The Story of Super Sprout

Peter Reinhart's Demo at the Asheville Artisan Bread Festival Introducing Super Sprout™, April 2011

"Here's the story on the flour provided by Lindley Mills: Anyone who has ever had Ezekiel Bread or Alvarado Street Bread knows about sprouted wheat, but this new flour is something different. Those aforementioned breads use wheat berries that have been sprouted and then mashed into a pulp, supplemented with vital wheat gluten, honey, salt, yeast, water and, voila!, it makes a pretty decent bread without using any "flour" at all because the wheat is never actually ground into flour, only a pulp. But with the new version of sprouted wheat flour that I used at the festival, on the other hand, it starts with sprouted wheat berries but then the berries are dried, and then the dried sprouts are milled into a very fine flour, and treated as flour from that point on. The amazing thing is how much water this new flour can absorb--typically around 90%-100% of the flour weight (as opposed to the typical 72%-75% for regular whole wheat flour, and only 65%-68% water to flour for white bread). More importantly, the flavor of this sprouted flour is unbelievable--sweet and tender-- yet it forms a strong gluten network and is high in protein. I added no oil to tenderize it, no sugar or honey to sweeten it; it was perfect without any of those additions."In my opinion it makes the best whole wheat bread I've ever eaten or made, and I think it definitely represents the next frontier in flour and bread making."

(excerpt from Peter's Blog)