We talked about bread and carbohydrates in general a lot last summer. And I mean, a lot.
From bleached flour to unhealthy wheat bread to the healthiest bread you can possibly make, we covered just about everything there was to talk about when it came to preparing, eating and enjoying carbohydrates in the healthiest way possible.
I’ll admit though – learning about real food is one thing. Putting it into action is another.
We had a sourdough starter going for several months last year, making pancakes and even simple sourdough bread. But then temperatures warmed up and the starter was growing more than I could keep up with… and since it goes against every cell in my body to pour perfectly good food down the drain, the starter went into the fridge.
In order to get itself all ready to rise bread on its own, cold sourdough starter needs to come out a day or two early to warm up and be fed. But quite frankly, I couldn’t get a grip on the timing of it all! I was always off, either too soon or too late. Still being somewhat novice at sourdough, ingredients were being wasted left and right and all I had to show for my efforts was rock hard bread at the dinner table.
Not. Cool.
Then there was Allume in October and a two-week family vacation at Christmas… In the end, life was just a bit too busy for me to successfully keep a sourdough starter alive. I’m sure ya’ll can relate, yes?
Fortunately though, we’ve gotten a pretty good grip on our weekly routine since the new year. Every Thursday is soup night, and with that meal comes freshly baked bread. “Bake bread” shows up just once on my weekly planner and I make sure we’re home to to do it. It’s really become that simple, and effective and getting the job done!
Our long time favorite (and still a winner) is rosemary olive oil bread. We’ve tried it every which way you can possibly imagine and it’s always delicious.
You’ll note that recipe is not prepared in a traditional manner. There’s no soaking, no freshly ground sprouted wheat. It’s a throw-it-in-the-bowl-and-have-bread-ready-in-a-few-hours-no-preparation-needed type of recipe. And it worked for me because I didn’t want the “inconvenience” of the extra five minutes it took to soak my grains on Wednesday night.
Then, a close friend of ours got really sick earlier this year.
Since we would be helping out with meals on occasion, I used Dr. Google to find out what type of foods she should eat, shouldn’t eat, what to avoid, etc., so that we could helping with her health and not just her meals. The results weren’t too far from what’s recommended for a perfectly healthy person: eat lots of nutrient dense foods, avoid refined grains and sugar.
The first time we had them over for dinner, I soaked the whole grain flour overnight in an attempt to maximize every ounce of nutrition possible in her few slices of bread.
I kept this same routine for a couple of weeks – grinding grain and soaking on Wednesday afternoon, then making the bread on Thursday – and sharing small loaves with our friend. After seeing how easy it really was, and remembering that I can’t turn a blind eye to inconvenience because I’m feeling lazy, “soak flour” has been added to my weekly planner on every Wednesday.
Remember that I’m not a doctor and I am in no way saying that soaking your grains will prevent cancer. However, what I AM saying is that getting the most nutrition out of the food you eat isn’t’ a bad thing.
Searching of a good soaked bread recipe didn’t yield many results, so I turned back to my trusty Nourishing Traditions instead. Sally Fallon offers a recipe on page 493 called “Yeasted Buttermilk Bread” that seemed easy enough, and with just one cup of unbleached white flour (and four cups of whole grain flour), it met our goal of eating more whole grains too!
This recipe is my rendition of Ms. Fallon’s after many, many weeks of this bread being included on our weekly menu. I’ve tested it with whole wheat, spelt, oat and even kashi flour (which I don’t recommend, lol). I’ve subbed homemade yogurt, kefir and whey for the buttermilk in the original recipe, after trying multiple variations of homemade buttermilk first of course.
In the end, I’ve found my favorite combination, but this recipe adapts well to just about anything you throw its way. It’s perfect for soup night, holds up well to grilled sandwiches a couple of days later and is lighter than most whole wheat bread recipes. Of course, the pickiest eaters will notice the distinct taste of wheat, but see my additional tips after the recipe for a simple way to sneak this whole grain past them too!
