Perfectly Wonderful Sprouted Whole Grain Bread

Let's get back to basics.

Bread.

It's my life. My weakness. My world.

I'm constantly trying new recipes and since I make bread about every 5 days,

I make a TON of bread.

Now that I'm on the Real Food way of eating and preparing,

I sprout every batch of whole grains.

It is a little more time consuming, but not difficult.

I usually have a batch of grain at one point or another nearly every day of the week.

I just put a fresh batch of grain in to soak this morning.

It will soak for 24 hours.

Then I drain it and leave it in the container for another 24-36 hours to sprout.

Then in the dehydrator to dry for about 8-12 hours, usually overnight.

This means my grain is ready to be ground into flour in the morning which is when

I like to make bread.  

Usually while I'm getting the kids ready for school.

And since this recipe is whole grain it is fairly quick to make, 

no double rise, like normal white bread.

I can have fresh bread coming out right about the time 

the youngest kiddos are ready to walk out the door.  

Let me just say that I love the smell of fresh baked bread.

I better.  I make it all the time.

So this is my new favorite.

It is a remake of a King Arthur Flour recipe that you can see here.

But of course I "Shell-i-fied" the recipe to make it suit my tastes better.

I tried making their version and it just didn't work for me. 

Honestly I'm not sure why.

But here's my version.

Sprouted Whole Grain Bread

I soak 10 cups of grain for each batch.  It gives me enough for bread and a few cups leftover for other uses like waffles, cookies, tortillas, crackers, etc.. etc...

Here's my blend of grain:

3 cups hard red wheat

2 cups soft white wheat

3 cups hard white wheat

1 cup buckwheat groats

1 cup kamut

Place grain in large container and cover with water.

I know this next picture is a little gross, 

but I discovered another benefit to soaking and sprouting your grain.  

Let's face it. 

Grains get bugs.  

In a perfect world, 

I'd have a huge walk in freezer and refrigerator to keep all my grains in.  

I do have them in the house in a cool dark room, 

but inevitably the little buggers get in there.  

Some people would through out the whole 25 lb bag of grain.  

I don't have that luxury, 

or they would just grind it all up and 

never know they were getting a little added protein in their food.  

Not the ideal.  

So when I started soaking the grains, 

I realized the huge added benefit.  

I can fill my container all the way up.  

Swish my hand inside the grain a bit 

to loosen up the grains and allow all the buggers to float to the top.  

Pour off the top.  

Bye Bye Buggers!  

Awesome!

Let the grain sit drained and covered for another 24-36 hours to let the berries sprout. 

It's ok if you forget and let them get longer tails.  

I actually like the end result better than just the little nubs in the picture below, 

but I wouldn't have known that had I not been sprouting on a weekly basis.  

Put it on dehydrator trays.  

I had to cover my trays with parchment paper 

because the holes are too big and the wheat berries would fall through.

Dry in the dehydrator for 8-12 hours.  I usually let mine go overnight.

They need to be completely dry or they will gum up your grain grinder.

I cannot be held responsible for messing up your grain grinder.

Grind the grain as usual.

Now that's done, let's make Bread!

In a Bosch or Blend-tec mixer combine the following:

(if you're using a Kitchen-Aid, you will need to 1/2 the recipe)

5 1/3 cups warm water (if its comfortable for you, it will be for the yeast)

(Optional: if you have some tomato juice, I sometimes reduce the water to 4 cups and add 1 1/3 cups tomato juice.  The acidity of the tomato helps calm down the grainy-ness of the whole grain and makes it more,... well just better.)

1 cup applesauce or oil

1 cup raw sugar

1/4 cup molasses

2 Tbsp sea salt

2 Tbsp dough enhancer

2 Tbsp vital gluten

5-6 cups fresh ground sprouted flour

4 Tbsp yeast

Mix for about 30 seconds to 1 minute.

Cover and let the mixture sponge for about 10 minutes.

Uncover the mixer and on speed 1, slowly add more whole grain flour.

As the dough starts holding together, I add about 3 cups unbleached white flour.

