I am trying to sprout wheat berries (which is just a fancy name for wheat—the kind you'd keep in your food storage). You might ask, "Why?"Let me tell you: I am going to teach a four-part series of bread-making classes for Relief Society. It was a brilliant idea which I am almost regretting. Anyway, part one is basic white bread; part two, wheat bread; part three, sourdough; and I'm not sure what I'm doing for part four.
OK. The white bread is easy; I also have the sourdough pretty much figured out. But the wheat bread—well, we're supposed to be learning how to use food-storage stuff. Hmmm. The wheat bread recipe that I always use (Mary's Bread) is really just like fancy white bread; you use half wheat and half white flour. So I'm trying out recipes that use 100% wheat, and I'm trying this recipe for sprouted-wheat bread, which is supposed to be super-healthy. Hence the wheat sprouts.
Last week I read instructions for sprouting wheat—it's supposed to be really easy. But I think instead of sprouting wheat I was brewing beer. The wheat berries got all nice and swollen, and then the water turned murky and got foamy on top. Not quite the results I expected. So I threw it out, looked up some different instructions online (your source for infinite and true knowledge), and started again last night. If I really get wheat sprouts this time, I'll post a picture and the instructions.
Won't that be cool?!
But for now I'll post the recipe for Mary's Bread. We first had this honey-wheat bread in Tennessee, where Mary Meredith made it every week for Sacrament Meeting. It is delicious! In fact, we had a visitor to our ward say, "This bread is so good, you should pass around butter and jelly with it!" (Read that statement with a Southern accent.)
Well maybe we shouldn't pass jelly with the sacrament, but the bread is delicious!
MARY'S BREAD
2 cups warm water
1/2 cup honey
2 tsp. yeast
2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil [or melted butter makes it tasty]
3-4 cups whole wheat flour
3-4 cups white flour
Butter and Jelly for eating it with ;-)
In a large bowl, combine water, honey and yeast; let proof about five minutes ('til the yeast is all foamy).
Add salt and oil; mix well.
Stir in 2 cups wheat flour and 2 cups white flour. Continue adding equal parts wheat and white flour, mixing by hand, and then kneading until you have a soft, elastic ball of dough.
Place dough in oiled bowl, cover and let rise until doubled (about 1 hour).
Punch down and knead 30 seconds.
Shape into two loaves; place loaves in two greased bread pans and let rise until doubled.
Place pans into a cold oven.
Turn oven to 350 degrees and bake bread for about 35 minutes.
Yum!
