I recently sprouted, ground, and dehydrated several different types of grains to make raw bread. Here is my opinion on each grain...

Amaranth - Very Bitter - Inedible
Barley - Bland - Edible
Buckwheat - Bland - Edible
Millet - Very Bitter - Inedible
Quinoa - Very Bitter - Inedible
Wheat - Slightly Bitter - Edible

The very bitter grains were simply inedible in my opinion. I could see these grains being used sparingly in some dishes but not in a concentrated form like a bread. The bland and slightly bitter grains were edible but really needed seasoning to make them palatable. I doubt that I could consume them on a daily basis even with the seasoning.

Has anyone else had a similar experience? Has anyone else had a different experience? I am interested in the possibility of grains as a concentrated energy source but my raw bread experiment hasn't found a sustainable option yet. Does anyone have any suggestions that I could try before I eliminate this possibility entirely? Different grains? Different preparation methods?

Edit: Formatted my grain table using dashes since the whitespace was ignored.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2007 02:12AM by No5.

Yeah....my experience was similar. I stuck with wheat....but NO way I prepared it.....was particularly appealing! You know? (unless you turn the stuff into salted wheat jerky! Ha! ha!.....but by that point it's pretty much the same as cooked food anyway!

-David Z. Mason

Thanks for posting your research. I wonder about combining the bitter and bland grains to try and balance out the breads flavor, or creating a none too bland base for some flavored bread (garlic rosemary is yummy). Or maybe combining some of the above raw oats (oh sooo yummy).

Some where on this site is a thread I was posting my rising flax seed bread research, although I can't seem to find it right now.

Cheers,
Ian.

well-when i make my wheat bread -it was so good and so sweet.May i ask if you are rinsing your sprout water 2x's a day?thanks for this cause i just bought some of the grains you are talking of...to do some more bread.thanks taylor

Yes. I rinsed my sprouts once in the morning and once at night.

Let me know how the other grains taste to you. I am interested to hear which ones you try and which one you like the most. Maybe there is something different in your process that makes them more palatable. Or maybe it's a subjective thing and I'm just not suited for grain consumption.

Instead of grinding or mashing the sprouted grains and/or dehydrating them, you might try eating them alive and whole.

One combination that sounds kind of unusual, but is actually pretty good: sprouted wheat mixed with chopped ripe papaya, especially the dark orange sunrise papaya.

Or you could add them whole to salad.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2007 06:33AM by suncloud.

When I can get raw organic corn, I blend it with or without spices and lime juice and dehydrate it for a delicious raw tortilla. It's not quite bread but it's very yummy.

when i used to make bread I found some pretty good ones actually. one thing i found for sure is to NOT LET THEM SPROUT LONG. I would soak them for a day and then let them sprout only 8 hours. This solved the bitter and gross trick. It made them a lot more palatable. even if you don't plan to use them, mulch them in a food processor and throw them in the fridge overnight before use. unsprouted they are even better but not as alive. But honestly I question their liveliness after they've been dehydrated anyway... you make, you be the judge

I picked up some raw essene bread from my local grocery store...

[www.glaserorganicfarms.com]

...and it tasted pretty good. I tried the plain version with no seasonings. Note that it was dehydrated to the point that it was more like a cracker than a loaf of bread. Was it the extra dehydration that affected the flavor or could I do something else in my process to improve flavor? I'm not really interested in adding crackers to my diet.

In the case of wheat, I am soaking hard red winter wheat for 12 hours overnight. Then I rinse and drain and sprout for 12 hours during the day. Then I rinse and drain and sprout for 12 hours overnight. Then I grind the sprouts in a food processor to a course consistency. I knead this dough into a ball and then I flatten it down to a half-inch thick circle. I then dehydrate at 90-100 degrees for 6 hours on each side. The result looks like a thick solid pita.

Morrisson already suggested that I shorten the sprouting period. I will try eliminating the second sprouting period. Does the grinding method affect flavor? Should I continue using a course consistency or should I use my blender to create a smoother consistency? Should I try different shapes or thicknesses? Should I try different dehydration temperatures or times?

My millet and amaranth bread came out with terrible consistencies (one was like powder and the other was like stuck-together seeds). I don't plan on trying those again. But I will try wheat, barley, quinoa, and buckwheat again. I suspect that quinoa will still be too bitter but I'll try it anyway.

Many thanks for any advice.

Edit: Fixed a broken link.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/04/2007 06:15PM by No5.

Dear No5-sounds like we did the same process.and yes! that is the size i got too on my bread.my bread was a thick paste-not exactlyun-gooey.but it would stay together for me to lightly knead...a bit.it sounds right.i will keep u posted on when i experiment on mine too.good subject.taylor

I used to make my breads in small single or double serving sizes. I ran my breads through my champion juicer so it ground them up pretty heavily and I used, kamut, wheat and spelt berries. I've thrown in buckwheat for some stuff... oh and rye berries make some yummy breads. Keep in mind these don't taste like real breads, which already know. I also tended to start with a wetter "dough" most times because it worked for me. YOu can always dehydrate it longer.

I would try mixing amaranth with some other grains if you want to use it up, same with the millet. I would use a say a 2:1 ratio of 2 other grains and 1 amaranth or millet.

One last thing, well two really, i found that sweet breads work well and ones with a lot of herbs, especially fresh ones. Remember if the dough doesn't taste good before you put it in the dehydrator it's not going to taste good when it comes out.

Hope this helps.

Matt