The Best Homemade Bread {Vegan, Sprouted}
This is the best homemade bread that’s completely vegan and made with sprouted flour! Plus, it’s so easy to do on a Sunday morning!
If you’ve ever made homemade bread before and failed, fear not because I now have THE BEST homemade bread you will ever taste! Yes, I’m that sure of it!
Now that’s quite a title to claim. Let me explain why I think this sprouted homemade bread is truly the best (and hint: it’s vegan too!).
So my bread journey actually began not too long ago, and let me tell you: there were many failed attempts. I wouldn’t wait for the yeast to actually prove (I think that’s the right bread terminology…I’m kinda new here!) or I wouldn’t give the bread enough time to rise…there are many ways that I easily failed at making the best homemade bread before. The steps are so key here!
But now, I’ve really figured out a way that I quite honestly like more than store bought bread.
To me, this vegan homemade bread reminds me of the bread my host mom would serve when I lived in Florence. It’s not quite salty, but just enough to give it flavor.
It’s also quite doughy, sort of like the brown bread baguette slices you would get from Panera (oh my goodness, did I LOVE that in high school! Tbt! Except if you’re not reading this on a Thursday! Lol. Okay I’m really dating myself here, I’m not that millennial, I swear!).
But I swear, the doughiness makes for the best homemade bread in my opinion. I think it has something to do with the flour being sprouted (oh, I haven’t mentioned that part yet! Yes, this is sprouted bread!) so it acts a little differently than un-sprouted wheat bread.
Trust me on this one, though, you’re going to love it. And it’s a vegan homemade bread and completely refined sugar free! Let me explain 😉
The Best Homemade Bread Ingredients:
Sprouted Wheat Flour: now, sprouted flour acts a little differently than regular wheat flour. I’m guessing this is because by sprouting it, you’re actually reducing the gluten sensitivity, and since yeast needs gluten (and sugar) in order to react, you don’t need to punch the bread down after it’s risen (I’ll get to that later). But I like using sprouted flour, I really enjoy the taste of it! Definitely different than wheat flour, but if all you have is regular flour, you’ll still have the best homemade bread 😉 Trust me!
Warm Water: you definitely want to make sure the water here is warm and not scalding hot- if it’s hotter than 107F, then it will most likely kill the yeast before it has time to properly activate and help the bread rise. Then you won’t exactly get bread, but more of a doughy focaccia haha! Still good, I imagine, but we’re going for the best homemade BREAD here! Let’s do focaccia another time!
Activated Yeast: make sure that you have activated yeast and not instant yeast! There is a difference! I have not tried this vegan homemade bread with instant yeast, so I cannot vouch for any results. Activated yeast obviously does take more time than instant yeast, but trust me, it’s worth the wait!
Sea Salt: you won’t be using as much sea salt in here as a regular bread, but just enough to give it a good flavor! I think that’s why it tastes so much like Florentine bread to me. Centuries ago, there was a salt shortage in Florence, Italy because it was too expensive, and so the Florentines decided to make their bread without salt. When salt became affordable again, they still decided not to add it because they had become known for their salt-less bread! It won’t taste as salt-free as Florentine bread, but I think less salt actually tastes good! If you like your sprouted bread on the salty side, feel free to add more- this is all up to taste!
Maple Syrup: now, what’s not up to taste is using maple syrup. You do need some sort of sugar in here (I know, my sugar haters are not going to like to hear this, but sugar is nothing to fear! Want to know why? Because all carbohydrates are made up of the same molecules: just a differing ratio of oxygen, carbon, and hydrogen. SO then what do we have to fear? This really helped me get over my fear and demonization of sugar!). Yeast needs sugar in order to kickstart the activation process. Skip the sugar part, and your bread won’t rise! I used to hate on companies that added sugar to their bread thinking why do we need to sweeten savory items?! But it wasn’t because they just like to use a lot of sugar. It’s actually for the chemical reaction needed to get your bread to rise!
That’s it, folks! Only five ingredients! How easy is that? And the maple syrup I think really does help to make this the best homemade bread. Something about maple syrup, I don’t know man…it really works!
Now let’s get onto the process of making this homemade bread!
The Best Homemade Bread Directions:
You’ll start by combining some warm water, maple syrup, and yeast in a large bowl. Please please give it time to activate- about 10 minutes!
Then you’ll slowly add in the flour, water, and sea salt until you finally get one large, sticky dough ball!
Then we knead. Kneading is key here! I’ve read from a few people that it’s good to knead about 75-100 times. So that works out to about 15 minutes or so. Not bad!
Next, we let the bread rise in a greased bowl so that the dough doesn’t stick to the sides of the bowl! Let the bread rise for about 4 hours- because it’s sprouted and it’s wheat (I actually learned this tip from one of my readers on Instagram!), it actually needs more time to rise. So if you have more than 4 hours, please give this vegan homemade bread the amount of time it needs! However, 4 hours is the bare minimum. So don’t skip!
Once it has risen, we place it in a parchment lined loaf pan and let it bake for about 35-45 minutes, depending on your oven. You can check the doneness by how hard the crust on top is. If you’re still unsure, cut into the side on the end to see if it’s still doughy.
Now for how to eat this bread 🙂 My personal preference is one of these toast options! I just love my homemade vegan Nutella on top or with a little bit of hummus and avocado!
I bet it will also taste amazing too as French toast! That’s next on my list to try 😉
Now, if you’re wondering how I find time to make this bread when I have a packed schedule, it’s easy 🙂 All about planning! You can find out more by downloading my FREE meal prep guide below! Cannot wait to see your toast creations with the best homemade bread!
Just one more shot of this toast for the win! Which one is your favorite? I honestly just loved the almond butter and banana one, but also the Nutella one because who doesn’t love Nutella?! I’m a sweets person, if you couldn’t tell haha!
Want to save this recipe for later? Add it to your favorite recipe board on Pinterest!
The Best Homemade Bread {Vegan, Sprouted}
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Category: baked goods, breads, Breakfast
Description
This is the best homemade bread that’s completely vegan and made with sprouted flour! Plus, it’s so easy to do on a Sunday morning!
Ingredients
- 3 1/2 cups sprouted wheat flour
- 1 packet active dry yeast (NOT instant)
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tsp oil for greasing bowl
Instructions
- In a large bowl, add active dry years, 1 tbsp maple syrup and 1/2 cup warm water and let sit for 10 minutes.
- Once the yeast is activated, add in about 1 cup of flour and mix. Add in remaining flour and water in increments, making sure to continue to knead with each addition.
- Add in salt last.
- Knead bread for 10-15 minutes.
- Grease the large bowl with cooking oil and place dough back into the bowl.
- Cover with a cloth and let sit in a warm environment for about 4 hours.
- Preheat oven to 375F. Punch bread down (it should have risen to be twice the size) and knead again for another 5 minutes.
- When oven reaches temperature, place dough into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper and bake for 35-45 minutes, depending on your oven (check at 35 minutes and see if it needs a few more minutes).
- Remove from the oven and let cool before slicing. Store in the fridge for 1 week or the freezer for 1 month.
