Essene Bread
I was recently delighted to learn that one of my all time favourite breads is very easy to make. Thanks to Billy Jones for sharing this technique with me. In order to make Essene Bread, you require a food processor or juicer and a dehydrator in order to make it. If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can put the bread in the oven at as low a temperature as possible with the oven door open. Essene bread is made with sprouted grains. I used just over a cup of hard wheat.
photo: Wikipedia, Fritzs, Wikimedia Commons
To sprout the grains, you put them in a jar, add water, cover the jar opening with cheese cloth, and then strain the water out. Rinse and strain two or three times a day until the grain starts to sprout, usually about 4 or 5 times a day. Keep the jar in a dark place until the sprouts appear, then leave the jar in a brighter place for a day or two. At this point, soak any nuts or fruits you’re going to add so that they swell and are easier to grind.
From Wikipedia: The following is an excerpt from The Essene Gospel of Peace, as translated by Edmund Bordeaux Szekely.
Let the angels of God prepare your bread. Moisten your wheat, that the angels of water may enter it. Then set it in the air, that the angel of air may embrace it. And leave it from morning to evening beneath the sun, that the angel of sunshine may descend upon it. And the blessings of the three angels will soon make the germ of life to sprout in your wheat. Then crush your grain, and make thin wafers, as did your forefathers when they departed out of Egypt, the house of bondage. Put them back again beneath the sun from its appearing, and when it is risen to its highest in the heavens, turn them over on the other side that they may be embraced there also by the angel of sunshine, and leave them there until the sun sets. For the angels of water, and air and of sunshine fed and ripened the wheat in the field, and they likewise must prepare also your bread. And the same sun which, with the fire of life, made the wheat to grow and ripen, must cook your bread with the same fire. For the fire of the sun gives life to the wheat, to the bread, and to the body. But the fire of death kills the wheat, the bread, and the body. And the living angels of the living God serve only living men. For God is the God of the living, and not the God of the dead.
A typical Essene bread recipe:
1. Sprout wheat berries over the course of about 4 days, rinsing twice daily.
2. In a food processor, add sprouted wheat berries and other choice ingredients.
3. Once the dough has formed into a ball in processor and clings together, let sit for an hour.
4. Bake on oiled baking sheet at 300 degrees for 2.5 hours. To preserve more enzymes, bake at 200 degrees for 4 hours, or in a slow cooker on its low setting for up to 8 hours. (In place of this step, I used a dehydrator which keeps all nutrients intact.)
Though the modern method involves the use of an oven rather than the sun, both methods create a round, flattened loaf, rather like a sweet, moist dessert bread or cake.
If you want the bread to be sweetened, you can stir 1/4 cup or so of honey or maple syrup into the mash before you put it into the dehydrator.
Essene Bread will become a new staple food for me. I’m eating the loaf made last night, and have more hard wheat sprouting as I type.
Here is a link to the text of the Essene Gospel of Peace.
You must be logged in to post a comment.