Ezekiel Bread Quest
Okay, I'm on a quest to make Ezekiel bread, much like Trader Joe's sesame version. It is delicious and has a taste of its own. Many of the grains and beans are sprouted which give the bread much more nutrition than unsprouted version.
The Bible gave a generic recipe in Ezekiel 4:9 (the name of the bread in stores):
"Then take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and winter wheat. Put them in a container, and use them to make bread for yourself. Eat it during the 390 days that you are lying on your side."
Unfortunately, there are no measurements. ..and the versions I have seen call for yeast, salt, and a few other ingredients.
The ingredients, in order on the package, are:
- Sprouted wheat
- Water
- Sprouted barley
- Sprouted millet
- Malted barley
- Sprouted lentils
- Sprouted soybeans
- Sprouted spelt
- Fresh yeast
- Wheat gluten
- Sea salt
- Sesame seeds
We started sprouting the soybeans as they will take 5 days or so. Lentils 4 days and the rest 3 days. I'll detail the sprouting and baking soon.
The first crack at Ezekiel bread was not so good.
The seeds sprouted faster than I expected - about 2 days for all of them. I used a 1 quart mason jar, put the seeds in the jar, covered it with cheesecloth (held on by a rubberband), rinsed then covered the seeds about 3 times their height in water.
After sitting overnight, I drained the jars, rinsed, drained. The rinse, drain cycle was done until the seed sprouts were as long as the seed itself.
Here's where I made a mistake.
I put the seeds in a blender with 1 cup water and ground them to a pulp. The problem was it was way too watery. I think there is enough moisture in the seeds to use 1/4 cup of water or less.
After mixing all the other ingredients, and putting it in a glass bread pan (next time I'm using metal because the bread did not cook crisp) the bread rose well. I sprinked sesame seeds on top and into the oven it went. 350 degrees for 45 minutes.
The bread was way too soggy for rescue. The taste was sprouted bread familiar so I'm on the right track.
I have another batch of seeds sprouting. On to phase 2!
