Sprouted Whole Wheat Flour Bread - Pure and Simple!

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I've been experimenting with using sprouted whole wheat flour in my cooking. Yesterday I made bread with it and the results are wonderful! Granted, sprouting, and then drying the wheat before grinding is a bit of a hassle, but I believe it's worth the trouble. The good news is, my husband loves it. The bad news is, my husband loves it. Hmmm.... What have I done???

I made enough for 2 loaves of bread, or in this case, 1 loaf of bread and 6 rather large buns. Here they are during the final rise:



Here they are just out of the oven:



And here you can see what it looks like inside the loaf. If you click on the picture, you'll get a closer look at the inside texture of the bread. It is soft, and in my husband's words, "not as coarse" as normal whole wheat bread.



SPROUTED WHOLE WHEAT FLOUR BREAD

6 cups sprouted whole wheat flour
1 scant Tablespoon active dry yeast
2.5 cups very warm water (110 - 115 F)
1 Tablespoon unrefined salt ( used pink Himalayan )
1/4 cup unsulphured molasses
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

Put 1/2 cup of the very warm water into a small bowl and dissolve the yeast in it.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, salt, molasses, oil and the rest of the water. Add the water/yeast mixture.
Stir well to combine.
Turn onto lightly floured work surface (use more sprouted flour.) Knead well for 10 minutes, sprinkling bits of the flour under your dough if things get sticky.
Wash the bowl and dry. Oil the inside with more of the EVOO. Return dough to bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a damp towel and let rise, in a warm place, until doubled in size or to when if you poke it with your finger, the dough "sighs." Return it to the bowl for another 1/2 hour.
Divide the dough into two loaves, shape them and put them in 2 well-buttered medium-sized bread pans. (Or you can make buns, of course, or anything you want to!)
At this point, place the pans on top of your stove and set the oven at 350 F.
When the dough has raised until double, bake for 45 minutes (30 for buns) and then remove from the pans and cool on wire racks.

It is soft and very nice and made fabulous toast this morning, too!