Paulchens FoodBlog?!

Yeasted Sprouted Wheat Bread

16 July 2010 10 Comments

Oh such exciting News!!

As of today I am officially a BABE! Oh no not any ordinary Babe but a Bread Baking Babe!!

You do not know the famous, gorgeous, invincible Bread Baking Babes?
How do I even begin to describe? It’s a bunch of ladies of all ages whose hobby (or one of there many hobbies) is to bake fresh homemade bread. Not your ordinary whip-in-five-minutes bread but challenging new recipes and techniques and basically have fun baking and sharing experiences with each other.
The group is small and closed, so you can’t just decide to join – you need to be invited. Although those Babes all are very friendly and welcoming everyone to bake along their chosen recipe of the month as a Buddy they are very strict about being a Babe.

I have been following them since dear Sher encouraged me to bake along as a Buddy in July 2008. I tried to bake with them ever since (not always in time but I tried to be brave and bake each of their breads). Hey I am an aquarius and this is really hard for me to follow rules and dates and doing something on a regular basis in general!!

As you know dear reader, my blog is very much neglected lately and so I was even more surprised that I found an email from Tanna in my mailbox reading:

I notice your blog is very quiet … but

We’re wondering if

You’ve been longing to be a Bread Baking Babe?
Because one of your life’s passions is baking bread.
If not, stop reading and delete this e-mail!!

Of course I stopped immediately reading and trashed the email… Heavens, no – who am i fooling?! To be honest I read this mail 3 times to be sure they really meant ME!

Of course I responded with a loud YES that could have been heard all around the globe (if I had said it out loud). *grins*
Only to find another mail in my inbox, welcoming me as a new and shiny Bread Baking Babe and being handed the recipe of the month chosen by lovely Babe Lynn (or better known to many of you as Cookie Baker Lynn)reading the introducing sentences:

Everybody finds it diabolical that you’ve been invited when we’re doing the sprouted wheat recipe. I promise you it wasn’t actually done with intent that way. But it has worked out that way.

I am still not sure if this wasn’t planned to test us new Babes… Aye I am not alone: Elizabeth, Elle and Susan have been invited and joined the BBB with me this month.

To cut a long story short:
I am very honored and happy to be a Bread Baking Babe now and in my newly earned embroidered pants I present you the BBB Challenge of July 2010:

BBB logo july 2010

Lynn is our Kitchen Hostess of the Month and chose this wonderful and challenging bread to bake:

We are the mighty Babes. In the kitchen, we are invincible. We can bake without gluten, we can bake without yeast. Can we bake without flour? Yes!

Yeasted Sprouted Wheat Bread

- from Laurel’s Kitchen bread book

makes 1 loaf

3 cups hard spring wheat berries (1-1/4 lb or 575 g), about 6 cups sprouted
1 tsp active dry yeast (1/8 oz or 3.5 g)
2 Tbsp warm water (30 ml)
2 tsp salt (11 g)
3 scant Tbsp honey (40 ml)

To sprout the wheat:

Rinse the grain and cover with tepid water, letting it stand 12 to 18 hours at room temperature. Allow the longer period in cooler weather, the shorter period in warm.

Drain off the liquid, rinse the grain with fresh, tepid water, and store in a dark place with a damp cloth over the top of the container. Rinse at least every 12 hours, just until the tiny sprout is barely beginning to show and the grain itself is tender – about 48 hours, then refrigerate until they are cool, overnight or longer, but not more than a day or two.

This is how my sprouts looked like when I started to make the dough:

When your sprouts are ready:

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.
Note from Astrid: Be sure to drain your berries very very well, otherwise you will end up with the stickiest dough I have ever seen since I baked the Coccodrillo“

Put the regular cutting blade into a standard-size food processor and measure just over 2 cups of the sprouted wheat, a third of the total, into the bowl. Pour about 2 tsp of the dissolved yeast liquid, a scant Tbsp of honey, and about 2/3 tsp of salt over the wheat in the bowl. To protect the yeast, use separate measuring spoons for each of the ingredients.
Process until the ground wheat forms a ball, about one minute. Scrape the sides of the bowl, and process about two more minutes. Stop processing before the ball completely falls apart; if your wheat is not exceptionally high in protein a minute and a half might be all it can handle. If it falls apart, check the time, and with the next two batches, stop a little sooner.
Repeat with the remaining two-thirds of the ingredients, in two batches. Knead the three dough balls together.

Note from Astrid: this is my bread dough after grinding. I have no food processor so I used a mortar & pestle. I learned from the other Babes that their dough was much smoother and without chunks. I personally think it had no big effect to the end result, there were no hard bits in the resulting bread… But just to be sure you should grind your berries until you can see no more chunks.

