Sprouted Wheat Strawberry Bread Vegan. A guest post on Tongue Ticklers

Its been a while since I posted a bread.. If you look through last 2 years, you will know what I mean. I bake breads at home pretty much every week,.. experiment with grains, fruits and herbs and knead and bake and knead and bake. I've been baking some repeat simple multigrain ones lately. I made whole wheat pizza dough when mom was visiting and now she has started eating home made pizza back in India, minus the cheese:)

Some time back, Harini has asked me for a guest post on her wonderful blog Tongue Ticklers, and I sent her one of my breads. Harini blogs tried and tested, authentic, Veganized and some glutenfree recipes. She loves to innovate with textures, ingredients and flavours to find a balance in taste and health. She also takes you on a beautiful journey with each post with her exquisite photography.

I was thinking of what to use in this bread for the guest post, and I wasn’t sure if grains like quinoa were available in India. So I decided to stick to the most used grain. Wheat. This bread has sprouted Wheat, whole wheat flour, high gluten bread flour, and some strawberries too. The fruit adds a fun dimension to the bread and hides some of the wheaty taste, which sometimes can be strong enough to distract some people from liking a whole grain bread.

Sprouted Wheat:

Dough:

Ready to be baked.

Sprouted Wheat Strawberry Bread.

Soy, nut free.

2 mini loafs (pan 6x3 inch)

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup wheat sprouted( took me 2 days for a nice sprout at 70s degrees F). It might take less time in warmer climate
• 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon vital wheat gluten (optional)
• 3 Tablespoons raw sugar or equivalent jaggery/agave/maple syrup or other sweetener.
• 1.5 teaspoons active yeast
• 1/2-3/4 cup water
• 7-8 strawberries
• 2 Tablespoons Organic olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Add the yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar to 2 Tablespoons warm water and mix well. Let stand for 10 minutes or until frothy.
2. In a blender, puree the strawberries and sprouted wheat with the remaining sugar. You can add some of the sprouted wheat as is. I like my breads without the whole grain popping up while eating a soft slice, so I puree all the wheat.
3. In a bowl add 1 cup bread flour, 1/3 cup wheat flour, wheat gluten and salt and mix.
4. Add in the yeast mixture, oil and fruit+wheat puree, 1/2 cup water and mix. Let dough sit for 5 minutes covered.
5. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes, by hand or in stand mixer, Scraping sides every 2-3 minutes if using a stand mixer. add more flour or water in little quantities if needed. As with any fresh fruit/vegetable bread, the fruit gives out a extra moisture than a normal bread, while the dough sits for the rising time. So keep the dough soft and not too sticky. For a good gluten development, you can punch the dough, pull and fold, throw it on the counter and have fun with it during the kneading!
6. Spritz the top of dough with some oil spray. Place dough in a covered container in a warm place for 1.5 hours to rise until atleast doubled in size.
7. Punch it lightly. For mini loaf pans, divide dough into 2 parts. Knead and shape into a loaf by pulling on all sides, or by rolling it out into a rectangle and rolling the rectangle from one side and tucking the other edge under like a jelly roll. Or you can make just one loaf for the regular bread loaf pan.
8. Place loaf in greased mini bread pans. Spritz the top with water and then spritz a little oil spray, and cover with kitchen towel.
9. Place it in a warm place or warm oven for 45 minutes.
10. Remove towel, spritz top with some water and bake at preheated 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until the bread sounds hollow. (35 minutes if baking one bigger loaf)
11. Remove bread from pan and let cool for an hour.
12. I usually put the bread in the fridge to cool even more for atleast another hour before slicing. The slices then come out perfect. The breads are usually soft and can easily gets squished while slicing.
13. Slice and enjoy as is! or topped with some fresh fruit compote, chutneys, creamy herbed berry topping(vegan cream cheese mixed with mashed berries and herbs), or marmalade, or nut butters, or topped with a tofu scramble!
14. Store bread in refrigerator for a 7-8 days, because it has fruit in it. you can store a regular fruit less bread at room temperature.

Check out Recipe on Tongue Ticklers here.

Sprouted grains have more micronutrients and food enzymes than non sprouted ones.. Some other sprouted grain breads I posted earlier. Sprouted quinoa Tomato flat bread and Mung Bean sprouts Wheat Loaf.

Hope you all are having a great Holiday weekend! This bread is headed to Ricki's wellness weekend., Susan's Weekly Yeastspotting and Vardhini's bake fest.

Some of my recent fave breads for a quick round up. Mango Strawberry molasses, Multifruit Multigrain, Chocolate multigrain, Beet Blueberry :)