Sprouted Quinoa Bread

August 26, 2010 in grains, lunch, recipe, vegan

Hey gang! Today we have a fabulous guest post from my blog-friend Samantha: The bread queen.  Samantha knows how much I love sprouting grains to release all the great enzymes and nutrients, so she offered to share her sprouted quinoa bread recipe while I start packing for CT. Enjoy! And HEY! Stop drooling at work :)
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Hello to all Healthy Purpose readers! I’m Samantha and I blog over at Bikini Birthday. I’d like to thank Kenzie for letting me guest post about something that I can’t live without.
Bread.
The textures of the crust and crumb, the variety of flavours, the delicious aroma, bread can be as sophisticated as fine wines when it comes to its complexity of flavours. I absolutely love bread. One of my favourite past times over the last year has been baking bread. I have recreated many different types of bread in my humble kitchen from bagels to crackers, French bread to Greek bread. I have been baking up quite a storm, but nothing holds a candle to the unique flavours that are imparted on dough by sprouted multigrains.

As a reader of A Healthy Purpose you have definitely heard about all the wonderful benefits of sprouted grains. I’m sure you are familiar with the idea that sprouting activates enzymes within seeds and releases all their goodness (vitamins, minerals, and macronutrients). Through germination, proteins in the seed convert to amino acids and vitamin content and availability increases. What you may not be aware of, however, is that all that awesome enzyme activity is really what enhances the flavour of a loaf of sprouted grain bread.

The recipe that I’m sharing with you today is for a sprouted quinoa bread. This bread is loaded with protein, fibre, and, of course, those good-for-you enzymes. It will take about 3 days to make, so you have to think about it a bit in advance, but it is oh so worth the wait.

Sprouted Quinoa Sandwich Loaf

Day 1:
Start by sprouting 6 ounces of dry grain of choice (see how here). You should end up with 10 ounces of sprouts by day 2 as the grain absorbs quite a bit of water during the germination process.

Day 2:
Process 10 oz of sprouted quinoa in the food processor to create a pulp.

Prepare the biga, a pre-fermented dough that will be incorporated into the final dough. The main function of the biga is to impart flavour on the final dough.

·       8 oz whole wheat flour
·       1/4 tsp instant yeast
·       3/4 c. water (room temperature)
  • Mix all the ingredients together to form a ball.
  • Knead with wet hands for about 2 minutes to evenly distribute ingredients. Rest 5 min. Resume kneading for another minute to get a smooth, tacky dough.
  • Place dough in oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap refrigerate overnight. (Remove 2h prior to making final dough)
Day 3:
Prepare the Final Dough
·       processed sprouted quinoa
·       biga
·       2 oz whole wheat flour
·       1 tsp salt
·       2.25 tsp instant yeast
·       ¼ c water (room temperature)
·       2 tbsp unpasteurized honey
·       1 tbsp vegetable oil or melted butter
·       extra whole wheat flour for adjustments
  • Combine all ingredients (except extra flour) and knead with wet hands to incorporate ingredients to get a soft, sticky dough.
  • Knead dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes, adding the extra flour as needed to get a soft, tacky dough. Rest 5 minutes.
  • Knead for a few more minutes until the dough is soft and tacky. Form it into a ball and place it into an oiled bowl.
  • Cover and let rise for 45 minutes until it grows 1.5x its size.

Transfer dough to floured surface and form into a loaf pan shape retaining as much gas in the dough as possible. Place the dough in a well greased loaf pan.

Cover and let rise for 60 minutes until it grows 1.5x its size.

before rise
after rise
Preheat oven to 425*F.

Once the oven is preheated, reduce the temperature to 350*F and bake for 20 min.
Rotate the loaf 180 degrees. If the crust is browning too quickly, loosely tent a piece of aluminum foil over the loaf.

Bake another 15 to 30 minutes until the internal temperature registers 200*F.
Transfer to cooling rack and let cool an hour before cutting.
Enjoy!
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Happy Weekend Gang! <3k

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