Food for the SOul

Essene Bread

They were mystics of the desert, living in the presence beyond the confines of an identification between mind and body. Some believe it was the Essenes who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Their diet was fundamentally lacto-vegetarian, with an emphasis on the benefits of consumption of raw foods along with a unique style of sprouted bread know as Essene or Manna bread. Wheat grains were activated and left to sprout for a day in the sun, imitating the natural germination process. The sprouted grain was then crushed, shaped into thin wafers and left atop a rock in the sun from sunrise to sunset.

This style of bread is often considered to be the healthiest kind of bread on the planet, and definitely one of the most flavoursome I have ever had the privilege to not only taste but to bake.

At first I was apprehensive about baking Essene bread, with the dread of what seemed like so much effort, and a fear of something so far from the usual, in terms of cooking or baking, however it so much fun, and the divine sense of consumption is a delicate balance between ritualistic palatable art and a divine sense of being part of.  You can see how this process in and of itself creates a unity of the mind and body.  When we sit to eat ours, surrounded by our plants, we feel the full sense of nature in the enveloping embrace of life.  The space between breath where we hold the treasures before an exhale.  Where we see and feel our connection with GAIA.

(https://purelifebakery.com.au/2019/03/06/the-essenes-and-the-history-of-essene-bread/)

It is believed that sprouted bread (Essene Bread) was first created by the Essenes. near the Dead Sea between the second century BC to the first century Ad, where they lived in a small sect as messianic apocalyptic Essene Jews.  

Ingredients

• 3 cups of organic Wheat Berries

• Handful of pitted Dates

• 2 Tablespoons of Sunflower seeds

• Handful of Almonds

• Sesame seeds on top

• Water

• Salt

• Take your 3 cups of Wheat Berries and soak them in a glass bowl cover with water approx an inch above Berries.  Cover your bowl with a tea towel and keep out of sun.

• I soak ours for 1 to 2 days in water and then allow to sprout for another 2 to 3 days depending on temperature which varies in the Pacific.  We like our sprouts quite long, like the first picture beside the 'His story of the Essenes'. I have read that some people don't, so this is a personal preference and experimental choice.

• Rinse these daily or twice daily depending on your climate with Pacific temperatures we rinse twice daily.

• On the 2nd or 3rd day drain water. Rinse and allow to sprout.

• When you are happy with the sprouts length, do a final rinse and then mix in a bowl -

• Wheat Berries

• Add in the handful of Almonds

You'll need Oscar Neo Press, Dutch Oven, Oven, Baking paper

• All of these ingredients are pushed through your blender or Neo Press to create a pulp which will become your bread.

• In the bowl add -

• Dates cut into halves

• Teaspoon of Salt

• Sunflower seeds

• Oil the bottom of your Dutch Oven, and put in your cooking paper.

• Fold the dates and Sunflower seeds into the blended Wheat berries to create your bread shaped mould.

• I use water to smooth the top of the bread and then add sesame seeds and push them into the bread.

• Place Dutch oven in to the oven and cook at 200degrees celsius for the first hour dropping the temperature to 190 for the last 2 hours. A total cook time of 3 hours.

• Remove the bread from the Dutch oven when cooked and let sit in oven for at least an hour. We use cold pressed coconut oil as the topping on ours with honey is divine.