I’ve been making bread for the past 50 years. but with very little of that experience recorded. Fourteen or so years ago, after watching the 100 mile challenge (where people only eat the foods grown, raised, or caught within 100 miles of their home), I was inspired to make bread from milling my own wheat berries. I soon started experimenting with a range of different wheat berries – hard winter wheats, soft spring wheat, ancient grains like Kamut for pasta, etc. Five years after I started milling my own flour, I noticed sprouted wheat flour was becoming commercially available. I wanted to try making bread by milling my own sprouted wheat berries.
Sprouting grains makes them more nutritious and easier to digest. Here is a well researched summary of how sprouting wheat berries is the far healthier alternative. Making bread from the flour milled from sprouted wheat berries has similar challenges as making bread from milled whole wheat berries (not sprouted).
I don’t just mill sprouted wheat berries to make the loaves. I also use the sprouted grain flour to make baguettes, cinnamon buns, bagels, focaccia, and pasta. About 70% of the time, my efforts produce an incredible treat. It’s the 30% disappointing failures that has inspired me to create this bread journal so I can more consistently enjoy good results.