Making Sprouted Whole Wheat Flour
Posted on May 26 in bakingby NikaPrint
I grew up eating rather dense loaves of homemade whole wheat bread that my mom made for us with love. It was the 1970s after all! I NEVER feed my family white bread (pure sugar bombs, straight into the blood) and always brown bread, preferably with flax added.
I make our own bread when I have the time and I have usually used King Arthur whole wheat bread flour and also whole wheat pastry flour.
If your a foodie of any sort you likely do these things too, not hard to do.
The thing is, these are STILL a problem with these “healthy breads” and I didn’t even realize or, put better, know it until very recently.
It all comes down to the grain and the obvious fact that we humans are NOT ruminants and do not have the 4 stomachs (rumens) necessary for the proper digestion of grains.
Grains are seeds of grasses and they are the genetic carrier that is tasked with getting the genetic legacy from one growing season to the next. The grain must be able to foster growth, rapid growth, once the correct conditions have been met. The grain is exquisitely evolved to jump into action. Upon sprouting, various grain components are acted upon by enzymes to change from one form to another.
One of those things is called phytic acid, found in all parts of the grain plant but especially in the bran (there are three parts to grain: bran, endosperm, and germ).
The problem with phytic acid, as found in the unsprouted grain, is that it is like a sponge (a chelator) of critically important minerals such as calcium, zinc, magnesium and iron. It also sucks up niacin (a B vitamin). Heating can knock down this activity slightly but industrial bakers side step this issue by doping these minerals and vitamins, in synthetic form, back into the bread but this doesnt mean that that whole grain bread you are eating isnt still robbing you of needed minerals and vitamins. The “enrichment” that the bread companies do is mostly legal CYA action so that we dont sue them for pellagra.
This process takes a little of time but it is WELL worth it. I didnt shoot the first bread I made with this (was night time and the family ate the bread before morning) but I can tell you that the bread was VERY different from other whole wheat breads I have made. The sprouting process makes the grain sweeter and the bread had more loft than other loaves I have made.
I hope you will give this a try soon!
How to make sprouted whole wheat flour
Step 1
Soak wheat berries at room temperature overnight. Rinse a couple of times and then drain. Put into a drainable container (mason jar, bean sprouter, etc) and keep at room temperature until the smallest of sprouts, say about 3 mms, have formed.
Step 2
Spread the wet sprouted wheat berries out onto a dehydrator tray with a teflex sheet. Dry overnight at the lowest heat setting (95 F), until dry.
Step 3
Decant dried berries and use to make flour or freeze immediately.
Step 4
Add no more than 2 cups of dried berries to the smaller dry container for your Vita-Mix. Read and follow the directions for grinding flour. Essentially, you turn it on to high for no more than 1 minute. It comes out beautifully!
Step 5
Either use your freshly ground flour or freeze it, it can go rancid quickly.
Let me know if you try this or if you have other ways of doing this!
Vita-Mix blender
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28 Comments
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[...] couple of posts ago, I showed you how easy it is to make sprouted whole wheat flour. In that post, Making Sprouted Whole Wheat Flour, I talked at length on the reasons for sprouting your grains so I wont delve into that [...]
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[...] I had made (see this post for information on making your own sprouted whole wheat flour “Making Sprouted Whole Wheat Flour” and this post on how to make lasagna pasta out of it “Homemade Sprouted Whole Wheat [...]
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[...] It would be better for us if the berries had been pre-sprouted (like you see in this post – Making Sprouted Whole Wheat Flour) but I went ahead with unsprouted ones. Sprouting substantially inactivated phytic acid in the [...]
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Because of the phytic acid I had completely removed grains from my diet. Logically I knew there was good to grains in a diet, phytic acid was a huge roadblock though, (as well as the glycemic index).
Just last week I sprouted my first batch of kamut and dried it in my oven. I actually soaked my kamut overnight in water and the next morning rinsed it in a wire collander and covered loosely with a kitchen towel, (repeated the rinsing and covering several times for the next day and a half).