I wish I could be a purist, 

but unfortunately I have yet to find the perfect 100% whole wheat recipe that doesn't fall flat.

When the dough cleans the sides of the bowl, 

cover, increase the speed to 2 and let knead for 10 minutes.

Prepare the loaf pans with non-stick spray.  

Coconut oil spray is my favorite.

Put a little olive oil on the counter and on your hands when the kneading is done.

Turn out the dough and separate into 4 balls of dough.

Shape into loaves and place in bread pans.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until about 1 inch above the rim of the pan.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

When the oven is ready, uncover the loaves and place in oven.

Turn heat down to 325 degrees and let bake 35-37 minutes depending on your oven.

I have found that sprouted wheat tends to be 

a little more moist than traditional wheat flour 

so I bake my sprouted loaves longer to make sure they aren't dough-y in the middle.

When they are done baking, remove from oven and let cool on wire racks.

Slice a little piece of heaven, or store in airtight bags or containers.

My favorite is a fresh slice of homemade bread and real butter!

Mmmm.... is it lunch time yet?

By the way, this is perfect sandwich bread.  

Not too crumbly and holds up well for my kiddo's lunches every day.

Enjoy!

My Private Blend 7 Grain Bread

I'm a bread snob.  

There I said it.  

Really it's true.  

I make bread at least twice a week.  

I have 5 kids and get to make 5 sandwitches every school day.  

Plus we eat French Toast, toast-milk-and-sugar, garlic toast, and just plain old bread and butter regularly.  

That equals a TON of bread.  

I guess you could say my family is spoiled.  They only prefer my bread too.  

We got some free recenly that someone gave us, the expensive kind with all kinds of crazy stuff in it, and my kids asked when it was going to run out so I could make them my bread again. 

 Really. Scouts Honor! 

We also sometimes bring the bread to church for the sacrament.  

Everytime more than one person tells me that they knew it was mine.

I just looked through my blog post list and found no fewer than

17 different bread and bread-ish recipes.

Ok so why am I telling you all this? 

 Because this bread is my new favorite. 

 That's saying alot!

Since I discovered Buckwheat, I'm addicted.

 I love the amazing flavor it adds to your food and 

the nutritional benefits are just Awesome!  

The original recipe came from Shar's, and while it's a good whole wheat bread, 

it was a little dense and didn't really stand out to me. I needed to put my own spin on it. 

So here's my new favorite bread.  I hope you love it as much as I do!

Here's my private grain blend:

2 cups hard white wheat

2 cups hard red wheat

1 cup soft white wheat

1 cup kamut

1 cup spelt

1 cup buckwheat

1/2 cup quinoa

The only thing that could boost this nutritional value would be to sprout it.

I will do that soon, but I needed bread right then and didn't have time.

Pour all of this into your grain grinder and grind it up.  It makes a beautiful flour that is soft and light.

These three are what I call my triple threat.  

It greatly improves your whole grain bread so it's soft, light, and not like a brick.  

Eww.  I don't need to waste all that whole grain goodness on a door stop.

All right.  All the preliminaries are done.  Let's make bread!

7 Grain Bread

In your Bosch mixer,

(If you have a Kitchen-Aid, 1/2 the recipe)

put the following:

6 cups warm tap water

2/3 cup applesauce

2/3 cup honey

3 Tbsp Dough Enhancer

3 Tbsp Vital Gluten

3 Tbsp Potato flour

3-4 cups fresh ground whole grain flour

3 Tbsp yeast

Mix and let sit for about 5-10 minutes.

This is usually when I put my ingredients away.

Turn mixer on and add flour one cup at a time until the dough cleans the sides of the bowl.

Put the lid on and mix for 6 minutes.

Open bowl and add:

2 Tbsp salt

More white flour if needed to get right consistency.

Put lid back on and mix for another 2 minutes.

While it is mixing for the final 2 minutes, get out your bread pans and grapeseed oil.

Since this is whole grain bread, you don't need to let it rise twice. 

Yeah!  I'm all for homemade bread quicker!

Spray your pans with cooking spray.

Drizzle counter with grapeseed oil, (olive oil would also be a good option).

