Hello all,

I just discovered this website while looking for some help online on possible explanations for the problems I have with this loaf I just baked. This is the situation:<br>

I sprouted my own wheat a couple of days ago because I wanted to try and make bread out of sprouted wheat to give that a try. The sprouting process went fine, as far as I can tell, with the wheat developing just a little bit of a tangy smell to it, which I think is a natural result of the sprouting process (if not, please feel free to correct me on this one).

Then, I ground the wheat with my food processor until I got a thick moist pulp and this is the recipe I followed to make the bread:

3 cups sprouted wheat berries
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons vital wheat gluten
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons honey
1/2 cup water, at room temperature

I dissolved the honey in the water and added the yeast and let it proof for about 5 or 8 minutes, then added this mixture to the ground wheat along with the vital gluten. I kneaded the dough for about 3 minutes and let it rest to rise for 90 minutes. It more than doubled its size (and I think this may have been the cause of the first problem with the bread), then took the dough out, kneaded it for another minute or so and transferred it to a baking pan and put it on my crockpot on the lowest setting for 8 hours. Now as you can see from the attached image, the bread came out sunken in the middle (I think the raising time should have been shorter), and I would like to know how to avoid this.

The biggest problem I have with this bread, however, is the taste. I have never eaten bread made with sprouted grains before, so I have no parameters to compare the taste of my bread, but it came out with an almost acid aftertaste. That is, upon first biting into it you don't notice anything particular, but as soon as you start chewing on it and it starts getting moist in your mouth, there is a very strong taste, almost like acid stale bread, but not quite that strong. Is this how this particular bread is supposed to taste, and if not, what could be causing this taste? Too much honey, perhaps?

Any help or comments are more than welcome. I really want to start making sprouted-wheat bread on a regular basis, so any help I can get to ensure success is more than appreciated.

Alex