- 4 cups whole wheat flour*
- 1 cup whey or buttermilk, OR ½ cup yogurt or kefir mixed with ½ cup whole milk, plus 2-4 Tbsp if needed
- ½ cup butter, melted
- ¼ cup warm water (105F-110F)
- 2¼ tsp active dry yeast
- 2 Tbsp honey
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 cup unbleached white flour, plus more for dusting
- butter, for greasing loaf pans
- In a large bowl, or in the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the whole wheat flour, whey/buttermilk/yogurt/kefir and melted butter. Mix with a wooden spoon until a large ball of dough forms, or mix at medium-low speed for about 60 seconds. Add an additional liquid, one tablespoon at a time, if the dough seems overly dry. Knead to combine well.
- Cover with a towel and let it sit at room temperature 12-24 hours, but at least overnight.
- When you're ready to make bread, combine warm water, yeast and honey in a small mug or measuring cup and allow the yeast to bloom for 5 minutes.
- Add the water/yeast/honey mixture to the soaked flour.
- Add the salt and baking soda to the soaked flour and knead by hand, or mix at medium-low speed, until the ingredients are well incorporated.
- Add 1 cup unbleached flour and knead by hand, or at medium speed, for a full 10 minutes. Add additional flour 1 Tbsp at a time if the dough is sticky past the 5 minute mark.
- Cover with a towel and let it rise for 2 hours, or until doubled in bulk.
- Dust your working surface and pour dough on top. Punch down lightly and divide into two equal pieces.
- Working with one piece at a time, knead by hand for 30 seconds and shape into a rectangle.
- Starting at the short edge, roll the dough up tightly and place into a well-buttered loaf pan, using either a 9"x5" pan, or an 8"x4" pan, or one of each.
- Cover both loaves with a towel and let them rise for 1-2 hours, or until doubled in size.
- Preheat oven to 350F.
- Bake loaves for 25-30 minutes, until the outside is golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.
- Allow to cool on a rack for at least 20 minutes before slicing.
Additional Recipe Tips
My favorite combination of flour is 2 1/2 cups of freshly ground whole wheat and 1 1/2 cups of freshly ground spelt. Spelt is much lighter in flavor than wheat, tastes much like white flour and Mr. Crumbs has said numerous times that he prefers spelt over wheat. In fact, I’ve used spelt in place of the one cup of white flour and it’s come out just as delicious. Remember that you can grind your own flour without a mill with this tutorial if you don’t have one.
My favorite soaking medium is whey, but 1/2 cup kefir and 1/2 cup milk are a close second place (mostly because they’re both almost always on-hand).
We’ve tried this bread using granulated sugar in place of the honey, but I think the honey adds a hint of sweet that really complements the whole grains. Use what you have!
Don’t skip the butter and substitute at your own risk. 😉
Cost Breakdown
- flour: .85-1.60
- soaking medium: 0-.40
- butter: .70-2.33
- honey: .32
- yeast: .03
- salt: .01
- baking soda: .002
The cost of this recipe will vary depending on the quality of ingredients you use. Store-bought whole wheat bread, whey (strained and/or poured off from other dairy items) and unsalted, conventional butter will yield the most affordable batch at just 96¢ per loaf. My personal favorite recipe that uses freshly ground wheat, spelt and grass-fed butter ends up costing $2.10 per loaf. In either case, it’s still less than most store-bought wheat breads, and much, MUCH healthier too!
A side note worth mentioning is that when I would make rosemary olive oil bread with white flour, we could easily take out an entire loaf in one meal. Shoot – I could take out an entire loaf if you left me alone with a tub of butter!
However, now that we’re baking with more whole grains, and most breads we make contain at least 75% whole grain flour, we only eat about half of a loaf at dinner. And this isn’t my being stingy or rationing out slices, lol. I think it’s the “whole grains take longer to digest” issue at play, and our bodies are hard at work breaking down the complex carbs before dinner is even over. Pretty neat, eh?
