Sprouty buns!

On Monday at The Big Carrot, I bought some soft wheat kernels to sprout.  I started them right away, along with a batch of basic no-knead Artisan Bread in Five Minutes bread.  (you can buy them at almost any natural-food store, in the bulk-bin section)

To sprout the kernels (also called wheat berries), I soak them overnight in a plain unbleached cotton bag, then drain well and rinse twice a day (hanging to dry well in between rinses) until they grow a tail.  These tails are a bit short; I usually leave them a bit longer.  Not bad, though, for a day and a half of growth.  (They’re a bit floury because I forgot to take the picture while they were still in the bag.  I don’t use any flour in the sprouting process.)

So today I dumped out the Artisan Bread – which has a nice, ripe smell after two days’ fermentation in the fridge – along with the pre-soaked wheat.  (I had about a cup of kernels to begin with; didn’t weigh or measure after soaking.)

I separated three pounds of dough (enough for two 1.5lb loaves) and folded about half the wheat berries into it, then dropped that back into the bucket.

As for the rest of the dough, I rolled it in the other half of the wheat berries.  They mostly clung to the outside, which is okay.  This is about 1000g of dough-plus-wheat-berries.

 

I divided it into ten 100g “buns,” rounded them off and then – with the help of plenty of flour – I deliberately formed the buns on the flat side; most hamburger buns are altogether too bready for my taste!  I plopped the top in extra wheat berries for texture and visual appeal.

Here they are resting on cornmeal.

  

450 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes, and they’re done!

 

Beautiful inside – that nutty taste and texture is just gorgeous!

Of course, these were homemade hamburgers to go with, featuring fresh Ontario garlic and farmers’ market green onions chopped up right into the burger.  Oh, and panko, if you please, because I’m out of regular bread crumbs.

 

Mmm, delicious!