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To Your Health Sprouted Flour Co. - July 2011 Newsletter

A MESSAGE FROM PEGGY

New Mill

One of our new products, sprouted oats, being prepared for the drying room

Better late than never! I’m happy to say that our new sprouted products will be available on our web site for purchase August 1st. They include the following sprouted organic and kosher products: AMARANTH, BUCKWHEAT, KAMUT, OATS, and QUINOA.

We have also updated our packaging to include complete nutrition facts as required by the FDA, so look for additional information on your grains and flours soon.

Although it leaves you feeling a little moldy, the southeast has been experiencing much needed rain for the last few weeks. I told Jeff my body is beginning to experience vitamin D withdrawals from lack of sun. My lawn chair is calling my name! It isn’t really anything new, but the weather cycles lately seem somewhat “out of whack“ around the country. Some are experiencing drought, some flooding, and even snow in the middle of summer? Whatever conditions you’re experiencing around the country and the world, I hope you are blessed, safe and healthy.

This month features a story and recipe from a lovely friend of Sam our graphic design expert. Sam was interning in Berlin recently and met Ana Sofia who had a great story about her pizza experiences in Rome. She’s been kind enough to share her recipe for great pizza since it’s very popular with so many of us. With Ana’s permission I converted her recipe measurements to work with sprouted flour, but left the delightful flavor of Ana’s native accent so you can enjoy the personal touch of her story and recipe. I slightly altered the measurements for working with sprouted flour.

You’ll find a couple of non–gluten recipes to add to your collection. These are from Suicide by Sugar by Nancy Appleton. If you have favorite recipes please share! We’d love to publish your yummy sprouted goodies and share them with our readers.

Maria Lamb has sent us a training update. Sounds like her training season is in full swing. Don’t know how she does it but we wish her a great season with no injuries and new records. Maria incorporates lots of sprouted grains and flours into her diet. We’re very proud of her achievements in the Olympic speed skating arena.

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Ana Sofia's Pizza Story and Recipe

So, here it is my pizza recipe!!! It’s really simple!!!! I also sent you some pictures from the process. I didn’t send a picture of myself because I am shy and I don’t want to have my face in the newsletter(LOL). I hope you’ll understand this!!! Of course, you can change what you want ;)

So here is the story:

I was in Rome last summer and was really surprised with their pizzas. The ingredients are fantastic and most of the pizzas were made in a traditional fired wood oven. I found that one of the most amazing traditional places to eat a nice pizza in Rome was in the Trastevere neighborhood. You can eat a big, big pizza for just 8 euros and share it with your friends, love, or family! However, in all the city you can eat fantastic slices of pizza for a couple of euros, while you are checking the sights.

I was really inspired with their fresh ingredients. Of course, if you eat in a big pizza chain it’s not that great. First, the “base“ it’s not so yummy and the “topping ingredients“ are not fresh, and I can say that most of them come straight from the package or can! Surprising, in Italy, big pizza chains don’t exist!

So, going back to my story: I was missing the flavor of these homemade Italian pizzas and I decided to make one at home, with fresh ingredients but using the normal oven so I went to the supermarket and I bought, for the topping:

  • 3 oz. mozzarella cheese (whole milk fresh), sliced
  • ½ cup organic tomato sauce (or homemade)
  • 3 oz. feta cheese, crumbled
  • 1 zucchini, sliced thin
  • 1 red pepper, sliced thin or chopped
  • Fresh basil and oregano, chopped
Ana Sofia's Pizza Story and Recipe

Base (for 2 pizzas)

  • 5 cups sprouted wheat or spelt flour (plus extra for kneading surface)
  • 1 tablespoon sea salt
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon sugar (can substitute your choice of sweetener such as honey)
  • 10 oz. plus 4 tablespoons of warm filtered water (80 degrees)
  • 1 package or2 ½ teaspoons dry active yeast

Make the base:

