Soaked whole wheat sourdough sandwich bread

So, you know how much I love my sourdough sandwich bread, but it doesn't allow for soaking the flour to properly break down the phytates, and I've always had to add plain bread flour to make it soft enough to make a good sandwich. So, I decided to do some tweaking to see if I could make it qualify for my whole grain challenge.

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!

Here's what you need:
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,

Tips for switching to whole grains and soaking your grains

So, how are you doing so far with the whole grain challenge? We're doing good at our house, but I have to be honest and say that I totally forgot and ate leftover pizza that was not made with whole grains on the first day.... oh, well. I still passed on the cookies and king cake offered to me, so I didn't throw in the towel and pig out.

So, it's not so bad, once you set your mind to it, to switch to whole grains. It's largely about changing some of your shopping habits. Here are a few tips I've found to make the changes a little easier.

Cook your brown rice correctly.  I've heard a lot of people say that they do not like brown rice, and it turns out that they just aren't cooking it long enough. Brown rice needs more liquid and a longer cook time than white rice, so pay attention to the directions on the bag. It does have slightly more chew to it than white rice, but it shouldn't be crunchy at all. We actually like it better at our house now because it has some flavor and texture to it, as opposed to the other stuff.

Don't buy cheap noodles. This is just a matter of taste, but the store brand noodles tend to be pretty cardboard-y to me, and the cost isn't that much less. Especially the Wal-mart brand. I recently tried Winn-Dixie brand whole wheat noodles, and they tasted fine. Also, find out how long you like them cooked. I actually like my whole wheat noodles cooked an extra minute or two, as opposed to "al dente".

Buy white wheat flour. I know, it sounds backwards, me telling you to buy "white" flour, but white wheat flour is still a whole grain flour, it's just a different kind than the whole wheat that is usually available in stores. My local Wal-Mart recently started carrying white wheat flour, other than that, the only place I've seen it is online and at Whole Foods.

Bake your usual goodies with whole wheat pastry flour. Pastry flour is ground finer than regular flour, and works well for desserts, muffins, biscuits, and the like. It doesn't do well for risen breads because it doesn't contain as much gluten. So, go ahead and have your brownies, just make them with whole wheat pastry flour!

Soak your grains. I'll be talking more about how to do this next week, as well as sharing some recipes. In a nutshell, whole grains contain some antinutrients called phytates, which can be hard to digest and can inhibit your body's absorption of some of the nutrients in the grains. Soaking your grains is a good way to make the grains easier to digest, and it also makes baked good rise more and become less dense, which is a common complaint for whole grains. Generally, what you do to eliminate these phytates is soak your grains for anywhere from 7-24 hours in a liquid like yogurt, buttermilk, kefir or whey. You can also use salted water if you are dairy sensitive. I put of trying this for a long time because it seemed like so much extra work. I felt a little sheepish when I finally started implementing it and found that all it takes is a little planning ahead and about 2 minutes extra time. Seriously. It's beyond easy.

Note* If you're having a hard time finding whole white wheat flour or whole wheat pastry flour, check out Vitacost.com. This website is my new best friend for ordering hard-to-find healthy ingredients, and their prices are the best I've seen anywhere. I got my first shipment in last week, and I am beyond impressed. Also, they have this great refer-a-friend deal where you get $10 dollars off for every friend you introduce to vitacost that makes an order. So, if you sign up through this here link, I get a $10 Vitacost gift card! Nifty, eh? You can start referring friend once you sign up, too. And, you get $10 off of your first order. And they offer free shipping on orders over $50. So, it's a pretty sweet deal all around. And... I promise I'm not just saying that so I you'll order from them and I'll get a $10 gift card. Promise. :)

Whole grain pancakes! Looking at this photo doesn't make switching seem all that hard does it?

Photo Credit

What is your biggest challenge in switching to whole grains? Do you have any tips to share?