Form the dough into a ball and place it smooth side up in the bowl. Cover and keep in a warm draft-free place. After about an hour and a half, gently poke the center of the dough about 1/2 inch deep with your wet finger. If the hole doesn’t fill in at all or if the dough sighs, it is ready for the next step.

Press flat, form into a smooth round, and let the dough rise once more as before. If the dough is cold, the first rise will be fairly slow, but as the dough warms up, the rising will telescope.
Gently knead into a round. Use water on your hands to prevent sticking, and keep the ball as smooth as possible. Let it rest until it regains its suppleness while you grease a standard 8 x 4-inch loaf pan, pie tin, or a cookie sheet.
Deflate the dough and shape into a loaf. Place the dough into the greased loaf pan and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until the dough slowly returns a gently made fingerprint. Bake about an hour at 350 deg. F, though if your bread rises very high, it will take less than that.

Note from Astrid: I baked this bread at very low temperature (’bout 150°C) for much longer than an hour. I guess it was in the oven for nearly 2 1/2 hours. Learning from all the discussion we had and the experiences the other Babes had from baking their breads.

This bread is not everybody’s darling. It’s more a bread like: you love it or you hate it!
If you like Vollkornbrot or breads with a high amount of rye – you certainly will like this bread.
It is dense and yet not gummy. It is perfect with cream cheese and fresh cucumber or radishes. I personally liked it best sliced thin, toasted and with some butter and salt on top.

It is not nearly as “wet” as it seems in this picture. It just was too warm to cut but I could not wait any longer to cut it ans show the results to my fellow Babes! My fault, yes! This bread needs to be absolutely cooled before cutting or it will cling to your knife like bubble gum!

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If you want to be a Buddy and bake this bread with us please head over to Lynn’s and see how. You should have your bread baked and posted by 29th of July.

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Speaking of Buddies, there is some exciting news for you Buddies too:

We’d like you, everyone of you, to put your thinking caps on pull out all your bread books and recipes and no not pick our next bread … we want you to pick our Anniversary Bread for February 2011. That’s right, come about November, we’re going to ask you to mail us the recipe that you love the most or the recipe that scares you the most

What’s your favorite bread?
What bread haven’t you ever been able to get to turn out the way you want?
What bread scares you the most?
What’s the bread recipe you’ve baked the most?
What bread do you dream about baking?
etc.

We’ll come back on you with more details when November is a bit nearer… so stay tuned!

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Please visit my fellow Babes and see how their experiences were and admire their gorgeous results:

Thinking of you with Love: Glenna (Alumni Babe) | Sher (Angel Babe)

10 Comments »

Rosa said:

What a wonderful healthy and flavorful bread!

Cheers,

Rosa

# 16 July 2010 at 6:53 AM

Natashya said:

Love that great colour you got on your bread. So happy to have you as a Babe!

# 16 July 2010 at 12:38 PM

MyKitchenInHalfCups said:

Official BABE!
We’ve really earned it with this one!
And you especially using the mortar & pestle! Will you make that your new work out routine? ;-)

# 16 July 2010 at 2:15 PM

blog from OUR kitchen » Sprouted Wheat Flourless Bread (BBB July 2010) said:

[...] Astrid, PaulChen’s FoodBlog; Yeasted Sprouted Wheat Bread [...]

# 16 July 2010 at 3:26 PM

Katie said:

Well done for the first ‘official’ (grin). I never thought of using a mortar and pestle – but mine is pretty tiny…..

# 16 July 2010 at 4:46 PM

Lien said:

you deserve a special medal for making this difficult recipe even without a food processor. You’re amazing. So glad you’re joining us ;)

# 16 July 2010 at 8:39 PM

Susan/Wild Yeast said:

With a mortar and pestle… wow! That takes some muscle. And here I was proud of myself just for being able to lift the finished loaf. Your really looks great and makes me want to go for a chunkier dough next time!

# 16 July 2010 at 11:47 PM

Elle said:

Great looking bread! I can see that a much slower, lower temp bake will be part of my next attempt. Glad you kept reading that e-mail and that we are newbie Babes together!

# 17 July 2010 at 1:21 AM

DKM said:

That is calling out for some grain mustard, arugula and a nice sharp cheese!

# 18 July 2010 at 1:54 AM

Kelly said:

I can’t believe you did that by hand! That is some serious commitment, you are a true Babe. ☺ Bet it was good toasted.

# 21 July 2010 at 6:07 AM