This week alone has found my kitchen with: flour soaking for bread, flour soaking for pancakes, almonds soaking, items out for making homemade mayonnaise, creme fraiche biding its time in a warm oven, flour soaking for coffee cake. I also took the time to make chocolate milk for my big boys, as well as hot fudge sauce for ice cream. As well as, you know...our nightly dinners.
I've had a lot on my plate this week. So to speak.
Yes, there's usually at least one bowl on my counter at any given time. Often, there have been two or three. That part of our home tends to resemble a test kitchen. Or a lab, even.
But that's okay with me. And Jeff doesn't seem to be bugged by it. Eventually, I'll even have the counter space to accommodate such soaking comfortably. For now we're just working around the congregation of bowls...
To read more about why I choose to soak my grains, as well as how traditional cultures used this practice, click here.
4 comments:
I guess by soaking you mean sourdough. That's what I did today. I made sourdough pancakes and sour dough hotdog buns mmmmm. God bless!
Sourdough is naturally soaked, but I mean mixing flour with an acidic medium (cultured buttermilk, kefir,water + whey, water + lemon juice, or water + vinegar). Sorry, I forget sometimes that everyone who reads my blog hasn't been reading for as long as I've been writing. :)
The purpose of soaking grains, if you don't follow the link, is to break down the anti-nutrients (phytic acid, for example) that occur in whole grain flours. It makes them healthier, and so much more digestible!
So you actually soak the flour? You don't have to soak the grains and then grind them into flour? I'm really trying to "get it" but my brain is still stretching:) ("it" being the whole concept of traditional food prep)
Erin, my understanding is that you can do it either way. I don't have a way to grind grain into flour, so I soak the flour (as per the directions in Nourishing Traditions). It turns out really well - and one of the best things is, it makes foods made with whole grain flours so much lighter! You'd almost think there was some white flour mixed in! ;)
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