Wheat

by Cat, Nov 2007; (Photo, right, from Wikimedia Commons) This has a lot in common with Sprouting Grains, Legumes, Nuts & Seeds (for eating); need to simplify or combine them.

NOTE: Sprouted grain flours are great for cookies, cakes, pie crusts, quick breads (soda-risen) and pasta, but they don’t work as well for yeast-risen breads and pastries, because sprouting the grain greatly reduces the amount of gluten in the grain. For yeast-risen products, it is better to use fermented grain (sourdough) which provides its own yeast and contains sufficient gluten to support the rise.

Why soak or sprout grains or flour? Soaking any seed (whole or chopped, ground, or rolled), including grains, begins the processes of germination, which has major benefits for the human diet. Sprouting seeds  completes the process of germination, which is the most healthful way to consume the seed, as it is no longer a seed but rather a vegetable plant. See Intro: Soaking/Sprouting Grains, Legumes, Nuts & Seeds or Rebuild rom Depression (3) for more on these benefits.

You can either soak/sprout the grains before grinding into flour, or soak the flour after grinding.  Both methods are described below.

• See also: 1. Grains, Flours & Starches Menu; 2. Foods (About) menu; 3. Toxic Phytates & Lectins in Grains, Legumes, Nuts & Seeds, and How to Avoid Them; 4.Grains: Grinding (for flour) & Flaking/Rolling (for porridge); 5. Plain Porridge
• Includes: Soaking 1. Whole grain berries; 2. Grains (as Flour) After Grinding; 3. Grains After Rolling (to make porridge); and Sprouting 4. Grains Before Grinding/Rolling (to make flour/porridge), 5. Comparison of sprouted wheat vs spelt; 

Spelt vs Wheat:

See: Spelt vs Wheat in Baked Goods & Pasta

Soaking Grains:

Soaking Whole Grain Berries/Groats

I’m not sure why you would want to soak whole berries, as they are normally soaked after grinding to flour or rolling to flakes (see below). But here’s the method, which is similar to that for soaking legumes.

1. Place berries in a mason jar, and cover with warm, filtered water, keeping track of how much you add..
2. Stir in acidic medium: 1 Tbsp buttermilk, yogurt, liquid whey, or lemon juice, per cup of water needed to cover grains in the jar.
3. Screw on lid and cover with a towel (for darkness), and let rest on counter 8 hours or over night.
4. Drain berries, then rinse them if desired.
5. At this point you can dry them: arrange in a single layer on a stainless steel baking sheet; place in your oven at its lowest setting (no more than 150°), or if you have a pilot-lit oven, leave oven off. Let dry  for 12 – 24 hours.
6. Or you can toast them in a dry cast iron skillet for a few minutes.

Soaking Rolled/Cracked Grains for Porridge

This method is for rolled or cracked oats, but can also be applied to other grains such as barley, kamut, spelt, or rye (may need longer soaking time, and more water), teff and amaranth (up to 24 hour soaking time may be required).

Refer to Granola & Meusli and Plain Porridge for instructions.

Grits (from corn) can also be soaked, but use 1 cup limewater instead of filtered water (1).   

Soaking Grains (as Flour) after Grinding

This method, which involves light fermentation, does a better job of breaking down the phytates, than soaking before grinding, but it is not as effective as sprouting for deactivating other anti-nutrients such as WGA (wheat germ agglutinin). Lacto-fermentation, along with grinding to increase exposed surface area, increases enzyme content, especially phytase enzyme, for more complete degredation of the mineral-binding phytates. Fermentation also increases lysine content (an amino acid mostly lacking in unsprouted grains).

Using soaked flour in recipes requires a bit of modification to the recipe.  And not every recipe can be converted to a soaked-flour version; for example, biscotti, because the original recipe contains no moisture.  However, you could soak and then dry the flour (in a warm, turned-off oven or dehydrator).

