Monday, January 26, 2009

Sprouted Wheat Manna Bread

I am beyond excited about today's post. I have discovered a bread that is guilt free, filling, and extremely nutritious. It's called manna bread and is a staple of raw food vegans. This bread is "cooked" at very low temperatures, for the purposes of this post, 225 degrees, which basically just dehydrates the loaves. It can also be placed in a dehydrator for a period of time. Cooking at such low temperatures helps to preserve the enzymes, vitamins, good bacteria and other nutrients which would be lost at higher temperatures. Since I've made this bread four days ago, I've been eating it every day for breakfast in place of regular bread and I don't feel like I've missed a thing! Here we go...

Manna Bread:

Ingredients:
2 cups whole wheat berries (These will be sprouted. Instructions will follow.)
1/3 cup raisins
3/4 teaspoons sea salt (You can substitute regular salt if you would like, but it won't be as good for you.)

Step 1: Sprout the wheat. This takes about two days to do, so a little planning is in order, but it's worth it as sprouting grains increases their vitamin share exponentially. Did you know that whole wheat berries do not have any vitamin C when they are in a dormant state, such as when they are ground up into flour, but if they are sprouted, their vitamin C level jumps to over 2.8 mg per serving! That is 5% of the USDA daily recommended value. It's amazing! Soooo, here's how to do it...

Pour the wheat into a wide mouth quart jar...


(These photos show six to eight jars of wheat being sprouted. Most normal people don't sprout this much, but I had my reasons.)

...then fill the jar with water...


... and cover with cut out panty hose, cheese cloth, or other breathable fabric. I just used my jar rings to secure the panty hose, but you could also use a rubber band...


Let it sit on your counter for 8 to 12 hours or overnight. In the morning, drain off the water. I sometimes find that I have to push into the wheat through the panty hose, like so...


...in order for all the water to come out.

Next, put the jar upside-down, at a slight angle to allow the water to drain and enable appropriate breathing room for the wheat... ( I just used a towel-covered baking pan.)


Let the jar of wheat sit for 12 hours, then rinse the berries to keep bacteria from forming. I like to simply stick the faucet into the panty hose, like so...


...and let it run for a few seconds, then swish the wheat around, then drain.

Repeat this rinsing every twelve hours. Your sprouts should soon look like this...


(See the tiny bit of white sprouting out?)

...then finally, when the sprouts are about 1/4" long or almost as long as the wheat berry, they should look like this...


They are now ready to use! If you want to use sprouts in recipes other than manna bread, they are great on sandwiches in place of alfalfa sprouts, in oatmeal, in salads and baked in breads.

Note: Sprouts do not keep long in the fridge as they will keep growing and begin to taste very bitter. Make sure to use them within two to three days.

Step 2: Now that our wheat is sprouted, we can get back to the business of making the manna bread. Even though we only started out with two cups of wheat, we should now have about four cups of sprouts, as their size has doubled. Pour all of the sprouts in a food processor, along with the raisins and the sea salt.

Process for a couple of minutes until everything is well blended and you have a sticky dough, that looks like this...


Grease your hands with oil, then grab the dough out of the bowl and form a loaf about 8"x4". Trust me, you'll really need to grease your hands for this. The loaf should be no more than about 1 1/2" high or it will not dehydrate properly...


Step 3: Bake at 225 degrees for three hours. When your loaf is done, it will have a light-colored, thin, hard outer crust and a moist interior, kind of like a muffin...


When the loaf is cooled to room temperature, you can store it in a Ziploc bag to be used within two or three days, or you can wrap it in plastic...


...then store it in a Ziploc freezer bag in the freezer for later use...


Here's how I lay it on my plate...


And here's how I eat it, with natural peanut butter, raw honey, and psyllium husks...


I love it! This breakfast will keep me full for about five hours, but doesn't make me feel like I'm going to founder after I eat it. I again, have to thank my daughter, Bethany, for the inspiration for this recipe. She introduced me, by phone, to manna bread, something she is able to buy on a daily basis at the health food store, and I was so inspired that I had to surf the net and find out how to make it, as we don't have access to health food stores here in Mexico.

I hope you'll try this. It's really fun to learn to sprout and very fulfilling to know you're eating something so good for you! If you do try it, let me know how it goes!

I am pleased to list this post at...



-Tip Junkie's "Talk to me Tuesday",
-5 Minutes for Mom's "Tackle It Tuesday",
-Tammy's Recipe's "Kitchen Tip Tuesday",
-Blessed With Grace's "Tempt My Tummy Tuesday",
-Mary's "Tightwad Tuesday",
and
-The Lazy Organizer's "Talk About Tuesday".

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29 comments:

~gail~mooselovingmamabear said...

I've had this bread and it's wonderful. Thanks for sharing the detailed info on how to make....

Anonymous said...

Hi! I just found your blog through the baby wearing blogroll. I love your site. What a neat post! And the natural pb to go on top. mmmm sounds delish. please feel free to pop by my blog some time.

Dreamer said...

I love, love, love all your healthy recipes! I have tried 3 of them this week and they are all fabulous. I will be starting this today! Thank you!!!

