Has anyone ever made Essene Bread? It is made from sprouted wheat or rye berries. Once they are sprouted they can be ground in a food processor or meat grinder. Salt, dates, figs, or raisins can be added if desired. The ground berries are kneaded a bit and shaped into loafs, then baked at a very low temp anywhere from 4-8 hours depending on the heat source. I have not made this in a few decades, but decided to give it a try. I was surprised how hard it was to find wheat berries. Checked all kinds of stores, but nobody had them. Ended up ordering them online.

The sprouts are just about ready, think I will get at least 2 loafs. I plan to put them in the pellet grill at 180* either tonight or tomorrow.

I've never heard of Essene Bread so I did a little research. It sounds interesting and it looks  like the local WinCo has wheat berries so I'm going to give it a try. A recipe that I found uses walnuts and dates but I think that I'll use pecans and raisins. Thanks for the idea.

Hope you take lots of photos of the process and result

Hope you take lots of photos of the process and result

and the ingredients

The bread is baking as we speak (or as I try to type).

I  started out on Friday night soaking 3 cups of berries in 3 cups of water. Overnight they absorbed most of the water. I rinsed them in a colander and left them in there to drain. I put a plate on top of the colander to keep the top layer of berries from drying out. I kept them in a dark spot and rinsed them 3 or 4 times a day until Monday afternoon.

After patting down the berries with a paper towel I pulsed them in a food processor until they started to ball. I have also used a meat grinder in the past. I ended up with a little over 2 lbs of dough.

I formed two loafs with the dough. Flattened it out so it would cook quicker. It can be rounded up in more of a loaf.

I did not add anything except a little olive oil on my gloves while forming the loafs. The berries stick like crazy! You can add dates, figs, nuts, or seeds. I like dates and figs, but I thought I would start with just the wheat berries. Rye is also very good.

Two days in.
 [ Invalid Attachment ]

Sprouting setup.
 [ Invalid Attachment ]

Sprouts before grinding.
 [ Invalid Attachment ]

Pulsed. This is the second of two batches. However I was not repulsed by it (sorry)!
 [ Invalid Attachment ]

 [ Invalid Attachment ]

Baking on the smoke setting. Around 135 degrees. This is at the 3 hour mark.
 [ Invalid Attachment ]

Looks interesting, can't wait to see the cut loaf. What do you do with it or how is it eaten?

I have seen recipies list temperatures for this bread all over the map, ranging from 108-350 degrees. It does figure that cooking times also vary from 2-12 hours. The origanal recipe literally goes back thousands of years and was probably baked all day on desert rocks.

I started out on smoke  (it held fairly steady around 135). After 5 hours and was not close. I bumped it up to 200 for an hour. In the dark it looked like it might done, so I took it off the grill. When I got in the house it still had a ways to go. I turned the oven on low for a half hour and then turned it off. I will let it sit in the oven overnight and hopefully it will be good for breakfast in the morning. I should have put it on earlier in the day, but good news is there is a lot of flexibility and forgiveness in this recipe!

It turned out OK. The crust was hard and the inside was nice and moist. It has kind of a nutty sweet taste. The smoke was a nice touch. I think dried fruit would be good to add to the mix. I think we have some fig jam somewhere deep inside a cupboard. If I can find that, it would be worth a try.

Next time I think I will start at 200, my guess is it will take about 4 hours at that temp. I will also use corn meal on the pan to keep it from sticking. Overall a good experiment. Hope to try it again in the near future.

 [ Invalid Attachment ]

 [ Invalid Attachment ]

Fascinating.

I started these Sunday afternoon, they are now starting to sprout. I'm guessing that they should be ready for processing tomorrow. Based on comments above, I'm going to smoke at 170° for 4-5 hours. jdmessner, is there a specific IT that I should be shooting for?

jdmessner, is there a specific IT that I should be shooting for?

Looking good! Curious to hear how you like it. It is a bit of an acquired taste. I looked high and low for an IT. The only thing I could find was for regular bread and that was an IT of 190. Not sure if that applies in this case. I thought about taking one, but didn't. Let me know what you come up with.

I read somewhere that Essene Bread temperature should not exceed 160° to prevent the grain enzymes from being killed(?). I'm going to go with my 170°  plan for 4-5 hours and (to humor the health police) limit the IT to 155°. I don't have a bread pan so I'm going to form a loaf ~2" thick by hand and smoke it on a frog mat. Once the IT hits ~155°,  I'm going to shut down the smoker and leave the bread in it over night to further dehydrate. 

What does it smell like pre and post cook?

What does it smell like pre and post cook?

Back in the day, long before craft beer became a thing, I was known to brew a batch or two of homebrew. It has probably been about 25 years since I have done a batch. However when the berries were sprouting, the smell reminded me of malted barley simmering on the stove. After they were baked they absorbed the smoke and that was the predominate smell.