Friday, January 2, 2009

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.

17 comments:

t5winmom said...

Hi Stephanie!

OK, so made my 1-9x4 loaf & 4 mini loaves yesterday. As I was mixing the dough, I kept thinking to myself, "Hmmm... there's no oil in here? OK..." They taste fantastic!!!

I will be making these again, however, I had a few "issues" that I hope you can help me clear up:

1) When I ground my white wheat (just out of the fridge where they'd been overnight), it came out very sticky. In fact, it already looked like dough, so I only ground it once. I used a Kitchenaid w/grinder attachment, & used the fine grind disk. Did I do something wrong? Should I have ground it 2x anyway?

2) My dough didn't rise much. (I used 2 tsp. of yeast in 105 degree water.) Granted, I keep my home at 68 degrees, but I did heat the oven to about 85, turned it off & let the bread rise in there. But maybe my dough didn't mix completely - 2 loaves-worth of dough barely fit in my mixer. Next time I'll only 1/2 at a time.

A few hiccups are expected - your instructions were pretty complete! I needed your tip about using a thermometer to check for 175+ degrees - that saved me from a doughy-centered loaf!

And one last question - What is the best way to store this bread?

Thanks for sharing your baking-guru wisdom!
Angie

Chef Tess said...

Angie!! Perfect!! You are asking all the right questions! No question is ever wrong...but let me tell you I can tell you did it right! First, the wheat ground once will be just like a dough and very sticky so you did it correctly and if you used a kitchenaid with grinder attachment with the fine ground disk there isn't a need to go twice, it only needs ground twice if you have the larger disk (which is the one I had at Evil Tara's when we did the photo thread for this...) If the dough didn't rise much it was probably due to the fact that it didn't have long enough to raise. I am good with you using 4 tsp of yeast for this bread. I generally use the 2 tsp but it is pretty warm where I am. Even then, I prefer a long slow raise (see the bread entry titled "are you afraid of germs" for a detailed explanation of this...). The bread has longer for the gluten to strengthen and the texture is better. It won't hurt to double the yeast. Your dough warming in the oven with it off was great. I have gone back and corrected the yeast amount on the recipe so it is a little more user friendly--thanks for being a test audience! You asked about the best way to store it...I usually just put it in a plastic bag and store it on the counter. If I make 4 or 5 loaves, it is okay to put the cool cut loaves in freezer bags and freeze them. Not a problem at all. I don't store it in the fridge just because it seems to hasten the staling process. Thanks for trying the bread!! Keep it up!!! p.s. my baking guru wisdom is only good if I can share it with fine people like you who are wanting to learn! Keep coming back! Love all the comments!!

Tamster said...

Way to go, Angie! I love all your questions, too, because they are things I wouldn't think to ask before trying it and would probably want to know. So I, too, thank you for being a tester. :-)

Stephanie, you are awesome! I always love your advice and suggestions with everything--and that's not just cooking/baking related either! I wish you were here to do justice to the recipes I try of yours and don't quite get right for others to try or the suggestions you've given me that I pass along to others but probably not as well as you would say it.

While I'm thinking about it, I've got 2 questions--about wheat grass and ground wheat. Someone told me that wheat grass is gluten-free. Is that true? Also, how long would you say wheat flour is good after you've ground the wheat before it goes rancid or dies per say, without refrigerating? (Did that make sense?) Thanks! :-)

Chef Tess said...

Tamster,
You are so sweet! So to answer your questions on the wheat grass...it would probably be gluten free, as it is from the leaf, not the seed. As for ground wheat flour. It is best to grind and use fresh as soon as possible. It begins to lose vitamins pretty quickly. There are a lot of opinions on the shelf life. I think if you freeze it in a non-porous container, like a jar or can, it should retain a lot for a month or two. Heat is the main thing to worry about with whole wheat, as the oils in flour will get rancid quickly when exposed to warm air for more than a month or two. Keep it fresh. If you don't grind your own, check the pull date on the flour you buy. To test it, take a pinch and eat it (raw) if there is not a hint of bitterness, it is fresh.

t5winmom said...

Thanks Tami! I'll test Stephanie's recipes ANYTIME!

Steph - WHEW! Glad I did OK! My kids have loved the bread, as does hubby, sister, bro-in-law, & neighbor! In fact, after nibbling on the bread (& this was after eating birthday cake & ice cream), my sister's first comment was, "OK, so... you'd probably need a commercial kitchen to make this bread & sell it?" THAT is a compliment to you!

Thanks for the suggestions! As to raise time, I timed the first rise (2 hours). That's when I noticed the lack of fluff. Next was the hour rise, same results. I left the formed loaves for about 90 minutes, & that's when I had the best rise.

