Look Mom & Dad, it's sprouted flour!
I picked up a kilo of sprouted universal (all purpose; AP) wheat flour today! Wow! ...in a normal supermarket! I'm so excited! Why? As I get older, I eat less, I want more nutrition from my food ingredients, sprouted flour could be an option. Being curious, I'm investigating.
Let me back up a little. I live just outside of Linz, Austria. Our flour normally comes in kilo size paper bags and there are several brands to choose from. One popular brand is Fini's Feinstes (or Fini's Finest). I had noticed there was a "New" red label in the corner. I grabbed my w700 bread flour and some whole spelt flour and started rolling the packages over looking for something more than w480 which is AP. Proteins are listed and what is this new one? With Keimkraft..... keimkraft... sprouts! I grabbed a package and hurried home to investigate. Here is the site in English. I have never seen sprouted flour here before other than malt.
There are pictures of the sprouts at the site, 10 of them and they make up 10% of the flour. That was a little bit of a let down, I was hoping for 100% sprouted flour. Barley is not included which is the known "malt" grain.
So now I'm wondering...why only 10%? Enzyme action? Dan mentions 5% malt maximum..... (my brain gears are turning remembering malt sprouts have long tails). In my web searches I ran into interesting definitions, sprouts vs germination. The words are often used interchangeably but germination happens first and then the sprout appears and grows. What I'm trying to understand is .... as the sprout gets longer or older with time, do the enzymes get stronger and concentrated? Are freshly germinated seeds milder but still as nutritious as older sprouts? The sprouts are stopped at a particular stage, dried, and milled into flour. Which stage? (If I were to germinate my own and stop the process to dry them, when is the best time to catch the sprouts before they interfere with my dough?)
Will the flour behave itself when I make bread? Protein is 11.9 not bad...
Hi Mini. I'm not sure how the sprout is treated when it is going to be turned into flour, but when I sprout wheat berries for bread, I'm very carefully to either grind or refrigerator when the sprout is just barely beginning to show.
According to Laurel's Bread book:
--Pamela
That's good information! Thanks again -- Mini :)
I hope it's not too rude of me to ask my own question here, Mini-Oven and Pamela! If it is I apologize. I'm really just wondering what kind of results you've had with the bread you've made from sprouted flour.
I've only tried sprouted flour bread purchased from a grocery store (rather expensive, but like you, Mini-Oven, I'd heard it was higher nutrition). Both times, though, the sprouted grains in the bread were crunchy. Not in a pleasant way. On one bite I thought I might have cracked a tooth -- it was exactly like eating good tasting bread with small peas of gravel in it. After the first loaf I thought I might have been unlucky to get bread from a bad batch. After the second loaf I abandoned sprouted bread entirely.
Just curious how your bread compares -- a bit crunchy, not at all, or quite? I assume even though it's sprouted you still use a soaker?
Karen
Hi Karen. I make sprouted wheat bread; it isn't crunchy at all. The recipe is posted here:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/11696/spouted-wheat-bread
--Pamela
loaf was also not hard and crunchy inside the loaf, on the crust it was a little chewy but not gravel like. i am eager to try sprout flour though. It is a smooth flour.
Mini
All righty then -- you've all given me the confidence to try it out! Thanks. :)
Karen
Sprouted wheat bread and bread made from sprouted wheat flour are two entirely different things. Sprouted wheat bread has the sprouted grains in it. Sprouted flour is made from the sprouted grains that are then dried and ground into flour. There is more info on sprouted flours at www.organicwheatproducts.com and nutritional information as well.
I have made both whole wheat bread and rye bread with the sprouted flours and they both turned out wonderfully. I haven't had the time to do sourdough breads yet but the straight dough breads rise to over five inches in height and have a wonderful texture. The only difference that I see is that the breads made with sprouted flours are a bit less sweet then those that I have made with unsprouted flours. I use raw honey in my breads as a sweetener
Monstergirl- I am so glad that you like the flour!
www.organicwheatproducts.com