Happy Valentine’s Day
Sprouted Flour Fans!
 Jeff and I don’t make a “big” celebration of Valentine’s Day. Usually an exchange of cards and a special dinner will do. I love to cook and Jeff loves to eat so we both end up happy.
Chocolate has always been the favorite “gift” of this day so maybe you should try chocolate chip cookies for your loved one using organic sprouted flour. The Nestle Toll House recipe is a great one.
Simply make some healthful substitutions: substitute organic chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate instead of Toll House morsels. Substitute sprouted whole grain wheat or spelt flour instead of white flour. Substitute rapadura, organic sugar, or maple sugar instead of white sugar. Always use butter. It’s that simple.
We’ve received a great response to our new “ready for home milling” organic sprouted grains. And, we’re considering adding a couple more organic sprouted grains and flours to our product line in the near future. I love to meet the sprouted needs of my customers. Your input is always welcome.
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Substituting Sprouted Flour In Your Favorite Recipes
Lots of customers have asked me how to use sprouted flours in their favorite recipes. For the most part, you can substitute sprouted flour, cup for cup in your recipes. Sometimes minor changes in a recipe are needed depending on what you are baking and maybe altitude and humidity.
During the holidays, I baked all my cookies using sprouted spelt flour and they baked beautifully with a fabulous texture, soft and chewy. My biscuit recipe is an easy way to keep sprouted bread in your home. I make mine using any one or all of my sprouted flours for a great taste variation. Try adding your favorite herbs, cinnamon and raisins, candied ginger and pecans, etc.
I made a fabulous pizza for dinner Saturday night using my whole grain sprouted wheat flour in the crust. The crust had a great rise and baked light and crispy. I used the King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook’s Hearth Bread Pizza recipe as a guide.
When making my pizza crust I made one addition and two small alterations to the recipe to get the dough to come out smooth and elastic. Since I was using commercial yeast I added 3 tablespoons of vital gluten to my flour to achieve a great rise, and I used ½ cup less flour and 2 Tbsp. more water.
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New Recipe
 Peggy’s Adapted “Hearth Bread Pizza” Recipe*
One batch will make 3 thin, or 2 thick, 12-inch shells. (I made one 16-inch pizza.)
- 1 ¾ (plus 2 tablespoons) cups warm water
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 packet or tablespoon active dry yeast
- (5 ½) cups whole grain sprouted wheat flour
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 1 tablespoon salt
Preparing the dough: Pour the water into a mixing bowl and dissolve in it the sugar and the yeast. When the yeast is active, add your first cup of flour, then the oil and salt. Add another (4) cups of flour, mixing with a large spoon (Too much work. I used my Kitchenaid mixer). until the dough comes away from the sides of the bowl and holds together.
 Kneading: Sprinkle the last ½ cup of flour onto your kneading surface. Turn out the dough and knead until it begins to feel as if it really belongs together, adding only enough flour to keep it from sticking to the board or you. (Again, I let my Kitchenaid do most of the work). Let it rest while you clean the grease your bowl. Continue kneading the relaxed dough until it feels smooth and springy (I did this step by hand).
Rising: (I used the Full Rise option. The recipe offered 3 options). Form the dough into a nice ball, place it in the greased bowl, turning it so the top is lightly greased also. Cover it and put it where it will be warm and cozy. Let this rise until it is doubled.
Shaping the Dough: (The recipe offered several ways to do this). I punched down the dough and rolled it out to almost fit my 16” pan. I transferred the dough to my greased pizza pan and used my fingers to stretch it across the remainder of the pan.
Preheating your oven: (I used the Later option. The recipe again offered 3 options). For the lightest, crunchiest crust, this is the best choice. Let your pizza rise for 15-30 minutes after you’ve decorated it. Preheat oven to 475 degrees for at least 15 minutes before you bake.
Decorating the Dough: Somewhere in the recipe it suggested brushing the dough with olive oil before decorating it to keep the sauce from making the crust soggy. This worked well for me. Put your favorite “stuff” on your pizza.
Baking the Pizza: The best way to bake pizza is on a pizza stone or quarry tiles (I used a pizza stone placed on the bottom of my oven with all racks removed). This makes the crust crisp and brown. If you don’t have either of these, place the pizza on the lowest rack of your oven to bake. Check it after 5 or 10 minutes of baking and lower the temperature to 450 degrees if it is browning too quickly. After taking your masterpiece out of the oven, let it cool to solidify the cheese a bit. This also makes cutting easier and sometimes prevents burned tongues.
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