Sprouted Wheat Berry Sourdough Loaf With Maple Beer Food

SPROUTED WHEAT BERRY SOURDOUGH LOAF WITH MAPLE & BEER

Steps:

• Sprouting Instructions
• Soak wheat berries in water, covered, for 6-12 hours.
• Drain the water and rinse the berries. If you have a sprouting lid and jar, rest the jar inverted at an angle in a bowl for drainage. If you do not have a sprouting lid, pour the berries into a colander for draining and rinsing, and then rest the colander in a bowl and cover it with a towel or loosely with plastic. The berries should be at room temperature and in a relatively dark place.
• Repeat the rinsing and draining every 8-12 hours until little sprouts emerge from the berries. Let the spouts grow to between 1/8 and 1/4 inch. The sprouts will be of different length, so go for a loose average. The entire process should take 24-48 hours from the start of the soak.
• Store the sprouted berries in your refrigerator, drained, for up to 5 days. If they get white fuzz in that time, it is because they are thirsty and growing mini shoots to extract moisture from the air. This isn't mold. Make sure you smell the wheat berries early in the process to get a sense of what fresh smells like.
• Dough Instructions
• Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and let the dough rest for an hour.
• Do a series of 4-6 stretch and folds at 20-30 minute intervals. I did 4 every 20 minutes. Each stretch and fold consisted of dipping my dough scraper in water, separating the dough from one side of the bowl, lifting it up and over onto the other side using the scraper and my other hand when needed. I did four sides around the bowl twice.
• Cover and bulk ferment an additional 6-10 hours depending on your room temp. That is 8-12 hours total since mixing up the dough. My dough went 9.5 hours at about 69 F.
• Scrape the dough out of the bowl onto a well-floured counter. Gently spread the dough into a rectangle. Fold the dough in thirds and then in half. See this Breadtopia video if you need more details on pre-shaping.
• Let the dough rest for 15 minutes while you wash the dough bowl and prep your proofing basket. There are many ways to prep a proofing basket. I sprinkled bran flakes onto a previously floured tea towel laid flat on the counter.
• Flour your hands and the dough, flip the dough, tuck under the edges while rotating it to create a boule shape.
• Put your boule in the basket, seam side down and cover. I placed the boule onto the towel, then lifted it into the basket.
• Put the basket in the refrigerator for about 8 hours (up to 16) OR leave the basket at room temperature for about 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven and your baking vessel to 500 F for thirty minutes before the proofing time is up.
• Flour your hand and flip the dough out of the basket, and place it into the hot baking vessel. Score it with a lame or allow the existing seams to open up.
• Bake until the internal temp is around 205 F.
• 30 minutes at 500 degrees, lid on.
• 10 minutes at 450 degrees, lid off.

SPROUTED WHEAT SOURDOUGH BREAD

Steps:

• Mix all of the ingredients together until everything is incorporated. Sprouted flour has a lot of enzymatic activity, so a long autolyse is not advised, but mixing the flour and water first and letting it sit for 20-30 minutes is okay.
• After mixing, cover your dough and let it rest for about 15 minutes, then hand-mix it Rubaud style for a minute or two, to boost the gluten development.
• For the next few hours, perform four rounds of coil folding of the dough (see video), roughly every 30 minutes.
• When the dough has close to doubled, and has bubbles on the surface (see gallery), scrape it out of your bowl onto a floured countertop and preshape it into a boule.
• Cover the dough with an upside-down bowl, plastic wrap or damp towel, and let it rest about 30 minutes.
• The second video in this recipe blog depicts the shaping technique described below. Sprinkle the top of the rested dough with flour and flip it over. Gently stretch it outward in all directions, then fold the top of the dough about 1/3 down. Now fold the sides inward one at a time. Cinch/fold the tube that is forming down again. Fold the sides inward again. Finally roll the tube onto any remaining dough and adjust to have the seam in complete contact with your countertop.
• Using your bench knife, pull the dough tube toward you while gently tugging the sides outward. Your final tube should be about 12 inches long.
• Place the dough in your floured proofing basket seam-side up, cover it, and let it proof at room temperature 30-90 minutes or in the refrigerator for 10-12 hours.
• Begin preheating the oven and oblong clay baker to 500F 30 minutes before baking.
• Flip the dough into the hot baker and score the top. I wanted to do an intricate score, so I flipped the dough onto parchment paper, brushed off the excess flour, scored the dough, and lifted the paper/dough into the base of the baker.
• Cover the baker and bake at:
• 500F for 20 minutes, cover on
• 450F for 7 minutes, cover on
• 450F for 7+ minutes, cover off
• Final internal temperature of the bread should be around 205F.

