Sprouted Wheat Sourdough Ciabatta

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Hi Melissa,
That looks very good. I’ve not made ciabatta with sprouted flour but it is in my future. Have you ever sprouted your own grains it is pretty simple with a minimum of equipment as long as your not trying to do large amounts. If you want me to elaborate just reply.
Stu

I can not for the life of me figure out why my dough never looks like this. Why it never develops this soft elastic gluteny texture, and why rarely get any large open crumb texture.

Pretty easy to large batches as well, you just need space to hang bags. Same protocol as small batches: soak grains in water for 8-10 hours for most (buckwheat 30-60 minutes only), drain and rinse well. But if doing large batch(es), put soaked and rinsed grain in old pillow case, or similar, loosely tie off neck, and hang somewhere that it can drip, get good air flow, but not dry out too much (likely a bit of experimenting per your environment’s temp and humidity. every 12 hours or so, dunk bag to rinse and re-wet and hang again. Obviously you can do multiple batches in parallel if you want to grow a stash. I learned this from someone who was growing for a commune kitchen in the Arizona desert. He rigged up cross bars and hung his bags in a covered pit to protect from the heat and dryness of the locale. Dry sprout by spreading on baking sheets in low temp oven, with stirring every now and then until crisp, then grind to flour.

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Hi Geoffrey,
I usually sprout just enough for a loaf or two. The procedure is very simular but a quart mason jar with a screen on the opening secured by a canning ring is the sprouting ccnrainer. The grain is placed in the jar the lid screwed on. The grain is then rinsed with warm (90-100F) water and then covered by a good 1-2 inches of the water and allowed to soak for only about 4 hours or so. The water is dumped out and the grain rinsed and drained. The jar is then played in a bowl with the bottom placed on the rim of the bowl so it is at an angle so any excess moisture can drain into the bowl, covered with a towel to keep out light and just placed on a counter out of direct sunlight. The grain is rinsed a couple more times while it’s sprouts. Once the little sprouts are just coming out of the germ part the grain is dried in a dehydrator set on low but a low oven would also work. Then ground and used as flour.

Two other things that might be of interest. There is a technique described in Peter Reinhart’s “Whole Grain Bread” or one of his other books that grinds the wet sprouted wheat and uses that as a dough. I tried that a while back with little sucess because of a poor grinding procedure but might be worth trying again. Also malted barley is made much the same way but the sprouting process is allowed to go further with the sprouts getting to 1/4 to 3/8 inch before drying. Sounds like as good winter project.

Stu

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Thank you, yes, I usually do small batches only though sometimes I do larger ones and store in fridge to eat as sprouts. If you make sure to allow time after last rinse so that the surface of the sprouts is dry, they will keep a surprisingly long time.

The “wet” grinding I have done quite a bit of though not much for sourdough. Rather I just make a coarse mash and rough shape into flat loaves, then bake at very low temp to make Essene Bread or Manan Bread. Very sweet and almost cake like. Sometimes I do this though, add active culture and ferment a day or so before baking. Usually I use 175-200 F for that and some actually do it in dehydrater to make “raw” bread.

The Essene bread sounds interesting. How do you grind your mash? When I tried an old hand cranked food grinder was used and it was both difficult and messy with that.
Stu

Food processor is the way to go for wet grind. And you can make it very coarse, my preference, or quite smooth, wife’s preference, depending of course on how long you run the machine. That was the only type of bread I ate for years until I got turned on to long slow ferment sourdough.

@titanpilot2004 and @Geoffrey

Thanks so much for the info on sprouting grains and drying them. I have done lots of the former, but none of the latter (the drying to prep for making into flour).

I used the sprouted grains whole in this spin off I did of a Tartine 3 recipe

@muchohucho
I’m sorry you’re having trouble with your dough and resulting bread. You can investigate the issue by changing one element (flour, starter, water source) at a time and observing the results. I’m guessing this is what you’re already doing. I’m happy to advise if you want to post photos of your starter as it grows or your dough when you start and end the bulk.

If you grow them out until tail for sprout at least as long as seed head, and dry at low oven temp you get malted grain! If you dry much lower, like in dehydrator, at or below about 104 F, you get diastatic malt which has enzyme activity to break down starches in flour and make them more available to the culture organisms. Not sure how that would work out if you tried to make leavened bread from all active, diastatic malt. Ezekiel Breads in super markets are made from all sprouted grains and legumes, dried and ground to flour.

Thanks. I have a little one.

Melissa,

Forgot to mention that when the grain is dried the little sprouts will shrink back into the kernel and it will look like an unsprouted one. This took me by surprise the first time.

Stu

Thank you! That is useful info. I’d wondered if my home sprouts were excessive when I looked at the size of the dried sprouts I used in the recipe :grin:

I have never used this much starter. I wonder if half the amount of starter and a longer rise would work as well?

Thanks

I think it should be fine. When I make baguettes, I use only 20% starter and the crumb is open. Let me know how it goes.

My original ciabatta recipe is same starter weight as flour weight…talk about high percentage of starter :slight_smile:

Thanks so much for your prompt response. I usually use about 50 gm or 1/4 cup starter. Will try soon. Looks like a real winner, that bread.

Susan

Is it possible to make sprouted sourdough bread using only white sprouted flour?

@Fermentada,
I tried this recipe with different grains, buckwheat, spelt, and red fife, all sprouted. I had 228g of starter at 100% hydration and the exact same hydration rate you used.
I have to say that I remembered the ciabatta dough I worked with previously was much wetter and many more air pockets. I was skeptical because the dough felt much dryer than what I remember of my previous ciabatta dough. So, I divided the dough into halves. One half I made 3 slippers and the other I shaped a loaf. Just in case…, I would have a loaf.
Both turned out really well!
Thank you for the details notes and sharing!


A

Those are lovely ciabatta and a gorgeous loaf too. Did you use a larger percentage of whole grain flour in your dough? That could explain the dryer feel.

Yes, I used mostly home milled whole grains and did not sift, I believe I added some white flour. I generally minimize white flour in my kitchen.
Thank you for the recipe, this one is a keeper!
It is nice to be able to use sprouted whole grains for ciabatta rolls! I am trying your Turkish Pide today!
Thank you again!
A