Sprouted Bread

As a former distillery owner, the idea of making sprouted bread has a certain moonshine appeal. Sprouted bread is made from what distiller’s call malted grains, which are grains allowed to germinate or sprout (start to grow). This is done by soaking grains in water and leaving them in a cool dry place for a few days. As the grain starts to malt, it undergoes a transformation and converts dormant carbs to sugars to feed the growing plant. These sugars are more natural and healthy than refined sugar. The flour used in sprouted bread takes the malted grains and dries them out before grinding into a flour. The resultant flour has half the carbs of standard flour and many weight loss enhancing components that help you lose weight. . . who ever thought eating bread could help you lose weight. Sprouted bread tends to be denser than standard bread with a whole wheat kind of texture. Other than that, making it is pretty much the same as any other bread.

Ingredients

  • 280 g Sprouted wheat flour (~2.25 cups)
  • 30 g oat bran (~ .25 cup)
  • 5 g dry yeast (~1.5 tsp) or 16 g fresh yeast
  • 35 g Honey (~2 Tbls)
  • 8 g Kosher salt (~ 1 tsp)
  • 14 g Olive oil (~ 1 TBL)
  • 225 g H20 (~1 cup)

Process

  1. Mise en Place: measure and prepare the ingredients prior to starting.
  2. Heat water to a warm temperature (~90 deg F). Mix in the honey.
  3. Pitch the yeast: add yeast cover and allow to ferment for at least 10 mins. You want to make sure the yeast is actively working before proceeding.
  4. Combine the flour, oat bran, and K salt. Add yeast mixture and oil. Mix on speed 1 for 4 mins and then knead on speed 4 for 4 mins.
  5. Place in bowl, will want to use a dough scraper to transfer from mixing bowl to proofing bowl.
  6. First Proof: let rise 1 hour.
  7. Decide how you want to finish: baguette, pan loaf or artisan loaf, for
    • Baguette: roll into long log and support sides (see French baguette recipe)
    • Pan loaf: shape into log the length of pan and place in oiled pan
    • Artisan loaf: shape into a flat sided ball
  8. Second Proof: Let rise 1 hour.
  9. 30 minutes before 2nd proof is done, preheat oven 325 F (fan), 350 F conventional (160/175 C)
  10. Bake 20 mins Fan and 30-35 conventional.
  11. Let cool 5 mins in container/pan then transfer to cooling rack. Allow to cool ~30 mins before slicing.