I just don't get TF bread. Need handholding and explaining.

[Harmony08]

I really appreciate any help you can give me. I have searched this forum. If there are threads that will help me please point me to them. I ma searching the whole internet as well.

I have so far been making no knead bread. I am bored of it and it never turns out that great. I like the long slow rise. I can't tolerate regular bread products. But I am feeling like there is more out there in terms of TF bread. My mom has started making a sourdough which has about a six hour rise. She is going to give me some starter. Is this good enough? Then I get into soaking the flour first???? Buying grains and milling them fresh??? and then soaking them or soaking them before I grind them??? Or sprouting them and then grinding them???? I am lost in all of these possiblities.

I am also shocked by the prices of the grain grinders...sheeesh.

I am trying to find the least expensive way to a healthy, digestible TF bread. How do I get there??????

I know some of you out there are accomplished bread makers and I would LOVE to hear from you.

[Harmony08]

Also, if I buy groung sprouted flour, won't it just be rancid in a couple of days??? Can you buy sprouted berries and then you don't have to worry about soaking?

[Magelet]

Start with the sourdough. Sourdough is an excellent way to make digestible, traditional delicious bread. I hear it's easy to make no knead sourdough. Or any other sourdough isn't too hard.

If you are unhappy with sourdough bread, then maybe consider sprouted flours. I find them most useful for biscuits and quickbreads and other last minute bread stuff, which I make not that often. They are expensive, and not worth it for bread since I love the taste of sourdough. However, I know that my sprouted flour is kept in the fridge until I get it and I keep all whole grain flours sprouted or unsprouted in the fridge or freezer. It might not totally prevent rancidity. It does keep it minimal.

I soak pancake batter, and other things like that. As I said, with biscuits I try to use sprouted flour (that I purchase), though I don't worry with the occasional unsoaked unsprouted biscuits, since we don't eat them much.

For bread that you can digest well, start with sourdough, it's plenty digestible. The sourdough should also rise slower, and allow more lactic acid and other flavor development in your bread.

[425lisamarie]

I make a slow long overnight rise, which perfectly fits my schedule. First thing am I can shape loaves and then either rise/bake in the am before we need to be anywhere, or retard in the fridge and take out about 3-4 hours before baking.

I start with 4 ounces of fed starter, and to it add 16 ounces water, and 24 ounces flour, then kneed in mixer, take out, oil bowl and put the dough back, cover and let sit overnight on the counter. If you use more starter than that, it will rise too quickly and blow over the bowl.

Having said that, you can make the most delicious french bread with equal parts starter/final dough to make a quick rising, airy french bread. What I mean by that is say you want 2 pounds of dough, for 1 pound each baguettes, you would use 16 ounces barm (not sure what you others call it, this is to me "refreshed" starter) and flour water to equal about 16 more ounces.

I make EVERY bread I make with sourdough. It makes hands down the best pizza/pita/flatbread of any kind. I usually make lots of greek style flatbread because I can stack/freeze, and make our favorite meal, gyros, or impromptu pizza crusts on a whim

ETA: regarding your "soaking" question. Not sure if you know this but the rise IS the soaking. It doesn't have to be a wet medium. IF you were going to make NON sourdough, and start with jarred yeast, you would soak your grains in water/buttermilk and then make your final dough with a little white flour.

[tngirl11]

I personally don't like the taste of sourdough, so I've become a big fan of sprouted flour. One of my good friends got me started on it. I totally thought she was crazy when she first told me what she was doing, and I thought it sounded really time-consuming, but it's not at all. Now I have to admit that I'm not the expert bread-baker. My mom is, so I usually leave it to her. I just make the sprouted flour, which pretty much involves throwing some wheat berries in a jar full of water right before bed, rinsing them once in the morning, dumping in a cookie sheet the next night before bed, and letting them dry in the oven on low while I sleep. Then I just pop it in the grinder and let it do it's thing whenever we need flour.
I'm afraid I don't have the recipe that my mom uses, but I will try to remember to get it and post it when I get the chance. I think she started with a King Arthur recipe and tweaked it until it came out just right.

[Harmony08]

This is all wonderful advice. Most appreciated. I confess, Lisamarie, I did not realize that the rise was the soaking. Good to know! I love hearing all of your experiences. I will start with sourdough once I get the starter and we will go from there. Perhaps I will buy some sprouted flour for the occasional little something. I love baking and I used to bake ALL the time ( No wonder I had issues, right). I do miss it. Perhaps I'll find a way to do it in better health.

[JMJ]

I'm still kinda new to this, but here's the best of my understanding. There are two issues with wheat: phytic acid and nutrients/enzymes (including phytase).

Phytic acid is reduced by soaking, sprouting or fermenting. I'm trying to only eat bread with flour that has been soaked, wheat that has been sprouted, or fermented dough (sourdough).

Nutrients are lost very quickly when wheat is ground. Therefore, grinding your own wheat will help increase the nutrition of your bread. I believe that this is true for sprouted and unsprouted flours. Sprouting will also increase the nutrients in your flour. I have read that sprouted flour doesn't work for all breads, though, including sourdough.

I think that TF bread is about picking your priorities and ballancing. For example, I'm not sure if it's better to use fresh ground flour to make something that you're going to eat right now or to grind it the night before so that you can soak it overnight. I guess ideally, you'd sprout it ahead of time and then grind it the day of. It's all about how much work you want to do.

[Peia]

Sprouted Flour

I used to make my own sprouted flour and it was so time consuming and made dense baked goods. That was before the most amazing organic sprouted flour was available at my health food store. I now buy the Shiloh Farms Essential Eating sprouted wheat and sprouted spelt flours and bake away. You can read all about their flours online, but what I like and can't do at home is test to make sure the grain is sprouted and not drown. And their milling equipment is so far superior than what I could afford at home and makes all my baked goods light and beautiful.

And here is what I learned. When a grain is sprouted the germ cell is eaten to create the sprout. The germ cell in unsprouted grain is the part that starts to go rancid immediately when milled, BUT with sprouted flour, there is no germ cell, so the shelf like is much, much longer. A loaf of my bread lasts about a week on the counter. No need to freeze of refrigerate and the sprouted flour has a 6 month shelf life. Amazing. Hope this helps. My digestion has improved dramatically by switching to this flour and my kids love it too!
Keep baking!

[Harmony08]

Originally Posted by Peia

I used to make my own sprouted flour and it was so time consuming and made dense baked goods. That was before the most amazing organic sprouted flour was available at my health food store. I now buy the Shiloh Farms Essential Eating sprouted wheat and sprouted spelt flours and bake away. You can read all about their flours online, but what I like and can't do at home is test to make sure the grain is sprouted and not drown. And their milling equipment is so far superior than what I could afford at home and makes all my baked goods light and beautiful.

And here is what I learned. When a grain is sprouted the germ cell is eaten to create the sprout. The germ cell in unsprouted grain is the part that starts to go rancid immediately when milled, BUT with sprouted flour, there is no germ cell, so the shelf like is much, much longer. A loaf of my bread lasts about a week on the counter. No need to freeze of refrigerate and the sprouted flour has a 6 month shelf life. Amazing. Hope this helps. My digestion has improved dramatically by switching to this flour and my kids love it too!
Keep baking!

oooooooooo! interesting. very interesting. thanks!!!!

[Harmony08]

thanks, this is a great breakdown. I guess I will tackle the phytic acid first with the sourdough and then work on the nutrient part once I can get some fancy flour.

In the meantime I am going to try some NT baking with some regular old poisonous flour

[Harmony08]

Nevermind. That was some revolting banana bread.