the kitchenaid. The bread can also be baked in a solar oven, making it the only bread recipe I have that requires no electricity to make. In such a case as not having a fridge to cool the wheat, even then it works okay. Not perfect, but still bread.

aswesow said...

I'm curious, I started with 1200 grams of wheat, I'm pretty sure after I've soaked it, it weighs more, I'd bet on that! But I've noticed a couple of times you've said to spout 21/2 pounds dry wheat to end up with 2 pounds of sprouted wheat. Am I reading it wrong?

Chef Tess said...

"these sprouts should weigh about 4 lb (2 k)--for 2 loaves. You started with 2 1/2 lb wheat, or 1135g) which will be a little more than 3 quarts sprouted. This recipe is from The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, 1984, by Laurel Robertson... one of my heroes in whole grain bread baking!" If you make two loaves you will end up with about 4 lbs, if you start with the 2 1/2lb wheat. If you start with the single loaf amount of 1 1/4 lb wheat, you will end up with 2 lbs. Good question. I changed the format at one point and now the words don't show up. I'll fix it right now. Thanks for the question and bringing that to my attention. It does sound confusing...my bad for putting the one loaf and two loaf directions together.

eman1125 said...

Hi Tess-
You don't specify what to do with the ingredients for the recipe. Do I process the wheat and all the ingredients together or do I proof the yeast first and then add it? Also, do I need to let the dough sit in the pan to rise before baking? Thanks for your help!

Chef Tess said...

All the directions for what to do with the ingredients are in a step by step tutorial for "day 3" sprouted wheat bread.