Sprouted Emmer Bread

I’m continuing my experiment with ancient grains. This month, I’m working with Emmer.  As you may remember, last month, I decided that to really compare grains to grains, I should use the same or a similar bread recipe.  Sprouted Wheat Bread (with flour) is one of my favorite breads so I decided it would be a good bread to use as the test comparison.  I featured Sprouted Einkorn Bread last month. This month I’m featuring Sprouted Emmer Bread.

As I mentioned in my HBinFive Emmer Bread post, Emmer is an ancient grain that is plumper and longer than modern wheat grains. The grain is lower in gluten than regular wheat but higher in protein and fiber. Emmer has a bold-flavor and usually makes a heavy and dense bread compared to wheat bread. To make a lighter bread, I used a combination of sprouted Emmer grains, Emmer flour and bread flour.

 

 

Sprouted Emmer Bread

Adapted from The Pleasure of Whole-Grain Breads by Beth Hensperger

Makes: 3 Medium loaves or 2 large loaves

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 1/2 tablespoons (1 1/2 packages) active dry yeast
• Pinch of sugar
• Pinch of ginger
• 2 cups Emmer flour
• 1 cup nonfat dry milk powder
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 1/2 cups warm water
• 1/4 cup honey
• 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 cups sprouted Emmer berries, chopped
• 4 1/2 to 5 cups bread flour
• Wheat germ, for sprinkling
• Melted butter, for brushing

 

Step 1: Sprouting the Emmer Berries

Duration: 2 to 3 days

Makes: 2 cups

• 1/2 cup raw Emmer berries

 

Place the emmer berries in a bowl and add tepid water to cover by 1 inch.  Let stand at room temperature for 6 to 8 hours. 

 

Drain the emmer berries and rinse with fresh water.  Divide between two 1-quart jars.  Cover with cheesecloth and secure with a rubber band.  I only used 1 jar.

 

Place the jars on their sides in a warm, dark place. 

 

Twice a day, rinse and drain the emmer berries with tepid water poured through the cheesecloth.  After 2 to 3 days, the emmer berries will sprout.  Refrigerate in a plastic bag for up to 3 days. I sprouted my berries for about 2 days, then refrigerated them for 3 days until I had time to bake the bread.

 

Grind in a food processor fitted with the metal blade. Be careful not to over process; the berries should be chunky.

Tip: When you place the quart jars in a cool, dark place such as your cabinet, put them in a container so that the excess water drains into the container instead of your cabinet.

 

Step 2: Making the Bread

Pour 1/2 cup warm water into a small bowl.  Sprinkle the yeast, sugar, and ginger over the water. Stir to dissolve and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

 

In a large bowl using a whisk or in the bowl of your mixer, combine the emmer flour, milk powder, and salt.  Since emmer is an ancient grain, it seemed more appropriate to mix the dough by hand rather than using a mixer.

 

Add the warm water, honey, and 4 tablespoons butter. Mix or beat for 1 minute. I used a Danish dough whisk for this part.

 

 

Add the yeast mixture and beat 1 minute longer. 

 

Add all the emmer berries and the bread flour, 1/2 cup a a time, beating on low speed until a soft dough that just clears the sides of the bowl forms, switching to a wooden spoon when necessary if making by hand.  I used a Danish dough whisk for this part as well.

 

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until soft and spongy, 1 to 2 minutes for a machine mixed dough and 3 to 4 minutes for a hand-mixed dough, dusting with flour only 1 tablespoon at a time, just enough as needed to prevent sticking.

 

Place in a lightly greased deep container, turn once to coat the top with oil, and cover with plastic wrap. 

 

Let rise at room temperature until double in bulk, 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

 

Grease three 8-by-4-inch loaf pans and sprinkle the bottom and sides with wheat germ.  Turn the dough out onto the work surface and divide into 3 equal portions.  Or, if you want bigger loaves, divide it into 2 equal portions. I opted for the bigger loaves so I divided it into two round balls to begin with.

 

Then I flattened each piece out on the counter and pat it portion into a rectangle and rolled into a loaf shape. 

 

 

Press the seam closed with your fingers.

Place, seam side down, into the prepared pans. 

 

Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until level with the rims of the pans, about 1 hour.

About 20 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and position a rack in the center of the oven.

I decided to score these loaves.  I don’t normally score loaf breads, but I saw some beautiful scored loaf breads at the Asheville Bread Baking Festival so I decided to give it a shot.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until crusty and golden. 

Remove the loaves from the pans to cool on a rack.

Brush the tops with melted butter.  Let the loaves cool, then slice and enjoy.

I put this loaf through my peanut butter test. It passed with flying colors. I enjoyed it with some organic peanut butter and a little homemade orange marmalade.  Delicious!

