How to Make Sprouted Wheat Flour

Making your own sprouted wheat flour is as easy as 1, 2, 3…

First, fill jars (I use quarts) 1/2 full with grain (this is a soft, spring wheat I plan to use in cookies). Fill to the brim with water and let them soak on the counter overnight.

Second, Drain and rinse the grain (my green sprouting lids come in handy here – they have a screen on the top so I can drain and rinse without even taking off the lids) Leave your grain upside down in your drain and rinse it several times through the day. The idea is to keep it moist until…

It sprouts! 

Lastly As soon (and I do mean as soon) as you see it sprouting, you want to dry it. You don’t want that grain to grow stems and become a big, hairy mess. That will not make a nice flour – it will taste stronger and not act like flour. It will act like ground up plants. So, arrest the sprouting process by getting your grain spread out in a nice, warm, dry place. 

A dehydrator is ideal. I don’t have one. Spare window screens, spread with a tea towel and set above a warm vent works fine in the winter. My friend, Claire, has a solar powered dehydrator I want to copy for use in the summer. You can use your oven on a really low setting, but I usually end up toasting my grain, and that doesn’t make a nice tasting flour, either. Figure out what works for you (share your ideas in  the comments, please!)

Once the grain is dried, you can grind it just like regular grain, and use it in recipes where soaking the batter isn’t an option (like cookies or pastry – this makes a lovely quiche crust, though it’s a little crumbly for pie.)

I know some of you are asking, Why Sprout? 

“Sprouting accomplishes a veritable predigestion of grains. Phytic acid, which blocks the absorption or calcium and magnesium, is largely decomposed. So are certain sugars which cause intestinal gas. Part of the starch is transformed into sugars and numerous enzymes that aid digestion are produced.” Claude Aubert Dis-Moi Comment Tu Cuisines (quoted in Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon)

Digestion was my system weakness that began my real food journey. I’m passionate about any way I can make grains more digestable – it’s that or give them up entirely, which I did for 6 months. Ever had Pizza with a grated potato crust? Yeah, glad we’re beyond that...☺

I have been on a 4 year journey of getting the point where all the grain we consume is either sprouted or soaked before we eat it. Just when I think I’m almost there, something comes up – my grain mill breaks, or I get pregnant and I have to cut back on food prep. But it’s a goal. Ideally our grain consumption will look like this:

Muffins, Tortillas, Bread and Pizza dough – soaked
Cookies, Pastry, and buiscuts, – sprouted wheat flour
Rice and Oats, – soaked

I really, really love making my cookies with sprouted wheat flour, and 1/2 butter and 1/2 coconut oil. With dark cocoa. Oh my. So good, “and so good for you!” I reason. In fact, I had 3 right before I wrote this post. Mmmm. Guilt free cookies. Foretaste of Heaven.