What about you? Have you taken the baby step to make your own breads? Do you regularly soak them too?
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. By making a purchase through those links, I will earn commission that helps to keep the lights on in the Crumbs house – with no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting Crumbs in this way. Read my full disclosure statement here.
I’m with you – finicky sourdough is still a little intimidating for me. I’ve been meaning to search for a recipe for soaked grain bread for a while now, and this looks like a great place to start – it’s on the menu for this week. Thanks, Tiffany!
What is your source for whey and how do you get the oval loaf shape? Thank you
Hi Gayle! My easiest source for whey is straining homemade yogurt. If I’m REALLY on top of things, I can pour it off from sour cream too, but that doesn’t always happen. I bake bread in loaf pans to keep the long shape, but after punching down, I roll into a square/rectangle, fold into thirds and roll up from the end.
I, too, have Nourishing Traditions and got into soaking my beans and grains all the time. I had the same problem with my sourdough starter and eventually it got to be way too sour. So I quit! More recently, I’ve ditched wheat due to health concerns – after reading Wheat Belly and similar publications. Wondering what your take on that is, the fact that the wheat (even whole wheat) we have today resembles nothing like the original grain.
So, I’ve sadly given it up, though it sneaks in here and there. It started when I realized we were having bread-related things for EVERY meal – pancakes for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch, pasta for dinner. Trying to stick with protein, healthy fats, and other forms of carbs (fruits and veggies, rice, potatoes).
My thoughts on wheat… I know the wheat today is very different from the wheat long ago, so I’ve been trying to limit our grains to “one” at a meal (which includes all starches) and using more spelt where I can. We actually prefer the taste of spelt, but it’s rises out, not up, so I have to include some wheat in bread to make it go up. But nearly everything that’s non-yeast (pancakes, muffins, cookies, etc.) are made with spelt now. Plus I make bread just once/week, and when we’re out, we’re out!
I’m also using rye and other flours as well to cut back on the wheat. Another option is einkorn wheat, but I haven’t tried it yet and don’t know how it varies in terms of baking properties from the wheat we’re used to.
Thank you so much for this recipe! Question: Have you read about butter interfering with the soaking process?
Thanks Bess! No, I have not… and since it came from NT, I didn’t even think twice! Do you have any links to share?
Oh boy, it was a while ago and I don’t remember where exactly I read about it… if I come across it again I will let you know.
Thanks Bess 🙂
Hi Bess! I experimented with our bread last week, leaving the butter out until post-soaking – it came out great! If you’re concerned, soak w/medium & grains. Next day, add softened butter (not melted) to the dough and you’re good. 🙂
Thank you very much Tiffany! 🙂
I love homemade bread, although I don’t eat much bread because I follow a primal diet most days. I do love to sniff it though LOL
LOL!
Thank you so much for this recipe. I have tried soaking my grains before making bread, but I never found a recipe I really liked. I’m definitely going to give this one a try. Thanks for the spelt reminder. It’s been awhile since I have used it, but I am looking forward to trying it again. Your pictures are beautiful!
Thanks so much Heather!
Thanks so much for sharing this! I’ve made it twice since you posted it and we are loving it. I’ve been doing sourdough (using the “bucket” method) in recent months, but my family is complaining that the crust is too hard, so I was very excited to see this post. It has the softness my family wants, but the soaking that I think is most important! The second time I made it, after step 3, I put everything in the bread maker on the dough cycle. Then took it out and put it in the loaf pans for the second rise. This worked beautifully, so I think I’ll keep doing it that way 🙂
You’re most welcome Amy! Genius for accommodating the recipe for your bread machine too!
Thanks for this recipe! I have made countless loaves of soaked whole wheat bread that were too crumbly to use for sandwiches. I finally gave up and went back to either unsoaked whole wheat or unbleached organic bread flour. My second batch is rising as I type this and hopefully it will be as delightful as the last batch. I doubled the recipe and used my Bosch mixer. This is our new go-to recipe!!!! Thanks again……..I am forever grateful!!
