I figured it would take some trial and error, and I didn't think I'd find anything as good as my original recipe. Well, it only took one try and I'm hooked on this new method!
I'm learning from soaking my whole grains and cooking through my Nourishing Traditions cookbook that flour soaked 12-24 hours in kefir bakes up much lighter than unsoaked flour, so I thought I'd simply try replacing the water in the recipe with kefir, and let the flour mixed with the kefir soak overnight before I add the rest of the ingredients and bake the next day.
What's that you say? You don't have any kefir? Well, you should hop on over here and enter my kefir grain giveaway so you can make your own endless supply of this great beverage/flour soaking liquid for cheap!
So, here you have it, my new and improved sourdough sandwich bread recipe!
4 cups whole wheat flour (I prefer white wheat)
1 cup kefir or buttermilk
1 cup sourdough starter
3 Tablespoons of some type of sugar (honey, maple syrup, rapadura, plain white, doesn't matter)
2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
1 teaspoon salt
Here's what you do:
The night before you plan to bake bread, mix the flour and kefir in a large bowl. Stir, or don't, the flour will soak up the kefir either way. Let sit covered for 12-24 hours. (The amount of kefir is not enough to completely wet all of the flour, so it will be really crumbly.)
When you are ready to make your bread the next day, follow the instructions the same as you would for the regular sourdough sandwich bread, but instead just add 1 cup sourdough starter and no water.
*Tip: I recently discovered that the best thing to grease your pan with in order for the loaf to not stick is butter. I know, I'm always talking about butter, but it really does work better than anything else for this!
When you're done, be sure to have a slice right out of the oven with some honey and butter on top! Yum!
This post was shared at Simple Lives Thursday, homestead barn hop,