Pre-soaked grain flours work best with non-yeast dough such as quick breads (leavened with baking soda/powder), cookies, pie crusts, etc. I do not recommend pre-soaking the flour for yeast-risen breads (including sourdough).

NOTE about liming or nixtamilization of corn flour: For maximum nutrition and absorbability, corn flour (cornmeal) should be soaked in lime water for at least 7 hours, prior to doing an acidic presoak. See Lime water (for soaking cornmeal to make masa). Or use Masa harina, which is corn flour made from corn kernels that are soaked in lime water prior to grinding to flour.

Method for breads and treats

1. Grind grain such as wheat berries or use the freshest whole grain flour you can find and place in a bowl.

2. Add acidic medium; the amount of liquid depends on the amount of flour. The acidic medium could be:

• • real buttermilk (with live cultures),
  • plain unsweetened yogurt (with live cultures),
  • a mixture of 1 Tbsp buttermilk or yogurt per cup of water or juice, or
  • a mixture of 1 Tbsp whey (or lemon juice) per cup of water or juice.

3. Stir until thoroughly blended; for some recipes, it will form a ball; for others it will be soft and sticky.  The ratio of whole grain to acidic liquid depends on the recipe:

• • Porridge requires roughly equal parts acidic liquid and grain.
  • Yeast bread requires about 1 cup acidic liquid per 4 cups flour, and will form a ball. However, if using the sponge method, only half the flour is added in the sponge stage, for a soft and sticky mixture; the remaining flour is added later.
  • Quick breads such as banana bread or muffins require about 2 cups of acidic liquid per 3 cups of flour; the result will be soft and sticky.
  • Cookies and pie crusts require about 2/3 cup acidic liquid per cup flour, typically also mixed with the butter, then soaked overnight.

4. Cover bowl with a damp cloth and allow to sit in a warm place 12-24 hours.  However, some sponges, such as for focaccia, the sponge is kept in the refrigerator overnight.

5. Proceed with recipe, but remember you have already used some of the liquid in your recipe, so you may not need to add more.  For example, if you are making a quick bread that requires 3 cups of liquid, you have already used 2 cups, so you will only need to add 1 additional cup.

Converting recipes to use soaked flour

Refer to the pdf documents below (these have been compressed for smaller file size; if you have difficulty with these files, contact me and I’ll send you the full 2.5 MB files):

• Converting Quick Bread Recipe to Soaked Flour (cookies, muffins, etc.) – compressed
  
• Converting Yeast-Risen Recipe to Soaked Flour – compressed

(filed RECIPES2>SOAK FLOUR CONVERSION)

Sprouting Grains

NOTE: Sprouted grain flours are great for cookies, cakes, pie crusts, quick breads (soda-risen) and pasta, but they don’t work as well for yeast-risen breads and pastries, because sprouting the grain greatly reduces the amount of gluten in the grain.

For yeast-risen products, it is better to use fermented grain (sourdough) which provides its own yeast and contains sufficient gluten to support the rise.

Before Grinding (to Make Flour)

The main purpose of this exercise is to neutralize enzyme inhibitors and increase vitamin content.  The benefit of this is two fold:

• Release the phytase enzyme to free the bound minerals from the phytic acid; and
• Pre-digest the complex grain starch into vegetable starch, and complex proteins (such as gluten) into peptides and amino acids, which are far more digestible by humans.
• Side benefits include an increase in vitamin C, folate and other vitamin content.

While the initial soak of the grain loses some of the mineral content into the soaking water, the process of germination more than makes up for the loss.

You can purchase sprouted grain flour from Summer’s Sprouted Grain Co. (Creating Heaven website), or you can sprout and grind your own.  Sprouted grain flours do not work so well with yeast-risen breads, unless you add back some of the gluten (available from Bob’s Red Mill), as much of the original gluten was broken down by the sprouting process.

