This Weeks Bread

This week the bread turned out even better! I tweaked the recipe a bit and am so delighted of the light, almost sweet bread that came out of it. It even slices in small pieces easily without crumbling...yum! (Sorry, no pics this time)

I soaked 9 cups of ground up wheat with 5 cups boiling water and 1/2 cup plain yogurt.

Next day I added 2 2/3 c. hot water
1 cup honey
1/4 cup yeast
2 T salt

(Note: there was no oil used in this recipe...not sure if that's why it turned out so much differently?)

This made 6 delicious loaves! We'll see if it does the same next week :)

Success!

I finally took the plunge and made some bread today but soaked my grain first. I am so pleased with the results! I had been very nervous to try this method as I usually am when doing something new. I'm scared that it will fail and all the work that I put into it will be a waste.

Well this time at least it didn't fail! I'm sure there is some tweaking to do, but the results were still pretty delicious. The bread has a very different but yummy taste to it, it does not taste like sourdough, though it did kind of smell like it while it was baking. It is very good!

Now for those of you who are wondering why I sprouted the grain first, here is the reason. Sprouted grain is easier to digest and contains more nutrients than unsprouted grain. Some persons who are wheat sensitive or allergic to wheat (thankfully nobody in my family) can tolerate it in the sprouted form.

Since we eat a lot of bread around here, I want to be able to make the healthiest option as possible (for me to be able to do!).

So here is what I did...yesterday afternoon I ground up my Prairie Gold wheat in the Nutrimill (about 12 cups).

Then I put it in the Bosch mixing bowl and mixed it with 5 cups of hot water and 1/4 cup of plain yogurt. I covered it up and let it sit on the counter till this morning to let it soak and ferment.

It looked very clumpy and not very appetizing as you can see below, not what I was really expecting. I was thinking it would be more smooth?

This picture is what it looked like after all the kneading was complete with all the ingredients...the dough looks darker than normal and not as smooth.

Today...I added to the bowl...

1 cup boiling water
2 cups freshly ground flour (not soaked)
2/3 cup oil
2/3 cup honey
4.5 T SAF yeast
2 T salt

Mixed that up and was surprised at how it actually sloshed liquid stuff up out of the Bosch! Once it was mixed thoroughly I covered it up and let it sponge for about an hour...yes, things were busy around here.

After the hour I added about 2 - 3 cups of flour slowly until the dough came off the sides of the bowl, then let it knead for 7 minutes. Then I shut off the Bosch and let it rest for 3 minutes.

Then the easy part...took it out of the bowl and shaped into 4 loaves and did 2 pans of dinner rolls to save for this week when I'm ready to bake those. Caleb was a big help and had a great time shaping the loaves with me (instead of cleaning his room!).

Let it rise for about an hour, then baked 2 at a time for 30 minutes each at 350.

Like I said before, the loaves have a different taste than my usual bread where the flour is not soaked...a very delicious taste! I also didn't rise as much as my regular recipe does either, so the loaves were a bit smaller. I'll see if I can figure out how to change that next time around.

Now my next goal is to make 100% sprouted grain and flour bread! That one really intimidates me as it is a few day process with the drying of the sprouted wheat that has to be done before grinding it. I'll let you know what that one is done, and if its a success or not as well!

Happy baking!