Whole Grains consist of the entire grain seed of a plant, including the bran, the germ, and the endosperm.
Most of the flour we can buy in the local supermarket is refined and tripled sifted. That means the only thing that is left of the grain is the endosperm.
A lot of studies show that eating whole grains instead of refined grains lowers the risk of many chronic diseases. People who eat whole grains regularly also have a lower risk of obesity, and have lower cholesterol levels.
Whole grains include grains like wheat, corn, rice, oats, barley, quinoa, sorghum, spelt, rye and millet give you the full nutrient benefit if you eat them in their “whole” form.
You might be eating oats for breakfast and occasionally eat popcorn as a snack, but even people who are aware of the health benefits of whole grains are often unsure how to find them and prepare them.
The most common grain is wheat and most health stores will have Kialla’s wheat grain in stock.
You will need to soak the grains before eating or cooking. By soaking the grains you make the whole grains much more nutritious and digestible.
Below you will find a very simple whole grain sourdough bread recipe. The bread is very tasty and filling, and you can replace the wheat grain with any other type of grain, such as rye or spelt.
Sourdough rye bread with grains
Day 1
1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup rye or wheat grain
4 cups water
1 tsp Parisienne browning essence
Mix it all together and leave it on the kitchen bench for a minimum of 12 hours. Stir it 3 to 4 times.
The grains will soak some of the water.
Day 2
2 cup plain flour
2 cup rye flour
1 tbsp salt
+ Seeds (sesame or poppy seeds)
Mix together well. Pour into 2 large loaf pans and let it rise on the kitchen bench for 4 hours. Dust with seeds (optional) and bake in a pre-heated 200°C oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
For recipes to make all kinds of breads, grab a copy of the book One Dough, Fifty Breads.
Simply use your sourdough as the basic dough instead of the yeasted dough.
Info about our Organic Rye Flour over in our Products section.
About the author:
Pernille Berg Larsen lives by the mantra of keeping things simple. Author and teacher, she is passionate about spreading her message of how wholesome family food can be simple and fun to prepare.
This is the third in a series of posts Pernille is writing for us on baking bread. Her first post tells you why it’s a great idea to bake your own bread and provides a basic bread recipe where you can substitute the yeast for this sourdough starter.
