Sprouted Wheat Berry Sourdough Loaf with Maple & Beer

This is the comment thread for the Breadtopia blog post originally published here:

To leave a comment, click the Reply button below

If you do not see the "Reply" button, you will need to log in or register an account. Please click the blue "Log In" button in the upper right of the page. :arrow_upper_right:

Excellent looking bread. Pictures are informative. Good job overall. I have been baking with sprouted flours for a while but have not put the whole berries in bread except for a disastrous attempt using wet ground berries trying to follow a recipe by Peter Reinhart. It will be tried in the near future. The maple syrup and beer are a nice touch.
A couple notes on sprouting, I have better luck only soaking the berries only three or four hours before draining resulting a slightly quicker sprout and you can make your own sprouting lid using a piece of fiberglass screen material and a canning ring. This has been durable enough to last through multiple uses.

Stuart,

Thanks for the tip about faster sprouting with a shorter soak. I’ll try that soon. Also about the homemade strainer lids.

I wonder if I can find a screen with tiny enough holes to keep back Amaranth. I found it flowed thru or stuck to everything. Finally I just held it back with a spatula when rinsing and draining, then created a empty well in the center of the container and dipped a folded paper towel in there to soak up extra water. I probably should have googled a better strategy. It worked though. However, I’m all ears if you’ve got any tips!

I hope you enjoy the bread. I have to try baking with sprouted flour soon. Do you find it ferments faster than not sprouted?

-Melissa

I haven’t tried amaranth but it works with quinoa and millet. The screen was a scrap of what was marketed as pet proof that was used to replace one that our cat liked to hang on.

The sprouted flour does ferment faster due to rhe sugars being cut from the starch molecules by enzymes to start feeding the sprout. The bread also has a sweeter taste component. I usually don’t use all sprouted flour keeping it at or a little above 50% because a multigrain sprout is used mostly and a 100% does not have the gluten strength I like.

Stu

I thought I’d read about the sugar and ferment time, or maybe my beer-brewing husband had said something to that effect, but I like knowing what bakers actually experience – thanks for explaining.

Yes, that is why the use of malted barley is so prevalent in brewing. In that case the sprouting is taken a little further and has an even higher sugar content, but in baking if you let the process go too far the useful proteins that make gluten are comprimised.

Melissa, thank you for this lovely and relatively easy recipe. I made few modification, to use what I had in my pantry. The first one I use kamut and spelt flour, the second oat berries and spelt flour (that was the only flour I had aside bread flour and rye). For the second one I added, cranberries, flax, walnuts and pumpkin seeds, it made for a really yummy and tasty breakfast bread, and use a local craft beer, that is on the darker side. An hour autolyse without the salt and the berries, and for the first one I used a 80% hydratation, which of course was slightly harder to handle but created a more open crumb.
In any case, a great recipe to play with, my neighbor enjoyed it as well :slight_smile:

Your loaves sound amazing! I’m all for substituting ingredients for whatever is in the pantry :slight_smile: Glad you liked the recipe.

Won’t the alcohol in the beer break down the gluten and weaken the structure, make it harder to rise?

Too much sugar, salt, fat, protein or alcohol can inhibit fermentation and gluten development but bread dough seems to be able to tolerate quite a lot. I’m not sure where the “don’t cross” line is. My rum-infused donut dough rises. Also sourdough pasta that’s hydrated just with eggs, and “rich man’s” brioche with crazy amounts of butter do too.

This sprouted wheat bread and this – even beerier bread – work out fine. Enjoy!

I think this is the best bread I have baked so far. I am so grateful I have come across this recipe. Thank yoiu and here is a picture of the loaf.

1 Like

That’s a gorgeous loaf. I’m glad you’re enjoying the recipe!