So... next time I'll double the yeast, & just let 'er rise. I'm starting another batch of wheat tomorrow, so Monday will be a bread day! Mmmmmmm...

Angela said...

This looks fabulous! I actually did grind that sprouted wheat up and added it to my usual bread dough--didn't know you could make bread with JUST the sprouted wheat! Can't wait to try it. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Tess: A friend of mine linked me to your blog. Yesterday I made my first Sprouted Wheat Bread and I am quite happy with the way it turned out. Your instructions are EXCELLENT! Thank you so much. Lovely fresh whole grain bread that tastes delicious :-)

In the process of making the bread I did experience something interesting. I was using my Kitchen Aid meat grinder to grind the sprouted wheat. I had it running sort of slow (2). Initially it was grinding the sprouted wheat beautifully, coming out exactly like your photo. Then after just a couple of minutes, my mixer sounded like it was straining, next thing I know smoke is coming out of the motor. I was puzzled by this and moved on to make the bread using my food processor. However, upon taking apart my meat grinder it seemed like the ground sprouts sort of gummed up the grinder and caused it to freeze up. I had sprouted the wheat berries properly and stored them in the refrigerator overnight before grinding. I am thinking the problem was that I was grinding them too slow? Have you had any experience with something like this happening?

Thank you so much for your beautiful blog and sharing your experience!

Chef Tess said...

Wow, Kathleen. That's amazing. I am so sad to hear about the gumming up in your meat grinder. I have never had that experience with my KA. Though it wasn't until recently that I got my own attachment. I've used it about 15 times myself. The higher 3 speed seemed to help with and sluggishness of the grinder. The picture for the blog where from my friend's home. Yikes. Hopefully it didn't burn out your motor forever. I would feel horrible! I am glad it worked better for you in the food processor. I hope it doesn't deter you from making more bread in the future.

Doug DePrenger said...

Hey Stephanie,

I have been trying to make sprouted bread for some time. I tried your recipe...got the sprouting down, finally - they look just like your picture (I sprout in mason jars). I ran them through a meat grinder (once). Maybe I should have twice because there were some sprouts that were whole. I proofed the ADYeast at 110 F (one loaf, BTW). I added it, then the salt/honey. Should I have stirred them in? I just poured over the top. Then I ran the mess through the dough hook on my Oster for 7 minutes. The active dry yeast was purchased a week ago and expires in 2011. I made the dough into a ball, kept it covered in the mixing bowl, and let sit overnight (75 deg ambient). It never rose. Please help dougthecook.

Chef Tess said...

Doug, I think the entries on spouted bread trouble shooting might be helpful. It sounds like the dough didn't get ground fine enough. Usually with the KA I do have to grind it twice and that will give the protein in the wheat a chance to hold things together. Otherwise it will do just as you described. I would suggest testing the yeast by putting it in the water with a little honey and letting it bubble first to be sure it will rise at all. Sometimes even fresh unexpired yeast my be dead if it wasn't kept in proper conditions. Keep it up and let me know if I can do more to help. Oh...and please read those trouble shooting entries. I think they may be most helpful.

Doug DePrenger said...

Hi Stephanie,

I did not realize you had a troubleshooting section; two at that. I read them.
I tried your suggestion of grinding the grains twice - big difference. My next batch looked like your photos - interesting one showing the strands of gluten...which mine had. After forming into a ball and putting into a large bowl, the dough rose well (after 8 hrs). After I punched it down, it rose very little after that (waited a few hours at room temp, about 80 deg). After putting into an 4x8 (measured on the bottom, 5x9 measured on top) glass bread pan, it took up about half the pan and rose about 1 inch (waited an hour or so). I cooked it at 325 for 40 min. The bread middle temp was about 180 deg. It tasted pretty good, especially in the toaster. I used 2 tsp ADY (room temp), 3 TBL scant honey, and 1 tsp salt all kneaded (dough hook) for 7 min.
When I mixed 1 tsp yeast in 1/4 cup 110 deg water and 1 tsp sugar, it bubbled a little bit.
I think I'm on the right track.
Thanks for your input and your detailed photos.

Chef Tess said...

Outstanding! It does sound like you are on the right track. Way to go!

Susan said...

I love the stoneware loaf pan in the picture. Where can I get one of those?

Sydney Maria said...

Thanks for this! I've been grinding my own for awhile now but didn't know about chilling the parts before using. Great!!!!

Sydney Maria said...

Thanks for this! I've been grinding my own for awhile now but didn't know about chilling the parts before using. Great!!!!

Looksfishy said...

Nice recipe to see here thanks for sharing

John Stewart said...

This is very inspiring.The ground wheat looks very delicious. The manual meat grinder did marvelous and it was okay it rose to the occasion. Thanks for sharing. Am off to tweet this.