Soaking flour in kefir or yogurt?

[tboroson]

Has anybody done this? Is there any reason not to?

I had a recipe for muffins that I wished to convert to soaked flour, etc. The primary liquid in the recipe was milk, so I subbed kefir and soaked the spelt flour right in the kefir overnight. That is, straight kefir, not water with kefir added. They turned out wonderful, very bread-y as opposed to cake-y.

So, SF recommends soaking in water with a little kefir or other acid. Presumably, the pH of straight kefir is much lower. Is it too low to catalyze the reaction to neutralize the phytates?

[saratc]

I think straight kefir or yogurt is fine. I think SF mentions to soak in water with just a bit added cause that's the minimum acidity needed to neutralize phytates. When a recipe calls for milk, I often substitute with kefir or yogurt and see it as a soaking opportunity. Sometimes the end result takes a bit longer to cook, but in general, works great.