Soaking Grains

As promised in my last post, I am updating on my experience  with soaking flour to make bread.

Soaking flour, involves, allowing the flour to sit in an acid medium for 12-24 hours before using it to bake bread.   The "acid medium" could be water with lemon juice, cider vinegar or kefir (cultured milk, similar to yogurt).   The purpose of soaking grains is to break down the phylates.  Phylates are sometimes called "anti-nutrients" since they prevent the absorption of other nutrients.   See this link and this link for more information on soaking grains.

Since reading this information I have adapted my bread recipe, to involve soaking most of the flour.  It has come out wonderfully, rises nice and high and is quite tasty.  The only difference is that the rising times are a bit longer.  Instead of  1 hour for each rise, it might take 4 hours...but it's still simple enough, and it's not as though I need to *do* anything to make it rise.

Whole Wheat Bread with Soaked Flour

3 cups warm water
3 tablespoons vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)
5 teaspoons yeast
2/3 cup honey
3 tablespoons melted butter
1 tablespoon salt
7-8 cups white-whole-wheat flour

The day before you want to make your bread, combine the vinegar with 2 1/2 cups warm water, 6 cups of flour and 1/3 cup honey.  Mix well, and cover the bowl tightly with saran wrap.  Allow to sit on the counter for 12-24 hours (I usually do around 18-20 hours).

The next day, mix 1/2 cup warm water with, the yeast, 1/3 cup honey and 1 cup flour.  Let sit for 30 minutes or until it is bubbly and slightly risen.   Add the melted butter and the salt.   Add the soaked dough to this mixture and knead well for at least 5-10 minutes.  I usually knead my dough right in the bowl as it saves a mess on the counter.  You may have to add more flour.

Let rise until doubled in size, between 2-4 hours.  Punch dough down, divine into two loaves and place each loaf into a greased loaf pan.  Let rise another 2-4 hours in a warm place.  Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until done.  

Enjoy!! 

Many people swear by the greater digestibility of soaked grains. So far, I have only soaked beans, oatmeal and rice.  The rice and beans came out great! The oatmeal, I probably should have used kefir or yogurt instead of the lemon juice I did use.  The Social-Butterfly complained that her oatmeal was too sour, and she kept wanting to add sugar to it.  Next time, I soak oatmeal for breakfast, I'll use kefir or yogurt.