Baking with Sprouted Grain

I've been grinding my own flour for over a decade now and have always enjoyed the flavor it gave to my baking.  Then I started learning about the nutritional value of sprouting the grain first.  I'm not a nutritionist and I'm not a doctor so I don't know all the ins and outs of it but after speaking with an ND I came to the conclusion it was well worth the effort to do it.

It seems that the action of the grain sprouting makes it easier for our bodies to digest to the degree that even those with sensitivities to specific grains can often eat them if they were sprouted first!  It also makes it possible for your body to get twice the nutrition from the grain.  TWICE the nutrition.  I'm going to say that's worth the little bit of extra effort.  Correct me if I'm wrong but the entire reason we eat is to give the needed nutrition to our bodies so that we can be healthy and live productive lives.  So if I find a method that gives my children twice the nutrition and makes it easier to digest so that they might not develop sensitivities to specific foods, I'm going to do it.

So here's the way I do it:  First I take a 1/2 gallon jar.  Mine are Ball Wide Mouths.  Usually I put four cups of grain into each jar and then fill it with water and soak over night (this time I only used three cups of grain as I didn't want as much flour as normal).  One jar is Kamut and the other is Spelt. I also use Wheat, mix and match so that we're not always having the same thing.

I use reverse osmosis water, you'll use whatever purest water you have available to you.  I leave it just like that on the counter over night.  The caps you see on the jars have holes in the tops which comes in handy in the morning when I drain the water out.  In the morning you'll find your grain all soaked and ready for it's first rinse.  I rinse my grain morning and night until they sprout.  My grain has always sprouted very quickly.

The water is drained out, the grain has been rinsed and now I have it set on the sink so any water in there can get out.  I also turn the jars over and slap them to make sure nothing is sticking.  My grain sprouted the first day after soaking for the night.  You don't need real long sprouts all that needs to happen is a little white sprout on the end.

Can you see the little white sprouts on the end of each grain?  If you wait until it starts to look like a tail, it just makes grinding it harder.  The first time I sprouted my grain I wanted to make sure it was sprouted Dog Gone It and I had long tails.  Lets just say my grinder didn't appreciate it.

So now the grain is put on the trays of the dehydrator.  If you don't have a dehydrator you could use your oven.  I set my dial to 105 F (41 C).  Once the grain is dry it's ready to grind.

I use a Whisper Mill which is supposedly quiet.  Wow, if that is quiet I don't want to hear a loud one.  If you don't have a mill you can use a coffee grinder, you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars to do it.  My mill was a gift or else I probably wouldn't have been able to afford it.

Now that you have flour it's time to bake.  You'll find the flavor fuller, nutty almost.  It's really good.

So here's what I made this morning:

As my daughter was recently diagnosed as having a yeast infection in her small intestine I made breads without yeast (she's on a restricted diet until the infection is fixed).  We have bread sticks, bread and flatbread.  As is rather painfully obvious I cook for taste and nutrition not for presentation.  I've never been good at making my food pretty.

Mmmmm looking forward to trying it.  Hope you have success with your sprouting, grinding and baking too!

Learning to Homestead out here In The Middle of NoWhere!