Turn dough out on oiled surface.

Divide into 4 pieces.

Shape into loaves and place in your bread pans.

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise.

It takes about 25-35 minutes.

When the dough is about 1/2 to 3/4 inches above the pan edge,

preheat oven to 400 degrees.

When the oven is ready, remove the plastic wrap and place pans in oven.

Drop temperature to 325 degrees.

Bake for 33 minutes.

Remove from oven and place on wire racks.

I brush the tops with shortening and let cool.

Store in airtight bread bags.

I usually keep 2 out and 2 go in the freezer.

Since I make this with applesauce instead of oil, 

while it greatly decreases the fat content,

 it does shorten the shelf life.  

Not like that would ever be a problem at my house, 

but if you have a smaller family and don't eat much bread, 

keep the one you are eating in the fridge, and put the rest in the freezer.

I either take it out the night before to defrost, 

or stick it in the microwave for 3 minutes.

Time to make sandwiches again.

Look at all that whole grain goodness in a light super yummy bread!

If you try it, I hope you will leave me a comment to let me know how it turned out. 

 I'd love to hear from you!

I'm back and Happy!

There's a three letter word that has become a 'four-letter' word in our house.

It's F.L.U.

Ugh!  I pretty much missed all of Christmas week, including Christmas day because of that little word.

I did make it through almost 2 seasons of Merlin.

And nearly finished reading this book.  It's fabulous and exactly what I needed when I was feeling sorry for myself being so sick in bed and my kids having to fend for themselves.  You can pick a copy of it here at Amazon.

I'm still not 100% yet, but at least I made it to the computer.

I also desperately needed to make bread.  I've been kind of scared to do it, minus the fact that I couldn't stand up for more than 5 minutes at time.  The reason is that lately my bread has turned out looking like this.

Horrible! 

It still tastes fine, and when it first starting doing this my husband asked if I was trying to make some kind of fancy bread.  :( 

No I wasn't.  Just sandwich bread for the kids. 

 I have to make 5 sandwiches every school day so we go through a ton of bread.

I tried everything I could think of.

I changed the recipe.

I varied the ingredients.

More whole grain.

Less whole grain.

More vital gluten.

More dough enhancer.

Nothing worked.

I even texted pictures to my mother-in-law who is the all time Queen of Breadmaking.  I learned everything from her.  She was stumped too.  She thought it might be the oven temperature.  The problem was that it looked like this before it went into the oven, so I knew that wasn't it.

So my last resort was to take my Bosch to Shar's Kitchen Center and see what they thought.  The owner is my friend, we used to be neighbors a few years ago.  She was stumped too.  They not only sell the Bosch, they are also an authorized location for service.  We decided to give my Bosch a tune-up and then see what happens.  I got it back just in time to make Bread for Christmas breakfast, then that cursed FLU struck and I've been in bed ever since.

Well, today I crossed my fingers and tried our favorite bread recipe.

Gorgeous.  

Apparently my best friend in the kitchen has been sick too.

Now we are both feeling much better.

I'm so Happy!

Sneaky Maple Apple Oatmeal Bread

I've discovered a new favorite bread.  The best part it that it's super sneaky.  I promise you'll be amazed at all the nutritional yummy-ness packed in to these gorgeous loaves.  Let's get started.

Maple Apple Oatmeal Bread

Since we will be adding in shredded apples, I found a super easy way to do it.  Fill your blender with water and add cored apples. 

I have a Vita-Mix.  

Best purchase ever!

Pulse apples until they are the size you want.

 Then  pour into a strainer and let sit while you assemble the other ingredients.  If I had thought of it, I would have used the apple water as the water for the bread.  I didn't this time, but I will next time.

 Next grind your wheat.  I used equal parts Hard Red and Hard White wheat.  I also threw in about a cup of 10 grain, and 1/2 cup of Quinoa.  Grind it all together to get a fine flour.  Again I used my Vita-Mix.  Can I just say it's extremely versatile!
Here's the 3 Grains.

This one is Hard White Wheat.

This one is Hard Red Wheat or 

also called Turkey Red.

