Sprouted Wheat Berry Bread Recipes

Steps:

• Sprouting Instructions
• Soak wheat berries in water, covered, for 6-12 hours.
• Drain the water and rinse the berries. If you have a sprouting lid and jar, rest the jar inverted at an angle in a bowl for drainage. If you do not have a sprouting lid, pour the berries into a colander for draining and rinsing, and then rest the colander in a bowl and cover it with a towel or loosely with plastic. The berries should be at room temperature and in a relatively dark place.
• Repeat the rinsing and draining every 8-12 hours until little sprouts emerge from the berries. Let the spouts grow to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch. The sprouts will be of different length, so go for a loose average. The entire process should take 24-48 hours from the start of the soak.
• Store the sprouted berries in your refrigerator, drained, for up to 5 days. If they get white fuzz in that time, it is because they are thirsty and growing mini shoots to extract moisture from the air. This isn't mold. Make sure you smell the wheat berries early in the process to get a sense of what fresh smells like.
• Dough Instructions
• Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and let the dough rest for an hour.
• Do a series of 4-6 stretch and folds at 20-30 minute intervals. I did 4 every 20 minutes. Each stretch and fold consisted of dipping my dough scraper in water, separating the dough from one side of the bowl, lifting it up and over onto the other side using the scraper and my other hand when needed. I did four sides around the bowl twice.
• Cover and bulk ferment an additional 6-10 hours depending on your room temp. That is 8-12 hours total since mixing up the dough. My dough went 9.5 hours at about 69 F.
• Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a well-floured counter. Gently spread the dough into a rectangle. Fold the dough in thirds and then in half. See this Breadtopia video if you need more details on pre-shaping.
• Let the dough rest for 15 minutes while you wash the dough bowl and prep your proofing basket. There are many ways to prep a proofing basket. I sprinkled bran flakes onto a previously floured tea towel laid flat on the counter.
• Flour your hands and the dough, flip the dough, tuck under the edges while rotating it to create a boule shape.
• Put your boule in the basket, seam side down and cover. I placed the boule onto the towel, then lifted it into the basket.
• Put the basket in the refrigerator for about 8 hours (up to 16) OR leave the basket at room temperature for about 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven and your baking vessel to 500 F for thirty minutes before the proofing time is up.
• Flour your hand and flip the dough out of the basket, and place it into the hot baking vessel. Score it with a lame or allow the existing seams to open up.
• Bake until the internal temp is around 205 F.
• 30 minutes at 500 degrees, lid on.
• 10 minutes at 450 degrees, lid off.

Steps:

• Beginning several days before you hope to be eating this bread, rinse the wheat berries in cool water, drain and submerge the berries with cool water in a large bowl. Cover the bowl with a plate or cloth, and allow the berries to soak at normal room temperature overnight or for about 12 hours. The berries will soak up a considerable amount of water. Drain the berries in a colander, cover the colander with a plate to prevent the berries from drying out, and set it in a place away from light and where the sun won't shine on it. Rinse the berries about 3 times a day, and they will soon begin to sprout. In a couple of days the sprouts will reach their optimum length of about l/4 inch. Growth depends on moisture and temperature so be patient.
• Grind in a food mill or in a food processor.
• After grinding, dump the mushed up grain onto a clean work surface. Squeeze and knead the grain for about 10 minutes, and then form up 2 small round, hearth-style loaves with your hands. Sprinkle an insulated cookie sheet with a little bran or cornmeal, and put the loaves on it.
• Preheating the oven is not necessary. Cover the loaves with cloches, and bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C), and bake for approximately 2 hours and 15 minutes more. Allow the breads to cool thoroughly on cooling racks for several hours, and then, because of the high moisture content, store in the refrigerator. For best results, slice this bread thinly, or break with hands

Steps:

