is it possible to make sprouted whole wheat or spelt flour at home?

[bluebell]

i've been looking to find a place to buy sprouted flours in england but can't find anyone making it. so was wondering if i can make this at home? if so how do i make it? is sprouted flour the same as soaking the flour - does it get rid of the phytic acid and keep the goodness in the same way? just looking for more ways to make baked things, and would love to try using sprouted flours.

[WuWei]

I use Sue Gregg's blender batter method to make whole grain, soaked baking products, such as pancakes, etc. I just buy whatever whole grains I want to use, (we avoid wheat), and use the blender. I use the same process to make pizza dough, doughnuts, pretzels, muffins, banana bread, pasta, etc. She has several cookbooks available with the 'how to'. But, about everything is free on her website, if you read through it. http://www.suegregg.com/recipes/brea...erwafflesA.htm

I do find that homemade pasta is easier with sprouted flour than with the blender batter, since there is so much liquid. And I haven't been successful with making sandwich bread, only dinner rolls with the blender batter. I don't have an exact recipe, I just do the 1:1 grain to liquid ratio and add extra sprouted or freshly ground flour to make the dough the right texture.

I grind grains in my blender dry, but they do heat up a bit. So, I believe the (expensive) sprouted flour is probably easiest and most nutritious, maybe.

Here are a bunch of her recipes: http://www.suegregg.com/teaching/Who...ingLessons.htm


Pat

[AJP]

Yes! Sprouted wheat and rye flours are easy to make, I haven't had any luck with spelt (not sure why, it just has never sprouted well for me, gets funky and moldy first). You need a jar with a screen lid (sold as sprouting lids here in natural food stores) or a piece of cheesecloth held on with a rubber band. Fill it about 1/4 way with wheat kernels, fill the rest of the way with water and soak for about 12 hours. (The bigger the jar you have, the more you can make at once.) Then drain the water and leave the jar tilted on its side, rinsing at least twice per day, until little white tails appear from the kernels. With wheat, this usually takes less than 24 hours at my house, cooler places probably longer. When most of the kernels have sprouted but the tails are not longer than about 1/2 cm., spread them in a single layer on a baking sheet or similar surface and dehydrate. If they sprout too long, it seems to convert too much of the starch for the resulting flour to bake anything like regular flour. For the drying, you can use a dehydrator or a warm oven (not warm enough to cook it) - I use the warming drawer in the bottom of my oven, used to just use the pilot light heat in my old oven. After they're fully dry (how long this takes depends on the method), grind into flour with whatever device is available to you.

Sprouting does get rid of most of the phytates, whether it's as much as soaking the flour seems up for debate (I've read sources that say it's less and some that say it's more). Sprouting apparently also increases the vitamin content, and some say it's also "more digestible", perhaps because the proteins and starches are changed somewhat during the sprouting process.

What kind of wheat to choose for sprouting depends on what you want to make with the flour, and is basically the same as choosing what non-sprouted wheat flour to use. Soft wheat is good for cookies, cakes and other pastry-type things that don't need much gluten to hold them together, hard wheat is good for breads. Sprouted spelt is good for everything, and I love it, but buy it since I haven't had luck making it.

[CrunchyChristianMama]

I haven't tried sprouting spelt yet, but my sister does on a regular basis. She soak the berries overnight and then in the morning puts them in a big mesh strainer and rinses them. Covers them with a wet towel and lets them sit. A couple times a day she will rinse them and rewet the towel. She does this until they sprout and has never had the issues with mold that are so common with spelt. She then dehydrates them, grinds them up, and makes her bread or whatever.

[nicole.schwartz]

This is a really interesting thread.

I just took the Essential Eating class and the instructor (Janie Quinn, author and organic chef) felt strongly that home sprouting was not effective.

Apparently, it is really difficult to know when a grain has sprouted and when you've drowned it. In class she explained that oversoaking producing what looks like a sprout, but it is actually the endosperm swelling through the bran coat from drowning the grain – not a sprout.

[Koalamom]

I am so going to try making some sprouted wheat flour. (and maybe some rye since I have like 80 lbs of it). I will let you all know how it goes!

[ParisApril]

I am going to try this and I was wondering how long does it take to dry the sprouts in an oven set to 170 degree F? How dry do they need to be to grind?