Do You Grind Wheat Grains Before Soaking Or Are Soaked Grains Not Ground?

by Gwen
(Omaha, NE USA)

Quick questions in regards to making soaked flour bread?

I have a VitaMix blender with dry and wet blade containers. I wish to try soaking the grain before making this homemade bread.

Do I soak the Whole Wheat Berries BEFORE grinding them? Or do I grind the Whole Wheat Berries into flour, and THEN soak it?

And what about the Yeast: Do I save some of the water out that the recipe calls for, in order to proof the Yeast?

Thank you for this website. It has been invaluable for me and my husband.

By the way, we are 50 and 55 years old and this is the first time we've ever heard of soaking grains!

Gwen



Eryn's Reply: Great questions Gwen! This whole soaking grains business can be a bit confusing sometimes. I wondered the exact same thing. Do I soak the whole entire and intact grains first and then grind them into flour? Or, do I grind the grains into flour and then soak the flour. Guest what? You can actually make soaking grain bread both ways. Can you believe it! OK, here goes...

The homemade bread recipe I share uses dry whole grains that are ground (or blended with your VitaMix) into flour and then soaked. I love this soaked flour bread making method (also referred to as soaked grains method) and find it to be the simpler method (less steps involved) to create soaked grain bread. So you get your dry grains, put them in your VitaMix in your case, and blend them into flour. Then take that freshly ground flour and soak it as my homemade bread recipe indicates, and complete the great homemade bread recipe.

Now, you can also make a homemade bread with sprouted whole grains that have not been ground into flour, or you can make homemade bread from sprouted whole grains that have been ground into flour. That's right, flourless sprouted grain bread or sprouted grain bread made with sprouted flour can be made too. (Those whole wheat seeds are surely multifaceted aren't they? What a true gift they are and to think you can even grow the superfood wheatgrass with them.)

The Food for Life company makes their English Muffins utilizing the flourless sprouted grain method. They get their grains, sprout their grains, and then add the different bread making ingredients and mix all those ingredients into dough that is baked and turns into delicious bread. The Food for Life 100% Flourless Sprouted Whole Grain English Muffins are made this way. You will love their Cinnamon Raisin muffins.

Or, bread can be made out of whole grains that have sprouted and then been ground into flour. With this method, you take the whole grain, sprout this whole grain seed also as mentioned in above paragraph (to sprout grain you put grain into water for about 24 hours, then drain out water, rinse grain seeds and drain again, put grains (that will no longer be soaked in water) in some kind of sprouting container (glass jar or sprouting bag works fine - rinse and drain those wheat grain seeds a couple times per day), let them sprout until that little sprout is about 1/4" long (about 48 hours), dehydrate or fully dry out those sprouts (so as not to clog your grinder), grind or blend them into flour and then make your recipe of choice with that sprouted grain flour.


Of course, if you make your bread with this sprouted flour from the grains that have already been sprouted and then ground into flour, then you do not need to soak that flour too. The sprouting process converted that seed into a highly digestible and more nutritious form. So therefore, the flour that has been ground from that sprouted seed will be in that same healthier state too. You can then make your baked goods with the freshly ground and highly nutritious sprouted flour - no extra soaking is needing. Here is a post where I share the difference between soaked flour bread and sprouted grain bread.

Don' tell anyone, but I do not proof my yeast! If you find more success with proofing your yeast, go ahead and add that step with whatever method works for you. I just did not personally find it necessary.

Once again, my presented homemade bread recipe uses the soaked flour method. You first grind the grains into flour and then soak the flour - a method that I find to be easier to achieve those benefits of soaking grains.

I hope this answers your questions. Let me know how your soaked flour (technically correct term) homemade bread turns out.

All the best,

Eryn

P.S. Sounds like you are wonderfully young experiencing the joys of being in your Prime years! That's what makes life exciting in that there are always so many fun new things to learn.

Keep studying Health Banquet so that the many decades ahead of you and your husband will continue to be the Prime years of your life!


Go to Learn About the Health Benefits From Soaking Your Whole Wheat Flour

Go to my Nutrimill Grain Mill Video Demonstration

Go to Whole Wheat Flour Nutrition Chart

Keep in Touch with Health Banquet Digest Free Newsletter