Disgustingly Bread
Disgustingly Bread
(because it's disgustingly healthy and disgustingly good)
Attributes: vegan, whole-grain, high-protein, and "slow-carb".
Allergens: contains yeast, soy, wheat, gluten, honey, and flax seed.
Makes: four loaves.
Ingredients:
7 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat gluten
2 cups milled flax seed
1 cup honey
1 cup soy protein powder
3 Tablespoons yeast
1 Tablespoon salt
4.5 cups water
1/3 cup canola oil
Directions:
4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup milled flax seed
-- Stir together in big bowl.
-- As always, measure the flour by spooning it into the measuring cup and then leveling with the back of a knife. Don't scoop the flour up with the measuring cup, because you'll compress the flour and measure out significantly more than you intended.
4 cups water
2/3 cup honey
1/2 cup milled flax seed
-- Heat until it is almost-uncomfortably warm
-- Let it cool just a bit until it is merely quite warm
-- The ideal temperature for yeast, in my experience, is when the liquid is cool enough that you can put your finger all the way in and hold it there for as long as you want to--but only barely that cool.
-- The flax seed is added to provide trace nutrients to the yeast. You can experiment with other trace nutrient providers such as a thoroughly smashed banana, some applesauce, some soy milk, or whatever else has a reasonably complex nutritional profile and seems likely to appeal to yeast (that's the next experiment on my list).
-- The honey provides the raw sugar for the yeast to ferment. You can also experiment with other sources of sugar, such as applesauce, more thoroughly smashed bananas, more soy milk, organic brown ("raw") sugar, pureed dried fruits, etc. Banana-apricot-date bread, anyone?
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons yeast
-- Stir together in a cup until well-blended
-- Stir into the water/honey/flax seed mixture
-- Let it sit for about ten minutes, until the liquid is covered with a thick foam.
-- If this does not happen, your water was probably too hot, or your yeast was bad. Let it cool a bit more and add more yeast. If that doesn't work, you probably need to buy new yeast.
1/3 cup canola oil
-- Stir into the liquid ingredients
-- Stir everything you've mixed up so far together in the big bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit in a warm place for between three and eight hours.
-- This is the "sponge" stage, which allows the yeast to ferment in a favorably moist environment.
-- The longer you let it sit, the more wine-y and yeast-y it will smell and taste, and the more delicious flavor your bread will develop.
-- If you plan to let it sit for eight hours, you might experiment with adding an extra 1/3 cup honey at this point (I haven't tried it, but it seems reasonable to play with).
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup milled flax seed
1 cup soy protein powder
1/2 cup wheat gluten
1 Tablespoon salt
-- Stir together thoroughly
-- Stir an additional 1/3 cup honey into the sponge (this feed the yeast through the final risings).
-- Note that adding salt at this point slows down the rate of yeast reproduction, giving the bread a finer grain, while still allowing the yeast to reproduce freely freely during the sponge stage.
-- Stir in enough of the dry ingredients to form a firm dough.
-- Use the rest of the dry ingredients to flour a bread board.
-- Knead bread for at least five minutes (longer is better) to develop the gluten.
-- If the bread gets too stiff to work, let it rest for a few seconds, or pick it up by the middle and shake it gently to let it stretch out a bit.
-- Place the bread back in the big bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and allow to rise in a warm place for about half an hour ("or until doubled in size").
-- Put the bread back on the bread-board and divide into quarters.
-- Shape each quarter into round loaves, pan loaves, rolls, braided challa-style loaves, etc. Pretty much any form factor will do.
-- Grease your cookie sheets/roll pans/loaf pans/etc. with plenty of oil.
-- Put the loaves into the pans and allow to rise in a warm place until noticeably increased in size.
-- Bake at 350 for about 35-40 minutes (for loaves) or 20-30 minutes (rolls) until done to your taste.
-- Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack. It's probably best to wait three or four minutes before cutting--if you can. :-)
Enjoy!
P.S. Many thanks to Alton Brown, without whose sage writings I would not have known that there even was a "sponge" stage of bread-making, nor that adding salt slows down the rate of yeast reproduction.
