Sprouted Wheat bread...day 3 with a meat grinder

Today we will make the sprouted wheat bread dough and bake it.
This is how it is done in a meat grinder. If you have an electric food processor, check the next posting.

I learned this recipe from:
The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, 1984, by Laurel Robertson...

Laurel is my hero in whole grain bread baking!

Get your ingredients together. You will need:

Your Sprouts...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.

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]
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

Your little sprout babies should look something like this, with maybe a little tiny hair of a root sticking out. The starches have not been turned to sugar at this point and it is still good for bread

These babies will start to show their little white toe heads. 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.



For an electric meat grinder attachment on a Kitchen Aid, remove the front cover plate and put on the grinder attachment (I have a hand meat grinder...this one is we did at Evil Genius Tara's house because she had all the cool gizmos, bells and whistles)

Feed your little sprouts through the meat grinder as you would meat.


This is how it will look. I had to repeat this grinding process one more time, but found it to be much faster than my hand grinder.


To this add your yeast, dissolved in 1/4 cup water,


Add the honey, and salt.

Blend with your dough hook for 5-7 minutes on speed 2, until a smooth dough forms. If you do this by hand (per chance you don't have a kitchen aid, or power and need to use the hand grinder...you will need to knead by hand 5 minutes or more for a good texture and proper gluten developement.)


Form the dough into a ball and place in a covered bowl until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
Punch down the dough, and allow to raise again, about 1 hour, until wet finger inserted leaves an indent without much effort on your part.
Remove from bowl and place on a counter lightly covered with WATER.

Divide the dough into two pieces.

Make a rectangle with the dough... then fold into thirds.

Roll the dough into a tight log...

Place in a loaf pan, this one is stoneware for better baking. This recipe will make 4 of these 5 by 2 1/2 inch loaves.

Repeat the loaf making until you have made as many loaves as you have dough. Lightly coat the top of the bread with oil and cover with a loose piece of plastic wrap. Raise bread about 1 hour until it raises like this...

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Bake 40-45 minutes for standard size loaves (8 by 4 inch), or 3o-35 minutes in smaller loaves like these ones.

Once baked, remove from oven.

I test mine for doneness with a meat thermometer. When it registers over 175 degrees, the bread is cooked through.

The final step is to put the warm loaves in a clean dishcloth and place them in gallon size freezer bags. This allows any wheat that is on the surface of the loaf to steam a bit so it isn't rock hard. Remove from bags after about 45 minutes

If you only have a hand held meat grinder,

here are the instructions for that...

In a hand meat grinder it will look something like this...

Because it is done by hand, you will need to re-grind a second time to really make a good dough.

Re-grind the dough...

Once ground, proceed as above as far as dough mixing and loaf formation. By the way, don't forget that if you do have a hand held grinder, to be sure to clean it right away, as this dough tends to have a glue like effect on the grinder if left alone too long.