Hemp Essene Bread

Essene bread is the original “raw” food cuisine that was created by the Jewish sect of Essenes.  Making Essene bread at home requires either a hot rock in the middle of summer or the more modern, food dehydrator.

Hemp seed not only adds another culinary dimension to the simple wheat-salt-water-sun recipe for Essene bread;  it adds another nutritional dimension that makes this ancient recipe rich in Omega 3 and easy to digest proteins.

The original recipe of the ancients is as follows:

Let the angels of God prepare your bread. Moisten your wheat, that the angels of water may enter it. Then set it in the air, that the angel of air may embrace. it. And leave it from morning to evening beneath the sun, that the angel of sunshine may descend upon it. And the blessings of the three angels will soon make the germ of life to sprout in your wheat. Then crush your grain, and make thin wafers, as did your forefathers when they departed out of Egypt, the house of bondage. Put them back again beneath the sun from its appearing, and when it is risen to its highest in the heavens, turn them over on the other side that they may be embraced there also by the angel of sunshine, and leave them there until the sun sets. For the angels of water, and air and of sunshine fed and ripened the wheat in the field, and they likewise must prepare also your bread. And the same sun which, with the fire of life, made the wheat to grow and ripen, must cook your bread with the same fire. For the fire of the sun gives life to the wheat, to the bread, and to the body. But the fire of death kills the wheat, the bread, and the body. And the living angels of the living God serve only living men. For God is the God of the living, and not the God of the dead.

Our modern recipe, which includes hemp seed:

2 cups Kamut brand wheat berries (or any other wheat berry)

soak and rinse for 24-48 hours until small sprouts appear.

Grind the sprouts in a food processor or food grinder. For the best taste and airy lightness/crunch add 1 teaspoon of bread yeast along with 1 teaspoon of salt to the wet mixture and blend thoroughly.

Add 1/2 cup shelled hempseed to the dough along with 3 tbs of warm water.

Mix into a spreadable paste and spread thinly and evenly over dehydrator sheets or parchment paper.

Depending on your dehydrator, this may take as long as overnight to dry.  If you are going to use the sun, start your bread under the morning sun so that you can turn it in the afternoon to dry on the other side.

Enjoy with dips, spread, vegetables or as a crust or sandwich.

Tags: Essene Bread