Making Sprouted Wheat Flour

[Anna]

I'm sure this is old hat for many but it's my first attempt so I thought I'd write it here and share some pictures as I go.

 

I started with some organic wheat berries.   I soaked them overnight and then put them in a large colander lined with cheese cloth.   I rinsed 3 times a day and in 2 days they were ready to dehydrate.

 

So today I spread them on 6 dehydrator trays and they will dehydrated today.  It will probably take about 8 hours.

 

 

                                                                              Here is a close up.

 

                                                                          One of the trays.

 

Six full trays!

 

I'll check back in as I continue.  I'm going to make bagels with the flour.   After dehydrating, I'll grind what I need and then store any remaining dried berries in the refrigerator.    I don't have a mill so I'll use my Vita-mix.  That isn't ideal as it will heat the grains but I'm going to be baking them anyway so I hope it will be ok.  I'll pulse and hope that I can keep the temp down.

 

I tried this once before and didn't make enough, so I went large this time and I think it's going to work.  I'm curious how the bagels will turns out. 

 

I have been 100% gluten free for about 6 weeks now and want to add in the sprouted grains and see what happens. 

 

I was exciting to see the little berries sprouting! 

 

~Anna

 

 

[Francie]

Anna,

If you don't like how your bagels turn out, try sprouting your berries shorter (or longer). Timing matters, depending on what you want the flour to do.

Cheers, Francie 

[Anna]

Interesting!   The bagels were a bit dense but tasty.   I need to adjust the liquid in the recipe.   Overall, I was pleased.   I didn't know about the different sprouting times. 

 

~Anna

[Francie]

Or you let the sprouts go too long. If they sprout too long, where you see an actual sprout as opposed to only a small rootlet, then you're making dimalt, which adds a sweeter flavor, and will turn dough into a denser, gooey mess. Malt recipes usually use a small amount of malt flour. For wheat bread, if I want it to be big and light, I have to sprout only until I see a 1 mm rootlet. Then there are other recipes that call for a slightly longer sprouting time, but before you get dimalt.

[Anna]

Thanks!  My next batch I will just sprout a tiny bit and see how that goes.   From the picture above would you say that's more than a "rootlet".    It wasn't a gooey mess,  it was dense but really tasty, and possibly even some sweetness. 

 

~Anna

[Pam Genant]

OK so did you stop taking pictures?  I was hoping to see pics of the flour and the finished bagels!

[Anna]

LOL! I thought I took pictures but can't find them on the computer.  The flour looked like flour, it was fine, not course at all.  The bagels didn't look great.  Well, they may have looked ok but they didn't hold up.   I think they sprouted too long.  It wasn't a bad taste at all just didn't hold together well. 

 

Overall, a failed experiment but I learned some things.  Not sure what I'll try next. 

 

~Anna