I ran across a very interesting old text called “The Essene Gospel of Peace.” You can read a little more about the Essenes here.
“It is the fire which blazes outside your body, which is hotter than your blood. With that fire of death you cook your foods in your homes and in your fields. I tell you truly, it is the same fire which destroys your foods and your bodies, even as the fire of malice, which ravages your thoughts, ravages your spirits. For your body is that which you eat, and your spirit is that which you think. Eat nothing, therefore, which a stronger fire than the fire of life has killed. Wherefore, prepare and eat all fruits of trees, and all grasses of the fields, and all milk of beasts good for eating. For all these are fed and ripened by the fire of life; all are the gift of the angels of our Earthly Mother. But eat nothing to which only the fire of death gives savor, for such is of Satan.”
“How should we cook our daily bread without fire, Master?” asked some with great astonishment.
“Let the angels of God prepare your bread. Moisten your wheat, that the angel of water may enter it. Then set it in the air, that the angel of air also may embrace it. And leave it from morning to evening beneath the sun, that the angel of sunshine may descend upon it. And the blessing 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 be embraced there also by the angel of sunshine, and leave them there until the sun be set. For the angels of water, of 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.
So I decided to make some real Essene bread!
First thing I did was a bunch of searches online to see how other people were preparing this bread. Hrmph. I couldn’t find any links where someone had followed the Essene directions to the letter with climate considerations. There were plenty of links about how the bread shouldn’t be above 118, 150, 200 degrees, people saying anything above 100 would kill the bread and so on.
I think to understand the Essene recipe it is important to understand the environment that the Essenes lived in: HOT AND DRY. Very hot. Very dry. If you live out west here in the USA, you have the perfect climate for making Essene bread in the summer. And Essene bread really is a summer bread…
In fact, the middle eastern climate is so hot and dry that when the Essenes laid that bread out on those stones to bake in the sun, they baked. The air and ground temp can get up into the 120′s or higher, and on a hot rock, I have no doubt the temp could rage with the fire of life at 200 degrees. I do not believe that either a dehydrater or an oven can do this bread justice, it really does need the sun and a climate like the middle east to taste the best and have the best nutritional qualities and shelf life. You can’t store it in the freezer or fridge; you really need to eat it within a week and keep it sealed up in your bread box or some other container.
I happen to live in California and one of our infamous heat waves was perfect weather for Essene bread! Mine came out perfect! Sooo tasty, filling and nutritious. Yum. I’ve had “raw” breads from a dehydrator before, and they just don’t come close to the original ancient recipe and hot/dry climate cooking method.
Here is how I interpreted and followed the directions given in the Essene gospel:
4 cups of wheat berries
1 tsp salt
large pizza stone w/ parchment paper
—
Soak and sprout the wheat berries for 12-24 hours, they should only have the sprout barely peeking out. If you let them sprout further than that, they get bitter. Mine came out very sweet and I did them just like that. I also gave the soaking/sprouting wheat sunlight.
Next, I ground them up in a food grinder until they were a paste and added the salt (you can omit the salt if you like, but I think it brought out the flavor even better)
Then I spread the dough on a non-stick parchment paper on top of the pizza stone. If you don’t have a pizza stone, a metal baking pan will do in a pinch. You need to have the parchment paper, though. Remember to spread the dough cracker thin! This is a very thin bread!
The sun hits my patio in the summer from about 9AM to 8pm and that’s how long I left it outside during our last 100 degree heatwave. The pizza stone got hot enough that you could fry an egg on it! It was just that hot. I flipped it using a second sheet of parchment paper about halfway through the day.
In the evening, I brought it in and it was so crispy and fresh tasting! YUM!! It paired up nicely with eggplant hummus.
Essene Bread
I ran across a very interesting old text called “The Essene Gospel of Peace.” You can read a little more about the Essenes here.
“It is the fire which blazes outside your body, which is hotter than your blood. With that fire of death you cook your foods in your homes and in your fields. I tell you truly, it is the same fire which destroys your foods and your bodies, even as the fire of malice, which ravages your thoughts, ravages your spirits. For your body is that which you eat, and your spirit is that which you think. Eat nothing, therefore, which a stronger fire than the fire of life has killed. Wherefore, prepare and eat all fruits of trees, and all grasses of the fields, and all milk of beasts good for eating. For all these are fed and ripened by the fire of life; all are the gift of the angels of our Earthly Mother. But eat nothing to which only the fire of death gives savor, for such is of Satan.”
“How should we cook our daily bread without fire, Master?” asked some with great astonishment.
“Let the angels of God prepare your bread. Moisten your wheat, that the angel of water may enter it. Then set it in the air, that the angel of air also may embrace it. And leave it from morning to evening beneath the sun, that the angel of sunshine may descend upon it. And the blessing 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 be embraced there also by the angel of sunshine, and leave them there until the sun be set. For the angels of water, of 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.
So I decided to make some real Essene bread!
First thing I did was a bunch of searches online to see how other people were preparing this bread. Hrmph. I couldn’t find any links where someone had followed the Essene directions to the letter with climate considerations. There were plenty of links about how the bread shouldn’t be above 118, 150, 200 degrees, people saying anything above 100 would kill the bread and so on.
I think to understand the Essene recipe it is important to understand the environment that the Essenes lived in: HOT AND DRY. Very hot. Very dry. If you live out west here in the USA, you have the perfect climate for making Essene bread in the summer. And Essene bread really is a summer bread…
In fact, the middle eastern climate is so hot and dry that when the Essenes laid that bread out on those stones to bake in the sun, they baked. The air and ground temp can get up into the 120′s or higher, and on a hot rock, I have no doubt the temp could rage with the fire of life at 200 degrees. I do not believe that either a dehydrater or an oven can do this bread justice, it really does need the sun and a climate like the middle east to taste the best and have the best nutritional qualities and shelf life. You can’t store it in the freezer or fridge; you really need to eat it within a week and keep it sealed up in your bread box or some other container.
I happen to live in California and one of our infamous heat waves was perfect weather for Essene bread! Mine came out perfect! Sooo tasty, filling and nutritious. Yum. I’ve had “raw” breads from a dehydrator before, and they just don’t come close to the original ancient recipe and hot/dry climate cooking method.
Here is how I interpreted and followed the directions given in the Essene gospel:
4 cups of wheat berries
1 tsp salt
large pizza stone w/ parchment paper
—
Soak and sprout the wheat berries for 12-24 hours, they should only have the sprout barely peeking out. If you let them sprout further than that, they get bitter. Mine came out very sweet and I did them just like that. I also gave the soaking/sprouting wheat sunlight.
Next, I ground them up in a food grinder until they were a paste and added the salt (you can omit the salt if you like, but I think it brought out the flavor even better)
Then I spread the dough on a non-stick parchment paper on top of the pizza stone. If you don’t have a pizza stone, a metal baking pan will do in a pinch. You need to have the parchment paper, though. Remember to spread the dough cracker thin! This is a very thin bread!
The sun hits my patio in the summer from about 9AM to 8pm and that’s how long I left it outside during our last 100 degree heatwave. The pizza stone got hot enough that you could fry an egg on it! It was just that hot. I flipped it using a second sheet of parchment paper about halfway through the day.
In the evening, I brought it in and it was so crispy and fresh tasting! YUM!! It paired up nicely with eggplant hummus.