Drying the grain in the oven was a bit of a pain, but will be so much easier once I get my dehydrator which is on order. After they were completely dried I ground them in my whispermill. First batch went off without a hitch and I’m sprouting my second batch right now.
One thing I noticed is that the pancakes we had with the sprouted grain were SO filling, my husband even commented that they were delish and satisfying.
Thank you for sharing your process, very nice tutorial!
Julie,
Thanks for sharing your experience! So glad to know that you are able to re-introduce grains that have less phytic acid.
Did you have a specific reaction or condition that lead you to an understanding of the phytic acid connection?
I recently began using a bread machine and would love to make my own sprouted whole wheat flour. I don’t have a dehydrator. What’s the process for drying the berries without one?
Nika,
I don’t have any medical conditions presently, thankfully. I am however, a bit of a nutrition geek & learned much about grains through the Weston Price Foundation, Nourishing Traditions, Maker’s Diet, etc.
Amy,
I dried my grains in the oven on cookie sheet. You just want it warm enough to dry, (less than 150 degrees fahrenheit) and also keep the oven cracked open a bit so moisture can escape. Worth the work in my opinion.
What a wonderful post! Thanks for such great info and in such beautiful detail. Sprouted grains are excellent for the livestock as well, and have so much more nutritional value. Ruminants are actually not designed to properly digest grain either!
Tracy: You are so right!
We have to watch our goats for bloat and have to make sure to have their hay and grain rations balanced right (along with as many trees as we can give them)
They would prefer to eat bushes, trees, and anything from my garden!
I am starting to soak certain grains that we eat at home, but I don’t have a dehydrator or grain mill. I saw Julie’s advice for drying in the oven, but will I be able to grind the wheat berries in my MagiMix? So far the raw-est baking I’ve done is flaxseed crackers – I left the dough overnight (not a yeast dough) and cooked them at a low heat, but nowhere near as low as a dehydrator. I would love to make my own flour. Would you use this flour in any recipe that calls for flour? Thanks for any advice!
I dont know if that food processor will grind grain (have not tried it on my cuisinart). When I googled, I didnt get a clear answer very quickly.
You can use this flour in any recipe that calls for whole wheat flour. It should be delish!
Hey there. I just add the cooked, sprouted, berries to the blender and use the same amount as I would flour. I add the rest of the ingredients and have made carob cake, nutmeg and cinnamon cake and carrot cake. No yeast used at all, just a teaspoon of baking soda. I actually used a boiled egg instead of a raw one since I didn’t want a liquidy dough. DELICIOUS! Now I am just looking to see if a food processor will be faster to grind the berries cause they take about 3 minute to grind in the blender. You can heard them pop when they are being ground.
Hi Nika,
So I’m intrigued, but don’t quite get the story. By letting the grains sprout before grinding them for flour, the grain is easier to digest?
And you say the bread you made this one time was noticeably lighter, is it for sure the result of using this sprouting-drying-grinding technique?
Alanna: Yep, the sprouting starts the metabolic process inside the seed and causes a shift in the biochemistry. This results in the “inactivation” of the phytic acid (I dont know what %) to levels that do not rob you of nutrients and releases B vitamins to be used by your system.
The starches also change, leading to the sweeter nature of the flour. I have not made bread number two, but will soon. I might be able to say then if its some what reproducible tho I will not use the same recipe I used last time (want to try a new one).
Does that answer your questions? Hope so but just let me know!
I came here from your homeschool blog. Is that over and you are just doing food now?
Sprouted wheat flour… Yay.
Ms.Mama: Its not over but the answer is complicated! I have 5 different blogs, including the homeschooling blog. On some level, I became less than interested in talking about the daily life of my kids (confidentiality) but that doesnt mean I might not pick up the homeschooling thread again!
Thnx for asking!