• Sprinkle the yeast over 1 cup lukewarm water in a large mixing bowl and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve yeast. Add the remaining water, salt, honey and oil. Mix well.
• Stir in white flour and beat dough by hand or with a dough hook in an electric mixer until smooth. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
• Stir in the wheat berry sprouts and just enough whole wheat flour to make a soft, sticky dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead, with more flour if necessary, until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
• Place in a greased bowl, turning to grease to of dough; cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 60 minutes.
• Grease 2 9x5-inch loaf pans. Turn dough onto lightly floured board and knead briefly.
• Divide in 2, shape into loaves and place in pans. Cover and let rise again in a warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375°F
• Bake loaves 25 minutes. Lower oven heat to 300*F. and bake 35 more minutes, or until bottom of loaf sounds hollow when turned out and tapped. Cool on wire rack. Enjoy!

Steps:

• Two to three days before baking, soak the wheat berries in a container of cold water for 12 to 24 hours at room temperature.
• Drain them, return them to the container, cover with plastic wrap, and leave on the kitchen counter. Wait 2 to 3 days until the grains begin to sprout, rinsing and draining them once or twice so they are always damp. As soon as little tails appear, the wheat berries have sprouted and are ready. You can store them in the fridge until you are ready to make the dough.
• In a food processor, work the sprouted wheat berries into a pulp. If the processor starts to generate heat, give it a break before continuing.
• Combine the water with the almond milk. (You want the liquid to be room temperature, so if the almond milk was refrigerated, use boiling water.).
• Using the dough hook of an electric mixer, combine the sprout pulp, ALL of the vital wheat gluten, salt, yeast, honey, and half of the liquid. Mix on slow speed for 1 minute to bring the ingredients together into a ball, adding additional water as needed. Continue mixing 2 to 3 minutes, occasionally scraping down the bowl. The dough should form a sticky ball.
• Mist a work surface with a spray of water. Place the dough on the surface and knead with wet hands for 1 to 2 minutes. Although the dough will be sticky on the surface, it should have the strength and feel of normal bread dough. Form the dough into a ball and let it rest on the work surface for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly oil a bowl.
• Resume kneading the dough for 1 minute with wet hands to strengthen it. The dough should have strength yet still feel soft, supple, and very tacky. Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to the bowl, rolling to coat with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature for 45 to 60 minutes or until it is about 1 1/2 times its original size.
• Line a loaf pan with foil (not necessary, but makes for an easier cleanup!), and / or spray with nonstick spray. Form the dough into a loaf shape and place it in the pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 45 to 60 minutes or until it is about 1 1/2 times its original size.
• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. When you put the loaf in the oven, turn down the heat to 350 degrees. Bake for 20 minutes, rotate the loaf, and then bake for another 30 minutes, until the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when it is tapped.
• Let cool on a wire rack for at least one hour before slicing.

Steps:

• **To cook wheat berries**.
• Combine 1/2 cup rinsed wheat berries and 2 cups water in saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer, covered for about 1 ½ to 2 hours, stirring occasionally, adding water if necessary. ( Cook until soft and some are popping open)
• Drain any standing water before adding the cooked wheat berries to the dough.
• Add drained wheat berries and 1 cup of cold water in the bread machine pan, Cool to lukewarm.
• Add the rest of the liquid ingredients followed by the dry ingredients on top, yeast will be last.
• Set bread machine to dough setting. Check in a few minutes, if dough looks too dry or too wet add a few tablespoons of warm water or flour to get a good soft dough consistency.
• When dough setting is complete (my machine is 1 ½ hours) remove dough from bread machine pan onto a lightly floured surface. Shape into a roll. Put in a bread pan that has been sprayed with cooking oil spray. Let rise for about 40 minutes to 1 hour or until about 1 ½ inches above pan.
• Cook on 350 degrees on middle rack of oven for about 30 to 35 minutes. Should be golden brown ( when thumped with your finger on the bottom of the loaf it should sound hollow )
• Remove bread from pan to cooling rack to cool. Let it cool at least 1 hour before slicing.