HOMEMADE RAW BREAD RECIPE
By Ana Glavaš
One major problem people have when going raw is that they can not seem to leave the all-time favorite food which is bread, but like many of our favorite foods, it is not always the best for us when it comes to our health – especially what’s available as our options today. As most of us know, most all bread is a processed food-like product, it’s not real food (we don’t find slices of bread hanging from plants or trees, right?). It’s man-made. And our man-made options for a quality bread today are few and far between. Most bread we find in the grocery store today uses highly refined flour, is heated and nearly, if not totally, void of vitamins, minerals & enzymes – or dead food.
In fact, do you know why we see on many brand name grain/bread packaging (as well as milk) the words “Good Source of”, “Fortified” and “Enriched”? Usually with Calcium, Vitamin A, D, E, etc. attached to it…
Nutshell: It’s because these critical vitamins & minerals for healthy body/cell function are destroyed during the refining process (even though these phrases on packaging may look like something “extra special” for the food, triggering us to buy they’re not, it’s because it’s dead). They figured this out in World War II when over 50% of the soldiers enlisting for the war did not pass a physical for health. The government was stumped and wondering why so many people could be so malnourished and in poor health. Besides poor soil quality from conventional farming practices scientists realized and pleaded with congress about in 1936, the malnutrition was traced back to the early 1900’s when processing of food (including pasteurization) became prominent pre-World War I. Processing and canning of foods was a solution THEN for the war so we could ship foods in mass quantity across seas. WWI was our first major war where we sent millions and millions of troops across seas, whereas before that, major wars were fought on the homeland where we lived and our food supply was more readily available for soldiers. Processing and canning of food THEN was a solution for foods not spoiling and lasting longer periods of time so they can be shipped across the world – it was a solution to feed millions of soldiers. Yet they didn’t realize and figure out until the 40’s that the processing of the food decades earlier destroyed much of the nutrition in it, literally giving soldiers that were so malnourished, they were turned away from enlisting in World War II.
As a result since the 1940’s, foods began to be “fortified” and “enriched” with cheap synthetic (not from nature) lab-made vitamins and minerals, and they still are even to this day. Why? Because the food is enzyme, vitamin & mineral nutrient-dead. You’re eating dead food… and what do we get when we chronically eat dead, processed food? We get chronically ill, diseased & eventually, dead people. You are what you eat.
Grain, and the bread made with it, back in ancient times used to be stone-ground (actual big ol’ stones), much of it sprouted, and some varieties were even made through a fermentation process (sourdough for example). Bread was minimally processed and it actually had some healthy qualities to it (in terms of nutrition still being intact) that many of our ancestors in different parts of the world relied on as a nutrient source. The highly refined grain bread we mostly find on grocery store shelves today is nothing like it; especially the non-organic stuff from poorly grown, nutrient-depleted grain (from nutrient-depleted soil). It’s what I call C.R.A.P. – Chemically Raised/Grown Agriculture Product… it’s a food-like product disguised as food and designed as a food industry for-profit staple… not for-health.
But what if we could make a raw, 100% real food bread with it’s enzymes and nutrients intact?
A raw bread we could use for one of those All-American meals: the sandwich?
A raw bread that doesn’t fall apart and slices great? (my goal for this recipe!)
A raw bread that is recipe-friendly:
and made with real food ingredients?
Is it possible while still tasting good?!
I give you the latest ART OF RAW real food remix recipe for homemade raw “low-baked” bread.
Ingredients
1 1/4 cup unpasteurized raw almonds, soaked minimum 4 hours in water (will plump up close to 2 cups)
7 medjool dates, pitted
4 tablespoon flaxseed
4 tablespoon psyllium husk
4 tablespoon dulse flakes
2 tablespoon chia seeds
1/2 cup onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves
6 sun dried tomatoes (dry, not in olive oil)
Zest of 1 lemon (about 1 tablespoon)
1 teaspoon pink salt
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
Directions
- After raw almonds have soaked for a minimum of 4 hours, drain, rinse and dry very well.
- Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend until everything is incorporated. You may need to start and stop a few times and scrape down the sides with a spatula.
- Pour the mixture onto a cutting board and begin pressing it all together in a big ball (like a big dough ball you would flip on different sides and knead). Press and flip on multiple sides over and over until the mixture is nice and compact (you really want it compact or it can crack).
- Once all the ingredients are compact, form into the shape of bread loaf you want.
- Add the loaf to a baking sheet with a rack so the bread can ventilate underneath.
- Lightly brush the bread with olive oil to further help prevent cracking.
- Place the tray in the oven at 115F degrees or even better in a dehydrator.
We’re going to “low-bake” it for 15 hours, essentially turning our oven into a food dehydrator.
Once it’s done, remove from the oven and indulge!
I always use a serrated knife or really sharp non-serrated to cut it. You can slice it as thin as sandwich bread or thicker like dinner bread. I’ll note however, this bread is dense and filling. Typically if you eat it as a sandwich, go open face.
