on homemade bread and soaked grains

When the chilly weather comes, our lighter summer fare is replaced by warm, nourishing comfort foods.  Soups, breads, and baked goods are staples at our house.

Did you know that traditionally, grains, nuts, seeds, and beans were prepared by soaking, sprouting, or souring them before consumption?  This makes them easier to digest and more nutritious.  These foods are full of phytic acids which grab onto imprtant minerals in our bodies, depleting us of those minerals as we digest them.  They also inhibit enzymes in our bodies, such as pepsin and amylase, which we need to digest our food.  Soaking, sprouting, and souring helps neutralize the phytic acids in grains, nuts, seeds, and beans. Most (if not all) of the processed foods we eat are full of phytates, which contribute to rampant nutrient deficiencies, digestive disorders, tooth decay, and so many other health problems in today's society.  Here's a great (very scientific) article describing this in depth, with great research and references.  And I think the best book about real, traditional foods on the market is Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon.  My second favorite is Real Food: What to Eat and Why by Nina Planck.  Both discuss traditional methods of soaking grains and other foods.  And so much more!!   

About a year ago, a good friend taught me how to make soaked whole wheat bread.  Her recipe is here.  To neutralize the phytic acid in freshly ground whole wheat flour, you can soak it overnight in buttermilk, yogurt, or kefir.  I do this in my Bosch mixer at night.  And then in the morning, I add a couple of other ingredients to the mixer bowl, mix for a few minutes, and then roll it into bagels, donuts, buscuits, cinnamon rolls, or tortillas.  This dough is rather heavy, and we prefer to use it for pastries rather than sandwich bread.  We use the sourdough recipe for baking loaves, or sometimes purchase Ezequiel sprouted grain bread at the grocery store to keep in the freezer for toast and sandwiches.  Our favorite way to use the soaked dough is to fry it in coconut oil for homemade donuts.  While they are hot, we dip them in organic powdered sugar or sucanat and cinnamon.  With raw milk, they make the best breakfast, snack, or dessert!

Another friend recently taught me how to make authentic sourdough bread.  It's absolutely delicious!!  I've only tried it with unbleached flour, but I plan on adding whole grains and doing some experimenting to make it more nourishing.  It's such a simple method for no-knead breadmaking...I'm smitten!!  And the starter cultures the flour, which neutralizes the phytates in the bread.

I have never made sourdough starter from scratch, because my friend generously shared some of hers.  In the Nourishing Traditions book, there is a detailed recipe for sourdough starter, which calls for whole rye flour.  But my friend made hers with unbleached flour with excellent results as well.  

Below is a great video tutorial from the New York Times.  I have been using this exact recipe for my sourdough bread, but substituting 1/4 cup sourdough starter for the yeast.  This guy makes it look so easy.  And it really is!! 

We are loving our bread and pastries this winter.  And knowing that they are nourishing and easy to digest is an added bonus to the yummy taste and smell of freshly baked homemade bread!