Making your own sprouted grains or sprouted wheat at home is easy, pretty quick, and straightforward. You need just whole grains, water, and a jar. Those sprouted grains can then be used to mix into bread or dried and milled into sprouted flour if you have some kind of grain mill.
Add your sprouted wheat to sprouted grain sourdough bread, make sprouted bread, or add a handful to recipes like this spelt bread (which can be made with sprouted flour) or einkorn sourdough. Apart from baking, they can be added to salads, turned into a porridge, or mixed in with cooked vegetables to make a grain bowl.
What You’ll Need
Notes and Substitutions
- Whole grains: use whole wheat berries, rye, or ancient grains like khorasan or einkorn. I usually use rye because I almost always have it on hand to grind fresh for baking dark rye bread.
- Jar: use a clean lidded jar that’s been run through the dishwasher or sterilised some other way. Making sure it’s very clean will prevent mould in your sprouted wheat.
Step by Step
Step 1: soak the grain for about two hours.
Step 2: drain fully and set in a cool, dark place.
Step 3: rinse frequently over the next couple of days.
Step 4: after a day or two, you’ll see small white tails on the grains, and they’ve sprouted.
Recipe Notes
The reason you don’t want to let your wheat or grain sprout for too long is because it turns bitter. If the sprouts are longer than 1cm (0.4 in.) there’s a good chance that they’ll have an off-putting, bitter flavour. This translates through into flour you might make with your sprouted grains as well.
Some blenders can be used to grind flour but make sure it’s specified for that use. I have a grain mill and have never used a high-speed blender. I don’t think a food processor would be powerful enough to grind flour but that could be possible.
How to Store
Storage: freshly sprouted grains should be used as soon as they’re ready and should otherwise be dried. Dry fully as directed in the recipe below and then store as you would usually store whole grains. I recommend keeping in the refrigerator or freezer.
Freezing: make sure the grains are completely dry, then transfer to an airtight container and freeze up to six months. Frozen grains must be thawed and dry before putting through a grain mill.
Expert Tips
- Don’t worry if you forget about them: the grains can soak for more than two hours before being drained and starting the sprouting process. More than overnight is pushing it but it’s okay if they’ve been soaking for up to 12 hours.
- Use a sieve: rather than rinsing the grains in a sieve and then transferring back to the jar, I add fresh water to the jar, then place a fine mesh sieve upside-down against the opening of the jar and pour the water out. It’s much easier. There are special sprouting lids but they’re almost always made out of plastic and a really unnecessary purchase.
- Choose good grain: while I’ve never had a problem with sprouting grains, I guess there would be some that are treated with something before being sold that may be harder to sprout. I wouldn’t buy conventional grain from a feed store for this recipe, for example (you can get rye and wheat berries at ‘health-food stores’).
More Staple Recipes and Guides
Homemade Vanilla Extract
How to Make Oat Flour
Rye Sourdough Starter
Homemade Peanut Butter
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How to Make Sprouted Grains (and Sprouted Flour)
Description
Instructions
- Use any amount of wheat berries you'd like, but consider this a good starting point. It's a good amount to add to a loaf of bread.
- Add the wheat berries to a clean jar and cover with cool water. Soak for about two hours, or up to overnight.50 grams (¼ cup) rye or wheat berries, Water
- After soaking, drain well. Set aside in a cool, dark place, like the corner of a kitchen counter, and cover the jar with a lid.
- Rinse as often as you think of it, but at least once or twice. After about 24 hours, you should see sprouts forming (little white tails on the grain). Your sprouted grains are now ready to use.
- Don't let the sprouts get too long. It makes the grain taste bitter. Refrigerate for another day if needed before using.
- To dry your sprouted wheat, rinse in a fine mesh sieve and dry as much as possible before turning out onto a tea towel. I place the tea towel on a large baking sheet to contain the grains. They should dry fully at room temperature after a day or two but you may need to use a fan or dehumidifier if your home is humid. You can use a dehydrator if you have one.
- Once fully dried, store in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to a month or freeze up to six months.
- To mill your sprouted grains, dry fully first and then run through your grain mill or other tool that you can use to grind them. Keep sprouted grain flour in the refrigerator.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate. If this information is important to you, please have it verified independently.