You’re most welcome Paige! I hope this second batch comes out just as well too. 🙂 I’m glad you’ve found a new recipe for your family to enjoy!
It was perfect! Now I’m tripling it so I can have some freezers loaves. 😉
That’s great Paige!! Enjoy! 🙂
I know i’m late to comment, but i wanted to say THANK YOU for a great recipe! This has become our go-to bread for the weeks when i don’t feel like baking sourdough bread (my husband likes a European-style bread that i have to start three days before baking…which doesn’t always happen!).
I double your recipe and bake it in three 9-inch loaf pans (I freeze two loaves and let them thaw as needed) — that lasts my small family about a week and a half. I like to substitute 1/3 to 1/2 cup wheat germ for an equal amount of the whole-wheat flour for extra flavour and nutrition.
It’s never to late to comment, and you’re most welcome! I’m not sure I could do bread 3 days out either… I’m lucky if I remember the night before, lol. Brilliant idea on doubling for more loaves. Less time in the kitchen is always a good thing. 🙂
I have been making homemade bread for a while now and settled on one recipe but I love the idea of soaking the grains first. I have kids and hectic schedules so I also like the idea of freezing a loaf or two but have never done this. Do you bake the bread and then freeze or freeze the dough? I am not a baker to say the least! I consider myself a great recipe-follower cook! Any help is appreciated. Thanks.
Hi Angie! You bake, then freeze the bread. Some dough recipes can be frozen before baking, like biscuits or even pizza dough, but I’ve never preferred the end result that way. To make it REALLY easy later, you can even slice the bread before freezing. Regardless, wrap the bread twice – once w/plastic warp & then in a gallon bag – so it doesn’t get freezer burn. Simply re-use the plastic wrap each week!
How do you get the slices thin enough for sandwiches?
Wait until the bread is 100% completely cooled before slicing. You might even consider chilling it in the fridge for 20 minutes, to make it colder and thus easier to slice.
Heya, this is kindof a side note, but what was it you found hard with the sourdough starter? my mum started a starter a few months ago now, and gave me some. Since then, I’ve kept it in the fridge, forget to get it out until I make my bread (so it’s cold still, poor thing), only feed it once every few days (when I make the bread) and generally mistreat it, but it has been faithful and I’ve never had trouble. I’ve also heard you can freeze it 🙂 I make mine at night, before bed, wake up, add a bit more flour and put it in tins to rise then cook it at lunch time. Seriously so easy! Wish I could figure out why I seem to be the only one to not have trouble!! Even mum has trouble!!
Hi Rosemary! It’s the remembering to pull it out enough days in advance to feed and warm to make dough that’s difficult or me. And then once it’s out, feeling the need to keep feeding it “since it’s already warm” and keep it going until bread day again. In itself, sourdough isn’t tough. But for me, when it’s compiled with all the other things going on in the kitchen and life, it was just a bit too much. 🙂
I finally tried this! The recipe is soooo easy to follow and comes out soooo good! My family loves this bread, and I love that the grains are freshly ground and soaked. Thank you for sharing such a great recipe and for the inspiration to try it. It will be much easier to continue making bread now that I know I have a fool-proof recipe.
Wonderful Jennifer! I’m so glad you like it! And you’re most welcome. I love when I find a tried and true recipe that becomes a staple. I’m honored that you picked one of mine! 🙂
Hi, I’m new to your page and would love to try this recipe! However, I’d really prefer to not use white flour. Do you think it will really change the end result to use all wheat flour (I don’t have spelt or anything else)? Thanks!
Do you think coconut flour would work in this recipe? Not as a ww substitute, but in combination with it?
Hmm… That’s an idea! Every time I bake with coconut flour, it expands outward, not upward (sort of like spelt), and it ends up almost sponge-like in texture. However, I’ve never really mixed it with other types of flour before, so that’s something I’d like to see! If you end up trying, tell us how it works!
I am wondering which grain mill you would recommend? Thank you!
