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Ezekiel Bread

(for Jeno 18/11/03)

Ezekiel 4:9 Take thou also unto thee wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentiles, and millet, and fitches, and put them in one vessel, and make thee bread thereof, [according] to the number of the days that thou shalt lie upon thy side, three hundred and ninety days shalt thou eat thereof. (KJV; fitches is translated as spelt in other translations)

1. There's a lot of recipes on the web for Ezekiel bread. For reasons that I find a bit confusing, a lot of them change the ingredients. Now, I'm no bible-is-word-of-God kinda guy, but I don't see no rye flour up above, so don't be using it. This recipe, at least, only has the above ingredients plus standard bread making ingredients, on the basis that it does say "and make thee bread thereof." Well, except for where I cheat a bit.

2. If you want to get really hardcore, you can grind your own all of the above, including dry beans or lentils. This seems like too much work for me. I just either a) use canned beans and/or b) get dry ones and soak overnight and cook and then add the cooked beans/lentils.

3. This is a tricky recipe to get right: the big problem comes from figuring out the moisture. The beans and lentils contain water which is released as they're kneaded, so the bread starts off dry but becomes suitably moist over the first knead. It will look dry for the first five minutes or so of kneading; resist the temptation to add more water for at least five minutes.

  • 1 1/4 cups water + up to another 1/3 cup, 1 tbsp at a time
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 1/2 tbsp honey
  • 2 tsp salt black pepper
  • 1 cup white flour (white wheat or bread white or just plain ol' white. It's wheat, after all.)
  • 1/2 cup wheat flour (regular brown flour)
  • 1/2 cup barley flour (you can get it at Greenstar in bulk)
  • 1/2 cup red kidney beans (canned or cooked, drained. Could use other beans.)
  • 1/2 cup lentils (cooked) (green or red, up to you)
  • 1/2 cup millet flour (you can get it at Greenstar: they keep it in the fridge in the bulk section prebagged)
  • 1/2 cup spelt flour (you can get it at Wegmans or Greenstar, prepackaged)
  • 4 tbsp vital wheat gluten (optional. ingredient made from wheat which helps with texture.)

Make thee bread.