(because it's disgustingly healthy and disgustingly good)
Attributes: vegan, whole-grain, high-protein, and "slow-carb".
Allergens: contains yeast, soy, wheat, gluten, honey, and flax seed.
Makes: four loaves.
Ingredients:
7 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup wheat gluten
2 cups milled flax seed
1 cup honey
1 cup soy protein powder
3 Tablespoons yeast
1 Tablespoon salt
4.5 cups water
1/3 cup canola oil
Directions:
4 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup milled flax seed
-- Stir together in big bowl.
-- As always, measure the flour by spooning it into the measuring cup and then leveling with the back of a knife. Don't scoop the flour up with the measuring cup, because you'll compress the flour and measure out significantly more than you intended.
4 cups water
2/3 cup honey
1/2 cup milled flax seed
-- Heat until it is almost-uncomfortably warm
-- Let it cool just a bit until it is merely quite warm
-- The ideal temperature for yeast, in my experience, is when the liquid is cool enough that you can put your finger all the way in and hold it there for as long as you want to--but only barely that cool.
-- The flax seed is added to provide trace nutrients to the yeast. You can experiment with other trace nutrient providers such as a thoroughly smashed banana, some applesauce, some soy milk, or whatever else has a reasonably complex nutritional profile and seems likely to appeal to yeast (that's the next experiment on my list).
-- The honey provides the raw sugar for the yeast to ferment. You can also experiment with other sources of sugar, such as applesauce, more thoroughly smashed bananas, more soy milk, organic brown ("raw") sugar, pureed dried fruits, etc. Banana-apricot-date bread, anyone?
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons yeast
-- Stir together in a cup until well-blended
-- Stir into the water/honey/flax seed mixture
-- Let it sit for about ten minutes, until the liquid is covered with a thick foam.
-- If this does not happen, your water was probably too hot, or your yeast was bad. Let it cool a bit more and add more yeast. If that doesn't work, you probably need to buy new yeast.
1/3 cup canola oil
-- Stir into the liquid ingredients
-- Stir everything you've mixed up so far together in the big bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit in a warm place for between three and eight hours.
-- This is the "sponge" stage, which allows the yeast to ferment in a favorably moist environment.
-- The longer you let it sit, the more wine-y and yeast-y it will smell and taste, and the more delicious flavor your bread will develop.
-- If you plan to let it sit for eight hours, you might experiment with adding an extra 1/3 cup honey at this point (I haven't tried it, but it seems reasonable to play with).
3 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup milled flax seed
1 cup soy protein powder
1/2 cup wheat gluten
1 Tablespoon salt
-- Stir together thoroughly
-- Stir an additional 1/3 cup honey into the sponge (this feed the yeast through the final risings).
-- Note that adding salt at this point slows down the rate of yeast reproduction, giving the bread a finer grain, while still allowing the yeast to reproduce freely freely during the sponge stage.
-- Stir in enough of the dry ingredients to form a firm dough.
-- Use the rest of the dry ingredients to flour a bread board.
-- Knead bread for at least five minutes (longer is better) to develop the gluten.
-- If the bread gets too stiff to work, let it rest for a few seconds, or pick it up by the middle and shake it gently to let it stretch out a bit.
-- Place the bread back in the big bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and allow to rise in a warm place for about half an hour ("or until doubled in size").
-- Put the bread back on the bread-board and divide into quarters.
-- Shape each quarter into round loaves, pan loaves, rolls, braided challa-style loaves, etc. Pretty much any form factor will do.
-- Grease your cookie sheets/roll pans/loaf pans/etc. with plenty of oil.
-- Put the loaves into the pans and allow to rise in a warm place until noticeably increased in size.
-- Bake at 350 for about 35-40 minutes (for loaves) or 20-30 minutes (rolls) until done to your taste.
-- Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack. It's probably best to wait three or four minutes before cutting--if you can. :-)
Enjoy!
P.S. Many thanks to Alton Brown, without whose sage writings I would not have known that there even was a "sponge" stage of bread-making, nor that adding salt slows down the rate of yeast reproduction.