Hi Rachel! I have a Wondermill. It’s the only grain mill I’ve ever tried, so I can’t compare/contrast, but it does the job!!
Quick question….have you ever used the dough to make smaller rolls or buns or made a loaf without using a loaf pan? I’m not normally a bread baker but I’m anxious to try your recipe!
Yes! I’ve made smaller rolls before and they’re pretty tasty. A bit different than “bread,” but they did the job just as well!! Buns have a different texture, more like an egg-dough, but you could probably shape them as a bun and get away with it. 😉
Oh my gosh YES!!! I have been trying all sorts of recipes to try and get a wholemeal loaf my kids like.
Just whipped up 2 of these babies and by crikey they are amazing! It comes out soft and fluffy, like nothing wholemeal I have ever seen before! Finally I can stop buying them sandwich bread.
You are my hero. 🙂
It was also the most pleasant dough I have ever dealt with, like playing with playdoh instead of working!
I soaked in 75% yoghurt 25% milk.
x
Does it matter if it’s Greek yogurt or another type of yogurt? Thanks!
is the unbleached white flour necessary? can I just add another cup of WW flour?
You can Veronica, but Ms. Fallon is very clear about soaking grains 100% of the time. All-purpose flour doesn’t need to be soaked, which is why she indicates using it at the end of the recipe. Honestly, I think you’re fine either way. 🙂
This bread is so good. SO GOOD!! I don’t mean to yell, but…oh wait, yes I do, I want to scream it from the mountain tops. “This bread is so gooooooooood!” Hahaha. Just kidding. In all seriousness though, this bread has got me trying to think of any way I can incorporate it into my meals. For some reason there seem to be a lot of sandwiches on my meal plan now…hmm, wonder how that happened 😉 I think to myself while I’m eating it, “You know what would go good with this bread? More bread.”
I think you get the picture by now that I love this bread. Thanks for the recipe!
LOL – this totally made my day Cheri. Thank you for shouting from the mountain tops your enjoyment for this bread! More bread with bread? Sign me up too! 😉
Haha, “You know what would go good with this bread? More bread.” That made me belly laugh!
I made this last week, and it was delicious! I used half yogurt and half milk, and I also replaced half the whole wheat with spelt. I do have a question, though: would it work using the homemade buttermilk where you put vinegar in milk? I never have actual buttermilk because I always make the vinegar substitute, but I didn’t know if this recipe required real buttermilk.
Hi Hannah! Yes – you should be able to substitute homemade buttermilk (vinegar + milk) in place of the liquid. Let me know how it turns out!!
Hi there. My sister recently shared your blog with me and I’ve tried your overnight no-knead bread (which was excellent) and am baking the soaked wheat bread as I type this. The only thing is, my bread loaves are really (I mean REALLY) ugly. I don’t know how they taste yet, as they’re still cooking, but any thoughts as to what I did wrong. I thought I followed the instructions exactly. My bread looks lumpy and didn’t rise up nearly as much as your pictures (or my sister’s) show. Being new to bread making, I’d be thankful for any tips you can give.
Hmmm… lumpy makes me think that the flour didn’t incorporate well during the kneading. A low rise usually means inactive yeast. I know it’s a couple days later now, but how did they turn out? Did they rise in the oven at all?
For future lumpy, I’d make sure the flour was combined really well the night before, and then added slowly in the next morning (1/4 cup at a time) so that the flour has a chance to get mixed in well.
I’m curious how it turned out though Tiffany – please update if you can!
Thanks so much for your feedback! The bread tasted great and rose a little in the oven but I’ll definitely use your suggestions next time and see how it turns out. Both my husband and I love it though, in spite of its density :). Thanks again!
– Tiffany
My loaves just came out of the oven and I have to say, this bread is phenomenal! I did as Amy H. and employed my bread maker for some of the process; success!! The bread’s so moist, soft, and perfectly sliceable. It smelled good through the whole process, and tastes even better! Thank you for this lovely recipe!
You’re absolutely welcome Sarah!!
