In The Kitchen - More Sprouts & Bread

So lately I have not done a huge amount of interesting cooking (not counting Superbowl), however I have baked a bit and continued my sprouting experiments.

First up, this is my new favorite bread. It's a whole rye berry sourdough loaf which contains rye berries, rye flour and rye sourdough - hence 100% rye.

What's so very fascinating about this bread is the flavor, texture and well, how it's made. Since rye contains no gluten, you don't need a mixer, you just stir it together. And since 100% rye breads don't rise noticeably, there is no need for long periods of rising time. But most interestingly: it's baked for two whole hours in a 325 degree oven with lots of steam! This type of bread is very popular in eastern Europe and you slice it thinly. It's super delicious with cream cheese and sprouts, or with almond butter and jelly like above. Try it if you want a different baking experience - and you want to bake some bread that stays fresh for a long time (I've enjoyed slices a week and a half after baking, and apparently it stays for a few weeks if in a plastic bag in the fridge!)

I'm not sure I'm properly expressing how very excited I am about this bread. It's like a whole other baking experience, another type of bread entirely. This one will definitely go into my frequent baking repertoire category.

Also continuing on with the sprouts. This is mung beans below.

This was the first time I ever had sprouted mung beans. And I was somehow surprised they didn't sprout very large - no tail to speak of at all. I added just about a tablespoon in my mason jar (also see how I bought one of those metal mesh lids!) because with alfalfa that filled up the whole jar. With mung beans though I could have added three tablespoons probably and have it fit without issues. Interesting texture and flavor here: a bit floury, mild. I think this is better for salads really than on top of sandwiches. 

And here we have experiments with sunflower seeds and clover seeds. Sunflower seeds - catastrophy. I'm not getting any sprouts at all here, this is the third day of sunflowers with overnight soaking and then twice a day rinsing. This is going in the garbage, I'm not sure how to improve on those. To the right are clover sprouts. These are really weird: yesterday I tried some on my sandwich, even though they weren't fully sprouted; I figured they should be alright still. But no! It was like eating litte rocks, little bits of sand: so hard! And that was on the fifth day of sprouting. These clover ones are really taking forever, but I guess I'll just have to be patient...