I make my own sprouted grain flours, too. Most often I use spelt or kamut. My dehydrator is not nearly as nice as yours – speaking of which, what type is yours? I like how the screens bend so you can get the berries off the tray well. I have to use a pillowcase to catch my berries coming off the tray – the tray is that big and does not bend!
Other than that, my process is very similar to yours!
I am curious where to find more information on ruminant animals (such as goats) needed sprouted/soaked grains? I thought because they had more stomachs, that they could handle the grains, where we cannot. Thanks if you can direct me!
Wardeh: You have to be really careful with ruminants about changing their diet. I will look into the sprouting for goats, have to be REALLY careful to not get ANY mold -> bloat -> you do NOT wanna go there.
I have an Excalibur dehydrator (see this link – am not an affiliate so am not pushing it for $$) – http://www.excaliburdehydrator.com/
the white mesh you see lifts off (easy for cleaning)
I use the excalibur for making yogurt and raising bread and all sorts of things! – VERY worth the cost (I have the 9 tray = $200)
Hi,
Thanks for this information. I would like to start doing all of this but I have a couple of questions:
-Will any dehydrator work to dry the berries? I have just a basic round dehydrator with the stackable trays…I don’t think it’s teflex. My oven does not get below 170.
-Do you have any suggestions on the best place to buy the berries? I’m looking for quality and cost is also a consideration since the whole reason I’m doing this at home is because I can’t afford to pay $3.50 per pound for sprouted whole wheat flour.
Thanks for your time!
Michelle,
I only have this one kind of dehydrator so I have not tried any other. I am guessing that you can use parchment paper to keep the grains from falling through! My oven also doesnt go very low.
Thats expensive! How about 64 cents per pound for ORGANIC hard White winter wheat berries or “naturally grown” (not sure what that means – perhaps organic but not certified) at 32 cents/pound?
Organic hard red berries for 52 cents/pound
Try this link – http://www.oklahomafood.coop/shop/category_list_products.php?category_id=3&subcategory_id=13
Hope this helps!
this is my first time so i am not sure i did it right. after the overnight soak and i rinsed the grain i put everything in a jar…lid on right? after 2 days i noticed few berry were starting to sprout but in the jar i noticed a foam and it started to smell really bad.
i am ready to restart…what am i doing wrong?
Excellent that you were attuned to the smell, its important. You need to rinse it every day with some room temp (not hot, not cold) fresh water and also drain ti really well. Try also to not fill the jar so much that the grains have no room to move around a bit, so air can move around. The lid needs to be air permeable – some cheese cloth and a rubber band works great!
let me know if you have any other questions, want you to be successful!
I’m wondering why the sprouted grain must be dehydrated on the lowest setting, since it will be baked at 350 in the oven when making bread.
Some people do not use this to make cooked bread.. they might use it in raw cuisine recipes that require no temps above 118 F
If I make the sprouted flour like this can I then make bread without using yeast? If so do you know a recipe? So far I have just been using the sprouted wheat which is not dehydrated and making the bread out of that but I find it almost imposible to grind in the food processor, any ideas gay
Gay,
The sprouting would not have an impact on leavening during bread making – it is not a leavening “agent” so if you want to make bread that is leavened – you will need to add yeast. my solution to the gummy nature of wet wheat berries is to dehydrate them then they grind very easily and can be stored. If you grind wet sprouted berries you have to use them pretty much right away (perhaps you could freeze the dough – do not know).. Since I have not had to grind the wet berries I have not found a solution to that problem, sorry!
Another way to reduce phytates is to use a sourdough starter. Many good books on the subject, such as “Wild Bread” by Lisa Rayner; and Ed Wood’s books, such as “Classic Sourdoughs”.
Yep, I love making wild sourdough. sprouted whole wheat flour is important in the raw food world as one can then use this unheated phytate reduced flour in uncooked applications although I have not made those sorts of breads before.
Here is an example: http://www.thedailyrawcafe.com/2007/11/essence-grain.html