Down to the nitty gritty: How to make sprouted flour

Something we have been using for a while now in our home is sprouted/living/raw flour.  It is VERY easy to do, and when you do this at home rather than purchasing it in the store, you can save alot of money.  Emphasis on ALOT. 

Did you know that when you sprout your grains, you are turning them into a living food?  That in turn makes many important nutrients more available.  For example, it increases the B & C vitamins, increases the enzymes,  and the carotene in the grain as well.  It is good to note that the sprouting process also makes the grain MUCH easier for our bodies to digest....it changes the composition of the grain from a starch to a vegetable!  So many of the "healthy" foods we all tend to eat, are very hard for our bodies to digest.  Things such as sprouting, that increase the digestibility of our foods, makes for healthier families!

I buy my grains in 50 lb. sacks at a local amish bulk food store.  I then transfer them to large buckets to store them in.  Gamma seals are helpful for getting the tops on and off; however, I have a daughter who is my lid popper, so it saves me money this way! The grain above is Hard Red Montana wheat from Bronze Chief.

I fill about half of my sprouting jar with the grain, any more and it becomes too hard to work with for rinsing and such.  Sprouting trays would work really well here as well, I just happen to only have jars.  I then cover the grains with water, and let it set for at least 6 hours.  RINSE WELL at this point.

Then, tilt at a 45 degree angle and place in a bowl to keep it drained.  Cover with a towel if you are worried about those summertime bugs getting in there. 

I rinse them well about 3 times a day.  Wheat seems to be easier then some grains or seeds to work with.  I have never had any trouble with mold starting or anything like that, and they do not become mucousy like buckwheat groats and flax seed do.  You can see in the above picture, that the grains have sprouted at this point.  I usually go let them sprout a little more than this, but I'm not sure you would need to do so.  This took not even 24 hours in a 75 degree or so kitchen.  It will vary in the winter, and take longer to sprout.  Keep them rinsed well, and you should be just fine.

 

Most of them I am dehydrating at around 110 degrees until dry.  You will know they are done when you chew on one, and there is no moisture left in it, and it is crunchy.  My closest friend does this in her oven with the door cracked (at night so little ones don't get hurt.)  She puts the oven on it's lowest setting, then cracks the door.  This is not ideal, but it does work!  Some newer ovens have the capacity to go very low in temperature, and below 115 (there's a bit of debate about the actual temp.), should keep your grains living or raw.

 

Some grains I throw into baggies, when they are still wet and not dehydrated yet, and put them into the freezer.  I then make some delicious sprouted crackers and flatbreads/tortillas out of them, from an awesome recipe my friend created.  (Will share these soon!)

Here is a close-up of the dehydrated sprouts, and what they look like.

I have used the Wonder Mill for years for all sorts of grinding, and it has NEVER broken down in any way.  Love this mill!

 

Beautiful, fresh sprouted flour!

I hope you are able to try making this sprouted flour for your family, and I will soon be sharing recipes to use this in.  By the way, I also store this flour in the freezer, and just take whatever I need out at the time of baking.

• P.S.  This glass above was an awesome smoothie breakfast I had this morning....during pregnancy I find it easy to get lots of good nutrition from yummy smoothies, and big veggie-full salads.  This full of baby growing nutrients smoothie had:  dairy kefir as the base, a whole avocado, 1 1/2 frozen bananas, 1 cup frozen blueberries, 1 cup frozen strawberries, 1 1/2 T. chia seeds, a big scoop of raw organic green super food from garden of life (powdered greens for calcium during pregnancy); raw honey for sweetener to taste, and vanilla to take the tartness from the kefir, and let me tell you...it's good!
  

--Update:  I now have a post up with a couple of wonderful recipes for using this sprouted flour...check it out here. There will be more to come, as well.  

{This post is a part of Works for me Wednesday's; as well as Pennywise platter...come join up!}