SPROUTED BREAD

Steps:

• Two to three days before baking, soak the wheat berries in a container of cold water for 12 to 24 hours at room temperature.
• Drain them, return them to the container, cover with plastic wrap, and leave on the kitchen counter. Wait 2 to 3 days until the grains begin to sprout, rinsing and draining them once or twice so they are always damp. As soon as little tails appear, the wheat berries have sprouted and are ready. You can store them in the fridge until you are ready to make the dough.
• In a food processor, work the sprouted wheat berries into a pulp. If the processor starts to generate heat, give it a break before continuing.
• Combine the water with the almond milk. (You want the liquid to be room temperature, so if the almond milk was refrigerated, use boiling water.).
• Using the dough hook of an electric mixer, combine the sprout pulp, ALL of the vital wheat gluten, salt, yeast, honey, and half of the liquid. Mix on slow speed for 1 minute to bring the ingredients together into a ball, adding additional water as needed. Continue mixing 2 to 3 minutes, occasionally scraping down the bowl. The dough should form a sticky ball.
• Mist a work surface with a spray of water. Place the dough on the surface and knead with wet hands for 1 to 2 minutes. Although the dough will be sticky on the surface, it should have the strength and feel of normal bread dough. Form the dough into a ball and let it rest on the work surface for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, lightly oil a bowl.
• Resume kneading the dough for 1 minute with wet hands to strengthen it. The dough should have strength yet still feel soft, supple, and very tacky. Form the dough into a ball and transfer it to the bowl, rolling to coat with oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let it rise at room temperature for 45 to 60 minutes or until it is about 1 1/2 times its original size.
• Line a loaf pan with foil (not necessary, but makes for an easier cleanup!), and / or spray with nonstick spray. Form the dough into a loaf shape and place it in the pan. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature for 45 to 60 minutes or until it is about 1 1/2 times its original size.
• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. When you put the loaf in the oven, turn down the heat to 350 degrees. Bake for 20 minutes, rotate the loaf, and then bake for another 30 minutes, until the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when it is tapped.
• Let cool on a wire rack for at least one hour before slicing.

SPROUTED WHEAT BERRY BREAD

Steps:

• Sprinkle the yeast over 1 cup lukewarm water in a large mixing bowl and let sit for 5 minutes. Stir to dissolve yeast. Add the remaining water, salt, honey and oil. Mix well.
• Stir in white flour and beat dough by hand or with a dough hook in an electric mixer until smooth. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
• Stir in the wheat berry sprouts and just enough whole wheat flour to make a soft, sticky dough. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead, with more flour if necessary, until smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes.
• Place in a greased bowl, turning to grease to of dough; cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about 60 minutes.
• Grease 2 9x5-inch loaf pans. Turn dough onto lightly floured board and knead briefly.
• Divide in 2, shape into loaves and place in pans. Cover and let rise again in a warm place until doubled in size, about 45 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375°F
• Bake loaves 25 minutes. Lower oven heat to 300*F. and bake 35 more minutes, or until bottom of loaf sounds hollow when turned out and tapped. Cool on wire rack. Enjoy!