Sprouted hard wheat loaves

After Ann read about the process of a local bakery's sprouted wheat bread at our co-op, and brought home the flyer, I decided to give it a try. So here's what I came up with.



the finished loaves



the starter, bubbling away, several hours earlier

Sprouted Whole Wheat

1 cup org. hard wheat berries, sprouted
1 cup hard wheat berries
1 cup org. cornmeal
7 cups King Arthur trad. ww flour
1 cup hemp seeds
1 cup ground flax seeds
Blythe honey
Kosher salt
King Arthur “New England” starter
soy milk

Grind the wheat berries, both whole and sprouted, mix with remaining ingredients. After rising, bake in oven preheated to 400 degrees F, lowering to 375 degrees
after putting bread in over. After 20 minutes, rotate loaves. Continue baking until done, approximately 20-25 minutes more.

here are the berries, sprouted, before being ground in the VitaMix:



the stack of sprouting trays



and the sprouted wheat

The resulting dough was a bit slack; decided to leave it that way rather than add yet more flour to stiffen it. It rose in our cool kitchen for several hours before being baked. For some reason there's a vaguely lemony aftertaste to the bread. As usual, toasts well. Next time, will go for a slightly stiffer dough. Two of the loaves were backed in the Chicago Metallic loaf pans, one in a ceramic pan we picked up several years ago at Penland (it's the higher, domed loaf in the center in the photo above). Both give decent results.