One of my clients recently shared this beautiful cookbook with me. She brought it to our session to get my opinion on the delicious breads that she had been baking—all from soaked whole grains (no flours).

I loved the idea of a truly whole grain bread (and the pictures are stunning!) and I purchased the cookbook for myself. When it arrived, however, I realized that every bread recipe contained oats, and I have not consistently eaten oats (even GF oats) since going gluten free in 2008.

I set out to see what other similar recipes I could find and I came across this recipe for a Gluten-Free Flatbread made from Soaked Whole Grains (millet and brown rice).

The author of the recipe states: “I particularly love this kind of recipe because it begins with whole grains in contrast to whole grain flours. The grains are soaked, which increases their digestibility and nutritional profile, blended, and then POURED onto hot baking stones or skillets. No more wrestling with sticky dough or batter!”

Sounded fantastic to me and I couldn’t agree more with everything she said! So, I baked the bread and enjoyed it, but it was very plain. It tasted like a focaccia that was missing the “focaccia part”, so I decided to see if I could transform it into just that.  

I took the basic recipe and made some tweaks of my own (changed the grains and some proportions, added herbs), and voila—I had a delicious, easy, super-flavorful focaccia made from soaked whole grains!

I offered some to my best friend Pamela that afternoon and she gave me the thumbs up, and happily took some more home.

That night, I served it to my family for dinner and it was devoured, even by our 15-yr old who is the only one in our family who still eats gluten and “real breads”.

I posted it to our Mindful Reset Facebook group and a handful people gave it a try and said it was delicious!

But I ultimately knew that I hit a home run when Roy kept joking: “What the focaccia is in this? It’s so good!“—as he grabbed for another piece. (And for the record, that was also his suggestion for the recipe title! Although we do choose some silly recipe titles from time to time, I just couldn’t…) 

I hope you enjoy this new recipe as much as our family does!

Quick note on bakeware:

This recipe makes enough to fill two 8”-10” oven proof skillets. I have used both my 10″ cast iron skillet and my 10″ Scanpan with success. All the people who have made this recipe so far have used some form of cast iron (such as this pan) successfully.

However, I wanted to find something larger and square that would fit the entire flatbread in one skillet and so ordered this 12″ square cast iron griddle. It fit well, but my cast iron was not seasoned properly and the flatbread stuck for the first time, so I will try again.

I asked my mom for this Scanpan griddle for my upcoming birthday next week and so I will report on that one when I try it—but I can say with 98% certainly that a Scanpan never sticks and is oven proof to 500 degrees so it’s a great bet!  

Sprouted Grain Rosemary Focaccia Flatbread (gluten, dairy, egg, nut, soy, yeast free)

by Debbie Steinbock

Ingredients:
1 ½ cup uncooked long grain brown rice
½ cup uncooked buckwheat groats (not the toasted variety, kasha)
1 ½ cup filtered water
2 tsp. Braggs apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup ground flax seed
3 Tbsp. olive oil, plus additional to grease pan(s)
2 tsp. fine sea salt
½ tsp. baking soda
2 Tbsp. fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 tsp. coarse sea salt

Method:

The night before:

1. Place the long grain rice and buckwheat groats in a glass dish and cover with filtered water.
2. Let them sit at room temperature for 8 hours or overnight. I lightly cover mine with a lid or dish towel resting on top.

To bake the focaccia:

1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees and place the cast iron pan(s) into the oven while it preheats. You want the cast iron hot when you’re ready for it.
2. Drain the soak water off the grains using a fine mesh strainer and then place the soaked grains into your Vitamix or high-speed blender.
3. Add the water, apple cider vinegar, ground flax, olive oil, and fine sea salt and blend until you have a smooth and thick batter; then pulse in the baking soda.
4. By hand, stir in 1 Tbsp of the chopped rosemary; reserve the other 1 Tbsp.
5. Carefully remove the hot cast iron from the oven and grease it with olive oil.
6. Slowly pour the batter into your cast iron pan(s) and move it around so that the batter spreads around evenly.
7. Sprinkle the remaining 1 Tbsp of chopped rosemary and the coarse sea salt on the top of the bread(s).
8. Bake the focaccia for 13-18 minutes.
9. The bread will be cracked on the top and crispy on the bottom when it’s done and it should easily slide out of your cast iron.
10. Slice (I find that a pizza cutter brushed with some olive oil works best) and enjoy! 

*This bread stays well in a glass container at room temperature for 3 days; or you can slice and freeze and then toast when ready to eat.