How To Make Natural Sweeteners From Grain

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WHEAT SPROUT BREAD

4 cups wheat berries (or a mixture of wheat and barley)
8 cups water
1 teaspoon sea salt or kelp powder
4 tablespoons sunflower or sesame seeds
1 cup flour, optional

Soak the wheat overnight in water, drain the berries, anti sprout them as described above. Then crush the sprouts in a grain mill to produce a creamy, paste-like dough. This is easier to handle if you wet your hands frequently . . . and it's important to wash the mill as soon as you've finished, or the mash will dry like glue and be almost impossible to remove.

The ground sprouts can be combined with the other ingredients in this recipe (omit the flour if you wish) or used to replace part of the flour and sweetening agent in other breadmaking directions. If you use the above formula, pat the dough into shapes about six inches in diameter and only about one inch thick for best results. Bake the bread at 300° F for one and a half to two hours. Although the sprouts are rich in enzymes and have a slight leavening effect, the finished product will be dense and chewy.

MALTING

To make slightly malted sprouts sprouts for use in bread batter, spread the germinated gain on a cookie sheet and roast it gently for about 15 minutes before grinding. This step reduces a vegetable taste which the cereal sometimes develops.

The process can be carried farther by roasting the sprouts in a very low oven (225°-250° F) for about two hours or until they are very crisp and uniformly dark brown in color. The result is a rich, sweet-tasting crunchy snack food which can be thrown in with a favorite granola mixture or eaten as is. Alternatively, you can grind the sprouts in a gain mill or electric blender and use them to sweeten cereal batters.

The powdered malt also serves as a sweet grain coffee. Measure out one rounded teaspoonful for every six ounces of water, add a small amount of chicory and/or cinnamon and brew the drink 10 minutes.

The technique described above increases not only the sweetness but also the food value of cereals. According to a report of studies made at the USDA's Barley and Malt Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin, the malting process causes considerable changes in protein and sugar composition. The proteins of malts are higher than those of the original grains in several essential amino acids . . . notably lysine—the main limiting amino acid of this food group—as well as arganine aspartic acid, alanine, valine, isoleucine, and leucine. (As readers of Frances Moore Lappe's Diet For A Small Planet already know, the "essential" amino acids are not synthesized by the body and must be eaten regularly in the correct proportions. If a protein food is deficient in one of these components, the "limiting" amino acid will correspondingly reduce the utilization of all the others.—MOTHER.)

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