I only used half of the berries that I bought so I’m going to try again with the following changes: Let the berries dry for at least 6 hours after the final rinse, limit the thickness of the batter to 1†in the pan, cook for 6 hours at 200° and let completely cool before turning out onto rack.
It looks great.
The texture you describe is what you are looking for with this bread. Glad you liked the taste and even better yet that your wife liked it! I also have some more wheat berries and will give it another go. Between the two of us we should be able to get this worked out!
My problem was also with too much moisture in the sprouts. How are you going to dry them out? I don't want to get them too dry. It is supposed to be moist, but dough should not be (for lack of a better word) loose. From what I remember from back in the day, once you made the loaf, that was the shape it held. My goal is to make a nice rounded 1 lb. loaf.
Here is my game plan. I am planning to soak, rinse, and drain like the first time. However, before I grind them I am going to wrap them in a towel or cheese cloth and twist the ends to wring out some of the excess water, Hopefully I can do this without drying out the berries. I will definitely add some dried fruit to it (probably figs or dates) and some nuts.
I understand the purist line of thinking to bake at a really low temp for 12-14 hours to preserve the enzymes. However, it's not brisket, it's bread!! On my last batch, I think the bread absorbed too much smoke baking at the lower temp (130-135ish). I liked your idea of starting at 170. I am not too worried about the enzymes being alive or dead, so I think I will probably start around 200-225 range and see where I am at in about 6 hours.
Let me know when you start soaking your berries and I will start mine at the same time and we can compare notes. I appreciate your doing this, it helps to see someone else do it. I learned a lot from your efforts!