Stephanie said...

That is really interesting. It sounds delicious, though that is a lot of planning ahead!

Donna said...

Sounds wonderful!
I've been looking for more to do with sprouted wheat!

Carla said...

good for you Jen! What a cool find, and do-able instructions! I'm enjoying your journey:)

Anonymous said...

How cool, I just saw a loaf of sprouted wheat bread in my local grocer freezer section and I was wondering what it was. Where do you purchase your wheat berries?

Rhonda said...

Thanks for sharing the info you learned! I can't wait to make it next week.

Oh and I'm also big on sea salt.

FeeBeeKay said...

Once again your resolve and your dedication to your path amazes me. And you manage to do all this (as an experiment!) and still look after your family. You are an inspiration.

Blessings to you and all your wee brood.

FeeBeeKay

Lisa@BlessedwithGrace said...

It is always interesting to see what you will share with us. Thanks.

Mom2my10 @ 11th Heaven said...

NewlyWeds,
You usually can get whole wheat at any health food store. I actually order mine in bulk with a group of people from our church, as we are Mormon, and are counseled to keep a year's supply of food on hand. To feed my family of eleven for a year, I, literally, have a ton of food, half of which is wheat! Now you see why I'm so excited about this bread. It's a great way to practice using whole wheat!

Anonymous said...

Do you buy your wheatberries in Mexico or are they shipped down? The reason I`m asking is because I live in Guatemala and have no clue where to find something like this or what they would be called in Spanish . . . "Moras de trigo"? :)

Mom2my10 @ 11th Heaven said...

ExPat Mom, I get my wheat in the states with a co-op from my church, but I do think that you would just call it "trigo" in Spanish. Good luck to you@

R Allen said...

I have been told that sprouted bread is not technically bread because once the grain sprouts it becomes a vegetable and therefore this is vegetable bread?
Or is it still a grain? Would you verify this for me because we do not eat meat and grains at the same meal but would attempt to do so if this bread was no longer "technically" a grain bread.
Just wondering...

Mom2my10 @ 11th Heaven said...

Hi R Max. I can't answer your question for sure, but to me, it does feel like I'm eating a salad rather than a piece of bread! When you eat this bread, you are eating a nearly live food (I say nearly because it isn't technically raw as it has to be cooked at temperatures higher than 116 degrees F), but I really can't say whether it actually turns into a vegetable or not! The answer to that question would be a great thing to research on the internet. Let me know if you find anything else out!

elle said...

I'm by no means a health-conscious person, but I'm trying to do better. You say this is guilt-free and very nutritious...how so? Is this better for you than just whole wheat bread? Better how? How do the calories compare? I saw your post about the nutrition look-up, but don't really know how to look up the nutrition of sprouted bread. I'm sorry to ask so many questions, but I've been hearing about sprouting for a little while now and am curious. Thanks for any help you can give.

sharing411 said...

Hi, I just bought Carrot Raisin Mana bread from Whole Foods. I wanted to try it. It's good and it's expensive, so I found your blog on making it. Before this blog I read another where she says that heat above 100 degrees will kill the enzymes. What do you know about keeping the enzymes alive? Thank you for your recipe.

Warm regards,
Kathleen

Hopewell said...

Thank you--the photos make this seem much less "scary". I read "Nourishing Traditions" and wanted to try some sprouting but it sounded complicated.

Mom2my10 @ 11th Heaven said...

Hopewell, it really isn't scary at all, but quite easy! I do hope you try it and come back and let us know how it goes! Thanks for your visit!

Yolanda said...

I am definitely going to make some of this. I've never heard of manna bread before, but you make it look so easy! Thank you very much for sharing this tutorial!

Yolanda said...

I made some and linked to your post on my blog. It is wonderfully delicious! Go here to see: http://simplyhomemaking60.blogspot.com/

Janell said...

oh wow that sounds interesting and yummy.

Tamar SB said...

Oh that looks very good - and nutritious!

Scott said...

it sounds very good. I am thinking if you leave it set out for maybe 24 hrs and then need it, it may be like sourdough and rise a little. Will be something for me to try since I like sourdough. It may even work well to add some starter to it. will be fun experiment.

loves2spin said...

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http://eatnourishing.com/

Paul M said...

Hi! The recipy looks wonderful, but the oven temperature seems too high to keep enzimes alive. I think that anything beyond 150 is a no no? Thanks.

Unknown said...

THANK YOU! I knew this could not be hard but did not know how the sprouting process worked. I love the manna bread from my health food store, but at $5.00 a loaf, a very tiny loaf, it was only an occasional treat. Now I can make this myself. Many thanks!

Unknown said...

THANK YOU! I knew this could not be hard but did not know how the sprouting process worked. I love the manna bread from my health food store, but at $5.00 a loaf, a very tiny loaf, it was only an occasional treat. Now I can make this myself. Many thanks!

Unknown said...

THANK YOU! I knew this could not be hard but did not know how the sprouting process worked. I love the manna bread from my health food store, but at $5.00 a loaf, a very tiny loaf, it was only an occasional treat. Now I can make this myself. Many thanks!