 The Hard Red has a higher protein content and makes for a denser bread.  But for some reason, when you mix the two wheats together it makes an amazing light loaf of bread.

Lastly is Quinoa.  Pronounced KEEN-WA.  It is the only complete protein grain.  It also adds a wonderful nutty flavor to the bread.

Grind the following:

2 cups Hard White Wheat

2 cups Hard Red Wheat

1 cup 10 Grain cereal

1/2 cup Quinoa

Place in bowl and set aside.

In a large mixer combine in order: 

If you're using a Kitchen-Aid, you'll have to 1/2 the recipe.

4 cups warm water

1/2 cup Canola Oil (applesauce is an option)

1/2 cup maple syrup (Honey is an option)

1 Tbsp Maple Extract

2 beaten eggs

2 Tbsp sea salt

3 Tbsp Dough Enhancer

3 cups High Gluten bread flour or All purpose White flour

2 cups rolled oats (quick or regular)

2 cups of the freshly ground wheat flour

3 Tbsp instant Yeast

Mix for about a minute.  Let rest for about 1 minute.  Then turn mixer back on adding flour 1 cup at a time until dough cleans sides of bowl.  I alternated between white and wheat flour, although you could do all whole wheat.

Once dough cleans sides of bowl, cover and mix for 5 minutes.

Now add in  the 4 cups coarsely chopped apples.  You will have to add more flour to get the dough to clean the sides again.  Then mix for another 5 minutes.

Prepare bread pans by spraying with cooking spray.

Since it's mostly whole wheat, you only need to let it rise once.

Turn dough out onto counter and divide into 4 pieces.

In another pan pour about 1-2 cups quick oats.

Knead dough into loaves and roll in oats pressing to coat.

 Place dough in pans and slash the tops. I made 3 X's on mine.

Cover with plastic and let rise until bread is about 1-2 inches above the top of the pan.

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
When oven is preheated, remove plastic wrap and place in oven.
Drop temperature to 325 degrees.
Bake for about 40-45 minutes.  It's a longer baking time due to the water content of the apples.

 Let cool on racks.

 Slice and enjoy.  This was some of the softest bread I've made.  I love it when whole wheat comes out like that.  

Gone are the days of wheat bread door stops.  You're smiling because you know what I mean.

Molasses Oatmeal Bread

This recipe is seriously one of my favorites! I got it from my good friend Erica who is an amazing baker.  It is also a very versatile recipe.  You can make it as whole grain-y as you want.  I've done it multiple ways and it always turns out super yummy!  Here goes:

Layer the following ingredients in your mixer. 

(I use a Bosch, if you're using a Kitchen-aid you will need to 1/2 the recipe.)

5 cups hot tap water

4 cups quick oats

2 Tbsp salt

1 cup sugar or honey

2/3 cup oil or applesauce (they can be used interchangably)

2 eggs

1/3 cup molasses

It will look like this:

 Next layer about 3 cups flour over the ingredients trying to cover the liquid. Then sprinkle over the top:  3 Tbsp yeast

 Turn the mixer on and mix for about 30-40 seconds to combine the ingredients.  Turn mixer off, cover and let sit for about 1-2 minutes. This lets the yeast develop.

Now turn on mixer and begin adding flour one cup at a time until it cleans the sides of the bowl.
See Clean Sides!

 (The flour can be white, wheat, or a combination of both.  If using more wheat than white, you'll need to add 2-4 Tbsp vital gluten to the dough)

Cover loosely and let rise.  If using more wheat flour you don't need to let it rise twice.  Go straight to the next step.

 Once the dough is peeking over the bowl, remove lid and turn out on to floured surface.

 Divide dough into 4 balls.  (For Kitchen-aids, 2 balls.)

 Knead into loaves and place in pans sprayed well with Pam or cooking spray.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until dough is above the rim of the pan.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
When oven is ready, place loaves in oven and drop temperature to 325 degrees.
Bake for 32-33 minutes.

 When bread is done, remove and brush tops with shortening.  I use this little brush I got from King Arthur Flour here. Sweet!

Let cool slightly, slice and enjoy your
little piece of Heaven!