The best bread I have ever baked! The last time I tried it in my bread machine; in the evening I quickly let the flour and butter mix with kefir (my kefir was on a runnier side and so I didn`t think it was necessary to mix with water), and let it soak covered overnight in the machine. In the morning, I directly added the other ingredients to the bread machine, turned it on “quick” because I was in a hurry, and the bread came out as great as from the oven, maybe even a little bit softer! Thank you for the great recipe!! 🙂
Greetings from Vienna, Bettina
I’m so glad you liked it Bettina! Great ingenuity for adapting to use your bread machine!
Hi! Looking forward to trying this. When you say Kefir, does it have to be milk kefir, or can it be water kefir? My son has a dairy allergy. Any thoughts on how to adapt this?
Thanks!
For dairy allergies I’d soak with lemon juice or ACV – 1 Tbsp to 1 cup of water. 🙂
Tiffany, I’m currently soaking my grains, as you specified, for the first time and I’m super excited! However the flour, butter and yogurt+milk mixture seems to have made a ball of dough that’s a little like playdough. Is that the consistency is supposed to be? And will it soften enough to add the other ingredients when the time comes?
Is it too dry? I used freshly ground wheat, is that soaking up too much of the liquid? Thanks for your help!
Is the consistency right – yes! It’s very different from regular dough when you first mix, but keep on with the recipe and you’ll be okay!
Hi Tiffany! My dough is pretty crumbly and it’s almost impossible to knead it in the stand mixer. The hook just digs in and breaks up the dough rather than forming a nice ball. Any ideas for what I’m doing wrong?
Hmmm… This usually comes together after 10 minutes of kneading. I would try adding 1 Tbsp of water every 2-3 minutes of kneading. It could be the environment causing the issue.
I am over the top excited to find this recipe! I just can’t jump on the sourdough bandwagon right now, mostly because of the heat ( I live in Africa, it’s usually 90 degrees in my house). I’ve recently found a source of whole wheat, and I can’t wait to try this! Thank you for all the hard work and experimentation you did to find out this is possible!
My bread is in the first rising stage and I think it’s going to work but I have a question about the flour. After the soak I added the yeast mixture and salt and then was only able to add about 1/4 cup white flour before it seemed like the bread was going to be to dense if I kept adding more. I kneaded by hand for 10 minutes and it never felt sticky or seemed to need more flour. Has anyone else ever had this happen?
If you only needed 1/4 cup flour, I’d say you’re good (of course, it depends on how it turned out!). Environment can effect bread, so all bread recipes will vary slightly. 🙂
This is really good bread. It is very forgiving as I think I started out with the dough a little too dry. I tried making the last part of it in my breadmaker as someone commented that she did. It turned out very good and we love the taste and soft moist texture. I tried to do sourdough and never could find a bread recipe that we really liked. I felt like I was always wasting flour with the constant feedings and eventually I think my starter went off so I threw it out. The only thing I was able to make with the sourdough starter that was good was English muffins but the last time I made them they didn’t rise. So I gave up and now I need to find a good soaked flour English muffin recipe.
I’m seriously late to this post but I’m gonna comment anyways! I have been trying all summer to make a loaf of whole wheat sourdough that actually tastes good and it’s been one disappointment after another! The crust is always super hard and I just can’t find a way to get a mild tasting loaf. I don’t even want to think about how much flour I’ve wasted!
I’m throwing in the towel at my starter (for now!) and soaking the flour for this recipe tonight! I have never made any of the Nourishing Traditions bread recipes and I’m hoping this turns out better than the Sourdough. Based on the comments, I think I’m on the right track.
Do you have any good recipes for a whole grain sourdough that kids might like? Or any tips on making that type of bread more edible in general?
Any thoughts about shaping half of the dough into hamburger buns? I’m trying to find a good recipe for soaked buns!
Hmmm. I’m not sure that would work, but it might. It’s been awhile since I’ve made this, but if the dough isn’t too wet, it’s worth a shot. That will be the sign – whether the dough can be shaped or not – because in a loaf pan, it can only go up. Would you let us know if it works?
