We are coming up on a crazy month. The temporary holdover home we will be moving into should be ready for us in 2 weeks, so we will be moving then. Goodbye terrible oven! Goodbye hideous counters with no space for rolling out dough! We signed the contract to build our house so that is really going to happen. (!! Panic sets in!!) I have so many decisions to make it is not even funny—on everything from whether to get a tankless water heater to whether to get a lift for my KA mixer in the kitchen. And you can imagine which decision I am having fun contemplating and which one feels like work.

In light of that I almost decided not to do this month’s Bread Baking Day. Call me unadventurous—although I think I have proven that not to be true at least in some respects—but I just could not wrap my brain around making bread out of sprouts. I put sprouts in my Asian food out of the obligation to be authentic, rather than any deep love of sprouts. And whenever I pictured them in bread? Well let’s just say that I could not picture them in bread.

I procrastinated about this. I whined to anyone who would listen. I swore I was just skipping this month. I started an entire thread on the CLBB attempting to get inspiration. I suppose I succeeded because I did make the bread, but only out of fear I would never live it down in that community if I chickened out.

So the bread has been made and I stand corrected.

I have no idea if it was the sprouts or the basic recipe, but this bread is terrific. I started from a basic recipe from Sproutpeople mostly because I decided I wanted to sprout something that sprouted quickly, and I chose quinoa based on what I already had—and then I could not find much guidance at all for using something like sprouted quinoa in bread. But Sproutpeople assured me it was one of the basic grains that could be sprouted and used for this recipe. Head on over to 1x umrühren bitte to check out this one year anniversary of Bread Baking Day.

Sprouted Quinoa & Honey Bread

Adapted from Sproutpeople

2 1/4 cups lukewarm water
2 T active dry yeast
pinch of sugar
1/2 cup shortening (I used Earth Balance)
1/2 cup honey
1 T salt
2 cups sprouted quinoa, left whole
7-8 cups AP flour, divided into 4 and 4 cups
1/4 cup wheat bran flakes
1/4 cup cornmeal

Pour the lukewarm water over the yeast and pinch of sugar in a large mixing bowl and let stand for 5 minute. It will get foamy.

Add the sprouted quinoa, salt, cornmeal, wheat bran flakes ad 4 cups of the flour. Beat until smooth. Cover and let this sponge stand for 45-60 minutes.

Add the remaining 3-4 cups of flour—stop when the dough comes together and forms a mass. Knead until smooth. Placed in greased bowl and cover with greased plastic wrap. Let rise until doubled, 60-90 minutes.

Gently punch down the risen dough and divide into 3 equal portions (Sproutpeople is vague on how many loaves this makes—I made 2 9X5 loaves and decided next time I would make 3 8X4 loaves as I think the loaves were too big). Shape into logs and place into greased 8X4 loaf pans. Cover again with greased plastic wrap and let rise until nearly doubled, 45-60 minutes. 30 minutes in to the rising period, preheat the oven to 375 F.

Bake in the preheated 375 F oven for 35-40 minutes, or until an internal thermometer registers 200 F. Let cool for as long as you can to prevent the loaf collapsing—I usually aim for a minimum of 30 minutes, but we are not patient people when it comes to fresh baked bread.