October 7, 2010
there were a lot of good questions popping up in the comments of yesterday's soaking post, and i'm really thankful for that. more reason for me to keep up the research! i quick-answered them in the comment section, but i also wanted to post them just in case other people are interested. as you know, i'm just a newbie to soaking, but i'll try to answer the questions as best i can with the reading i've done, and i'll probably be referring you elsewhere for more details, better wording and such.

1. what have you been using as your acid medium? so far i've tried lemon juice, vinegar, and buttermilk and all have worked well! i am excited to try yogurt soon, too.

2. do you find that it changes the taste of your grains much? and what about sourness? i couldn't tell a difference at all when i made my soaked-flour bread or when i did soaked oatmeal pancakes, but one time i did try using vinegar to soak my oats (for oatmeal) and it was pretty sour the next morning. i've since switched to lemon juice and that is much more mild. i've heard that rinsing helps with sourness, and if your recipe calls for baking soda, that can also neutralize sourness, too.

3. should i have used steel cut oats? hmm.. i've been using plain rolled oats and that has been working fine for me. i think the important thing is just to make sure you aren't using the prepared or instant kind. 

4. how in the world do you soak flour? soaking flour basically means that you are combining the flour with the liquid called for in the recipe (sort of halfway making the dough or batter) the night before, letting them mingle together, and then adding in the rest of the ingredients hours later. the important thing to do is make sure the flour is completely moistened. that's why soaking flour works best in bread-type recipes that already call for a good amount of liquid. for things like cake or cookies, and other recipes that don't have liquids, soaking won't be too successful, but you can use "sprouted flour" if you like. sprouted flour is ground from wheat berries that have been sprouted to break down the phytates. you can buy such a thing here (or many other places, i'm sure) or learn how to make your own here.

maybe you'd like to see soaked flour used in some basic baking situations:

hope this has helped a bit! more soon!

1 comments:

stephanie said...

I'm going to do this over the weekend. I think I'm going to make some pumpernickel bread and I'll soak the flour overnight. I'm a little nervous, but it should be fun to try.

Why is it so much fun to do things like this? I wonder if it's because it makes me feel like I'm getting closer to the way we were supposed to consume food. I love it. Thanks for the inspiration.

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about this blog

Hello, I'm Summer. A people-loving introvert whose hope and life is in Jesus. His promises are my passion and my ministry is homelife. This blog is a place for me to write about everyday things. Especially food. My favorite thing to do is sit around a table, lingering over a long meal with good conversation. I live with my husband and our 2 littles. We like blizzards, thrifting, grammar, guacamole, cheerful hearts, nice manners, good movies, and making simple, real, nutrient-dense food.

"If Christ be anything, He must be everything."
-C.H. Spurgeon

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