I ended up just shaping them into dinner rolls like Nourishing Traditions suggests. I’ve had so many failed bread attempts that I don’t want to risk another just yet! I noticed that any bun recipes I come across called for eggs so think I’d get better results trying to adapt a non soaked version. I’m going to keep searching for a soaked recipe though.
You mentioned you haven’t made this bread in awhile. What recipe are you currently using? Just curious…
I thought about the egg issue too Adrianne, because my own bun recipe uses eggs (I thin it helps to retain shape? B/c you use it in cinnamon rolls too…) Anyway, we’ve been making Man Bread lately, simply because it’s done in 90 minutes. Moving and a busy (hot) summer has put baking in general on the back burner! But I do have lots of whole grain in the pantry, so I anticipate more soaked recipes and/or NEW recipes in the future!
Great recipe. I made it in my bread machine, and it came out wonderfully. I’m going to try it with ww and spelt as you suggest, too.
Sometimes I struggle to time my homemade bread just right with the finishing up of the last loaf. I recently had an idea to keep a “French toast” bag in the freezer…I’ll aim to have the next loaf ready before we finish the current one and just throw the last couple slices in a bag and make a batch of French toast when it gets full.
That’s a really good idea Julie!!
Someone may have asked this, but can you sub a different acid– non dairy–like lemon juice or acv?
Absolutely Sarah – you can use either of the subs you suggested. 🙂
Thank you for a great blog post. I not only make my own bread, I teach bread baking–white, whole wheat, spelt, kamut, einkorn, you name it. The best flour I have ever use is from Great River 7 grain bread flour – available on Amazon. Spelt has finicky gluten, and nothing but wheat has gluten strong enough or plentiful enough for really great bread. Sourdough is a nightmare no matter how you look at a it.
When I discovered soaked grains, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. What a miracle. My husband has health issues and the anti-nutrients in whole grain flour caused him no end of troubles. Only white flour was digestible (fewer anti-nutrients0. Soaking neutralizes many of these anti-nutrients. The recipe I developed has some high-quality white bread flour and a tablespoon of gluten flour, honey to maintain freshness longer, either a 1/2 cup sour dough stater or yogurt (any high acid liquid), a touch of pink salt, and rapid rise yeast. The bulk of the ingredients is either fresh ground whole wheat and spelt/kamut mix, or the 7-grain Great River Flour. 25 pound bag is $42 right now, Prime. I keep it in 4 cup measurements in the freezer to maintain freshness.
I’m currently working on how to offer soaked grain bread baking to my teaching agenda. So glad you discovered it, too. The bread stays fresh for a long time, it is is stretchy and soft enough for hearty sandwiches, and makes great toast.
I sometimes add a little cinnamon, chopped walnuts, and homemade raisins. The cinnamon isn’t enough to taste, but it helps with blood sugar control and shelf-life of the bread. A great way to make a sweeter, cinnamon/raisin loaf is to add addition sweetener as Stevia. 1/4 cup honey and the stevia equivalent of a couple tablespoons sugar. An egg, added helps the crumb and adds protein. Whey is also wonderful as an addition to the liquid ingredient.
Again thanks for posting this.
Wow! That’s a lot of good advice! Do you teach your bread baking class online or in person?
How many loaves does the recipe make?
Thanks!
Two!
Just made this bread today. Delicious! Turned out perfect! Thanks for the recipe.
You’re very welcome!
I don’t know how I managed to just find this recipe two days ago, but I baked my loaves today and I can say that this is the softest, best tasting wheat bread recipe I have ever made. It was bordering on TOO soft! Thankyouthankyouthankyou! We love our Man Bread but this will be my go-to sandwich loaf from now on!
Better late than never! You’re very welcome. 🙂
I tried this recipe and found that the dough was really dense and stuck together. I got it to rise a little but left it an extra hour and it did not rise much more.
