Sprouted flatbread

Way back in my bread heyday, circa 2005, I made this interesting bread called pitti, from the Hunza Valley in Pakistan (from an Alford and Duguid book, naturally - Flatbread and Flavours). What's so neat about it is that you don't make it from flour but instead from whole sprouted wheatberries; they are almost the only ingredient, with dried apricots and salt. They were really delicious, but I remembered them being a bit of a pain and never made them again.

Looking back with a bit more perspective, I realised that though they do take 2-3 days, there's hardly any work involved (if you have a food processor, that is), and the only thing about them that I had found annoying was having to scrape sticky wheatberries off a dishtowel over and over again while they sprouted. Being the granolaesque West Coasters that we are, in this kitchen we have sprouting trays which would remove that aspect entirely, so I've been meaning to make these since I got back from Asia.

The other day I finally got around to picking up some wheatberries at the local bulk food store and was in business! Wheatberries have nothing to do with berries - they are just whole, dried grains of wheat. You can also soak and then boil them and eat them as a grain, in salads, etc; they are featured in the Ukrainian Christmas dish kutia, mmmm. The cooked grains are also a great breakfast heated and topped with a small spoonful of maple syrup, for a Canadian adaptation.

The first step is to immerse the berries in cold water and let them sit for 18 hours. As easily done as said, except the timing part. For the past weeks I have been unaccountably busy and ended up having to let them soak for more like 22 hours. No big deal. After this, you rinse them off, and then either put them in a bowl and cover them with a towel and plate or lid, or if you have sprouting trays you just pop them in. Every 8-12 hours, you rinse and drain them again, until the sprouts are 1/3 as long as the berries themselves, at which point you're ready to make the dough.

This was a little more problematic for me, as try as I might I couldn't summon up the energy to deal with them after work on Thursday when they were already ready (I expected them to take till Friday). When I did get to them at 11pm on Friday, they had sprouted beautifully and the sprouts were now 2-3 times the length of the berries! Oops! I decided to go ahead and make the dough anyhow.

I did have to deal with one hated dishcloth manoeuvre, pouring the berries out and patting them dry, but once I can handle. Then it was into the Cuisinart, 2 cups at a time, with some dried apricots and salt. You process it until it starts moving around the bowl as one lump of dough. The grains are mostly ground up though some unevenness remains. At that point you need to let the dough rest for at least an hour - or, like me, pop it in the fridge, clean up the sticky mess, and collapse gratefully in bed.

This morning I brought the dough back to room temperature and preheated the oven. Then it was time to divide up the dough and on a floured surface roll out little round flatbreads about 1/4 inch thick. They rest on a baking tray, then bake until firm but still flexible. The result is a dense, chewy bread with soft apricot patches and chewier pockets of grain. When toasted and spread with goat cheese, it makes a fabulous breakfast.

The raw dough smelled sharper and greener for the over-enthusiastic sprouting, but there's not much flavour difference in the baked breads. And they are indeed rather delicious - I might not wait 5 years to make them again this time.