  1. Put the flour and the sugar into a large bowl. Mix them. Then, make a hole in the middle of the flour.
  2. In a small bowl, mix the yeast, olive oil, and salt in ¼ cup of warm water.
  3. After that you have to put the mixture of the warm water with the yeast in the hole. After that, add the remainder of the warm water (except the 4 tablespoons).
  4. Mix, mix, and mix until it looks like a “plasticine“ ball (knead well). But be careful because when you mix this ball, you need to put a bit of flour on the table and on your hands. Otherwise it’s going to be sticky and you cannot mix the ball with your hands. NOTE: If your dough is too dry add 1 tablespoon of water during the kneading process until you get the consistency you want; not too sticky, but not dry).
  5. Split this in two balls and leave to rest in a bowl for 2 hours (inside the oven, but the oven must be off. The important thing is that the balls need to rest to grow more and to be ready to be used). NOTE: cover the dough with plastic wrap or a damp tea towel and let it rise to double in volume, about 1 to 1 ½ hours in a warm spot in your kitchen.
  6. Punch down a ball of dough and using your fingers stretch your pizza dough to the shape and thinness you like. Spread on the tomato sauce, arrange cheeses and veggies, sprinkle with fresh herbs and bake.
  7. Ana suggested preheating your oven to 220 degrees and baking for 20 minutes. Note From Peggy: I’m thinking she may have meant 420 degrees, but I recommend at least preheating your oven to 380 degrees.
  8. If you’re only going to bake one pizza, you can wrap ½ of your dough in plastic wrap or place in an airtight glass container once you’ve completed the kneading process and place in the refrigerator overnight. Just bring it out to your warm spot to rise 2 hours or more before you’re ready to bake with it. Try making bread sticks or maybe herbed pinwheels for variety with the second half of dough.

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Pie Crust

(from Suicide By Sugar by Nancy Appleton)

Yield: 9–inch pie crust

  • 1/3 cup sprouted* barley flour (can substitute millet flour for a non–gluten version)
  • 1/3 cup sprouted* brown rice flour
  • 1/3 cup sprouted* quinoa flour
  • ½ cup melted butter

*: Sprouted flour is my addition. Nancy does not indicate sprouted flour in her recipes

  1. In a medium bowl, combine the flours. Add the butter and stir with a fork until it forms a crumbly, moist (not wet) dough. (If the mixture is too dry, add water a few drops at a time.) Form the dough into a ball.
  2. Place the dough between two sheets of wax paper and roll it into a 10–inch circle. Transfer the circle of dough to a 9–inch pie pan and gently press it against the sides of the pan. Trim off the excess dough and crimp the edges. The crust is now ready to fill.
  3. If you want to pre–bake the crust for a no–bake pie filling, simply prick the bottom of the dough with a fork (to keep it from bubbling up) and bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool before adding your favorite no–bake filling.

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Peggy's Bookshelf

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Maria Lamb

The heat is on! No, I’m not referring to the weather (although that could aptly sum up the current Utah weather), but the training! Summer is officially in full swing and as a speedskater that means volume, volume, volume, with a good dose of intensity. This is when I build my massive endurance base that will give me the stamina to make it through the season, and fight through that last few laps of a 5k. It means endless bike rides through the hot Utah sun, killer intervals up crazy mountain roads, dry land until I’m more comfortable crouched over in the skating positions than I am standing, and seemingly endless hours in the weight room. It’s hard, it’s crazy, it’s exhausting, and there are days where all I do is train, eat and sleep, but I love it! I love the simple purity of it, the challenge of it, and the joy of finding that I had more than I thought I did.

I have been feeling like things have been going really well, but it’s always nice to know that your gut feeling is right, to have numbers to back it up, and I got that a few weeks ago. I had my best bike test results ever! I was pushing more watts per kilo of my body weight than I ever have, with a lower lactate level as well. In case all that doesn’t mean much to you, I could sum it by saying I am in really good shape. It’s good to know the training is doing what it’s supposed to, now I can just lose myself, bury myself in the training. I think of it sometimes as digging a great, big, deep hole. Just digging and digging until I can’t dig any more, then coming up for a breath of air, before going back to the digging. And each time, I come back stronger, and I can dig a little bit deeper hole before I have to come up for air again. Maybe it’s a strange analogy, but that’s how I think of it, and I get great joy out of seeing how deep a hole I can dig myself into!

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