Question: How much whole grain is required to make a cup of flour? I don’t yet know the answer, as I’ve not sprouted grain to make flour – I buy it already sprouted and ground, or I presoak the flour (see above). However, you generally get more volume of flour than of the unsprouted grain, so I suspect this would also be true if the grain were sprouted.

 Soaking/Sprouting Method for Grains

1. Place whole grain (such as wheat berries) in a bowl, and cover with warm water (113 – 131° F).  Allow to soak 24 hours (or overnight), in a warm spot. If using grains low in phytase enzyme, such as oats, first grind a few wheat berries and add to the grain to be sprouted.  The wheat berries are high in phytase enzyme, which will work not only on the wheat phytates, but also on the oat.  Grinding the berries first increases the surface area and thus also the amount of available phytase.
2. n the morning, strain the water, rinse and strain again.
3. Place (after rinsing) in a sprouting environment. This could be adding fresh warm water to cover the grain, cover with a lid, and set in warm place for another 24 hours.  Test grains; they should be soft to the touch.  If still hard when pinched, drain off the water and repeat soaking process with fresh warm water for 24 hours.
4. When the berries are soft when pinched, spread them out on a baking sheet and dry in a food dehydrator or an oven (in Off position) with the light turned on.  When throughly dry – which can take more than 24 hours in the dehydrator, you can grind into flour.  If they are not thoroughly dry, they will not be easy to grind and will gum-up your mill. Never heat above 150 degrees, to avoid denaturing (deactivating) the enzymes.
5. Alternately, for items such as Essene bread or crackers, you can process the rinsed, damp grains in a food processor with sea salt, without drying first.

Sprouted Wheat Flour vs Sprouted Spelt Flour for Cookies, Cakes, Pie Crusts, Quick Breads and Pasta

See also: Spelt vs Wheat in Baked Goods & Pasta

NOTE: Sprouted grain flours are great for cookies, cakes, pie crusts, quick breads (soda-risen) and pasta, but they don’t work as well for yeast-risen breads and pastries, because sprouting the grain greatly reduces the amount of gluten in the grain. For yeast-risen products, it is better to use fermented grain (sourdough) which provides its own yeast and contains sufficient gluten to support the rise.

Spelt is a type of wheat, but is a much older grain, a close relative of wild wheat.  Modern wheat is a hybrid plant, bred to produce higher levels of carbohydrate and/or protein than spelt. Spelt is nearly 78% carbs (fiber and starch), 6% fats and 16% protein (5); modern wheat is nearly 85% starch, 5% fats and 15% protein (5).  Modern wheat has higher levels of gluten, allowing the end product to be lighter and fluffier.

The following recommendations apply to any recipe calling for 1 to 3 cups flour:

• Wheat is a drier flour than spelt.  When converting a spelt recipe to wheat, start out with about ¼ cup less of the sprouted wheat flour.  If more flour is needed, add it by tablespoonful, and let the dough rest a minutes to allow the flour to absorb moisture before deciding if more flour is needed.  Also, spelt is slightly sweeter than wheat, so you may wish to adjust the recipe accordingly.
• Both the wheat (made from red or soft wheat) and spelt flours produce a very brown product.  Summer’s Sprouted Grains (6) suggests for recipes such as pasta where you want a lighter product, replace ¼ – ½ cup of sprouted flour with equivalent amount of tapioca flour.

References:

1. Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon and Mary G. Enig
2. Creating Heaven website (creatingheaven.net/eeproducts/eesfc/)
3. Rebuild From Depression website (rebuild-from-depression.com/simplechange/simplechange/grains-legumes-nuts-seeds.html)
4. Whole Health Source website: (wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2010/05/traditional-preparation-methods-improve.html)
5. Nutrition data on spelt: nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/10355/2; and on whole wheat: nutritiondata.self.com/facts/cereal-grains-and-pasta/5744/2
6. creatingheaven.net/eeproducts/eesfc/about_sprouted.html#spelt