About to bake so we will see! Did I miss something? I mixed the first part by hand and the next in my mixer. And the yeast did bloom, so it seemed fine.
The loaves should definitely rise in both instances Michelle. Did you put the dough in a warm spot? Or is the temperature of the house on the cool side?
Yes the house is on the cold side! Saving money! 😜
My second batch rose a little more but again I am still struggling to get it to rise more than maybe a 1/4 bigger.
Thanks for keeping this recipe up for so many years, Tiffany : ) I’ve got it saved as a pdf after trying it and FINALLY making a bread loaf that wasn’t a brick. Yay!
I wanted to tell you how it worked out for me despite my mistakes in case it helps you answer someone else’s questions. My change was I used 2 cups whole wheat flour and the rest was unbleached bread flour, which worked quite well for gluteny-ness. My mistake was in prepping the dough for soaking and then not being able to make it into bread for 4 days because I got sick overnight. I kept it covered in the fridge after 24 hours of soaking, but because I didn’t cover with plastic wrap it had this horribly dry crusty layer to it : ( It was also cold from the fridge, so I stuck it in the oven on 170 with about a quarter or third cup of water in with it (added another quarter cup partway through) to warm and (attempt to) rehydrate it. The poor thing kind of rehydrated, and I went through the recipe from there.
Thankfully, the bread turned out great! I had lots of little hard lumps of dried flour that kept coming to the surface as I kneaded it, but I brushed them off as I went and the rest of the dough behaved better than anything else I had done before (Nourishing Traditions is great, but I was SO grateful for your tweaked recipe and helpful notes).
My hubby is dairy free. Any suggestions on what I could use to soak the bread? Do you think apple cider vinegar or lemon juice would work?
Yes! Use 1 Tbsp per cup of liquid. 🙂
I just found this recipe too, I am struggling with sourdough as well so will try this as I grind my own flour as well so i like
whole wheat bread, also I love bread with the crunch of seed do you think it would work as well with seeds added, and when would they go in and how much would I add, 1/2 cup?
I haven’t tried it with seeds Debra, but I bet it would be good sprinkled on top!
I have a question. Why do you use baking soda in your recipe? Can your friend handle it without it?
Can you soak sprouted wheat flour for this recipe?
You can, but you won’t get any additional health benefits because your flour is already alive!
What does soaking flour mean?
I have recently begun soaking our grains before making bread. My question is regarding a whole wheat sourdough recipe. Is it necessary to soak the grains in that case since you’re already working with a fermented starter? If it would provide additional benefits, how do you go about it without having a mushy mess instead of dough?
I’ve been looking for a recipe that seems promising, and this is the one! Do you know how I could adapt it if I skipped the sprouting process? I don’t currently include the sprouting ingredients in my budget.
Do you mean skip the soaking Abigail? This recipe is written specifically for soaking, but we have several others that don’t need to be soaked! Here’s a list of all my bread posts: https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/category/recipes/breads2/
Have you ever tried substituting the butter with anything else or tried ghee butter? I fermented my bread and realized I forgot to pick up butter at the store last night :(, new mom brain 🤪 I’ve made this recipe a few times now and love it!!
Thanks!!
So, this recipe says it calls for a whole wheat and white flour mixture, and in one of your comments you said you like to replace some of the whole wheat flour with spelt. But what about einkorn? And if you mill your own fresh flour, will it still benefit from soaking? I want to send this recipe (and knowledge of your site in general) to my vegan sister. I saw that you can replace the dairy with ACV (1 tablespoon per cup of liquid), but what about the butter? Could you use coconut oil? Thanks so much for sharing this recipe, and I love your website!
Hi Ellie! You can use coconut oil in lieu of butter. We’ve done that with our “Man Bread” recipe and it’s delicious! You can also replace some of the whole wheat flour with einkorn. Einkorn is slow to rise and slow to absorb water, so you can treat it like you would spelt or another non-hard red wheat grain. Yes, you can still benefit from soaking even if you mill your own flour!!