This bread has been YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

Thanks for joining me in the bread-baking blog. 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Sprouted Wheat Bread with no Flour - Take Two

This is my second post on Sprouted Wheat Bread with no Flour.  As I mentioned in the previous post, I've been working on this bread for a couple of months. My first attempt turned out like a brick. It had a good flavor, but it was pretty chewy and that wasn't what I was looking for in a bread.

I learned a lot from the process so I decided to give it another try. One of the main things I learned was the trick to sprouting the wheat berries. I paid special attention to this on my second attempt and as you'll see, it made all the difference.

Here is the process for making sprouted wheat bread with no flour that works.  This method produces a light loaf that doesn't look or taste like a brick.  Tanya, this one's for you!

 

Yeasted Sprout Bread

Makes: Two Loaves

Adapted from The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book: A Guide to Whole Grain Breakmaking by Laurel Robertson.

You can grind the berries in a meat grinder or your food processor.  After my last attempt, I decided to get a meat grinder to see if that helped. Well, it didn't so I just used my food processor again.  This time it worked really well.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups (2 1/2 lbs or 1135g) wheat berries (hard-spring or winter wheat berries) . This will make a little more than 3 quarts sprouted and weigh about 4 1b.  I used hard red spring berries.
• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast (1/4 oz or 7g)
• 1/4 cup warm water (60 ml)
• 1/3 cup honey (80 mil)
• 4 teaspoons salt (22 g)
  

Sprouting the Wheat Berries

Be very careful to only sprout the berries until the tiny sprout is just barely beginning to show and the grain itself is tender - about 18 – 24 hours.  If the grain is not tender, your grinder will heat up, making the dough too hot.

This is very important:  If the grain sprouts develop long enough for diastatic enzymes to get started, it will make the bread very gooey and it won't bake through. This is what happened the first time! I didn't want to do that again or I would end up with another brick.

It was very hot when I started sprouting the wheat berries so I knew it wouldn't take very long. This time instead of soaking the grains for 18 hours, I only let the grains soak for about 12 hours.

This photo is rather fuzzy but it shows the tiny sprout just beginning to appear.

At this point, I rinsed and drained the sprouted grains and put them in the refrigerator to rest until I was ready to make the bread.  My schedule was a little bit crazy so the grains sat in the refrigerator for a couple of days.


Making the Bread

The evening I decided to bake the bread, I took the grains out of the refrigerator and rinsed and drained them again.

Then I removed the excess moisture from the sprouts by patting them with a paper towel.

Then I ground the grains using my food processor.  As I mentioned, I tried using the meat grinder, but I couldn't get it to work right so I nixed that idea.  This time the grains were not sticky or gooey so my food processor handled it perfectly.  

I ground about half the grains at a time.  I kneaded each batch a little bit in the food processor.  Then I put both batches together in the bowl.  

Then I continued the process of making the bread.  First, I dissolved the yeast in the warm water.  Then, I added the honey, salt, and yeast to the ground sprouts and mixed it together really well with wet hands.

It was a little bit gooey but it really wasn't that bad doing it by hand (or with my hands I should say).

 

After I had mixed it really well, I placed the dough on the counter and kneaded it for about 15 minutes. Even though I had kneaded it somewhat with the food processor, it still had to be kneaded by hand a while longer.

It finally came together like a normal yeast dough.  So, I placed the dough in the bowl, covered it with plastic and let it rise for 2 hours.

After two hours, I poked the dough gently with two fingers. The holes didn't fill in at all, so I was ready to move on.

 

I divided the dough in half using my dough scraper and shaped each half into a round. Then I flattened and spread each round into a rectangle and rolled each rectangle up jelly roll style.

To form a loaf. I pinched the seam together, then rolled it around until the seam was on the bottom and placed the loaves in two greased 8 1/2 x 4 1/2- inch glass pans.

 

 

I really like using glass pans because you can see what the bread looks like.  See, isn't that cool!  I let the loaves rise in the pan until the dough crested the top of the pans.

 

 

I baked the loaves at 350 degrees for about an hour.  Just look at that oven spring!  No bricks here! 

After the loaves finished baking, I removed them to the cooling rack to cool for a few minutes.  Then, I brushed the loaves with melted butter and let them finish cooling.

These sprouted wheat loaves actually look like loaves made with flour.

 

 

Here is a shot of the first attempt. 

This sprouted wheat loaf looks much better than the first attempt, don't you think?

 

I'm very satisfied with how this bread turned out.  It tastes really good toasted especially with cheese. 

 

It was a little bit soft in the middle so the only thing I would do differently next time is to bake it just a little bit longer.  Other than that, I like the results of this bread.

 

However, I must say that my favorite is still the Sprouted Wheat Bread made with sprouted wheat, bread flour and whole wheat flour but if you want a bread made with wheat and no flour, then this is the ticket.

 

Thanks for joining me in the bread-baking blog.

Happy Baking!
Cathy