My Soaked Wheat Bread Recipe

Caralee's Buttermilk Bread Dough

Basic Recipe-

Grind 6 cups of whole wheat (you may use spelt or kamut or combination of any or all) - this should yield approximately 10 1/2 to 11 cups of flour.
Pour the flour into your bread mixer (or bowl, if you do not own a mixer) and add three cups of cultured buttermilk* (or the equivalent**), one cup water and 1/3 cup coconut oil or melted butter, or a mix of the two. Mix well until dough reaches a nice bread dough consistency (neither too dry nor too wet, and the dough cleans the sides of the bowl and forms a nice ball). Cover the dough with a towel or mixer lid and let sit for 12 to 24 hours on the kitchen counter.

*This must be real cultured buttermilk, or it will not work. Winder Dairy's buttermilk works great.

**Other alternatives- Kefir or a good quality plain, whole milk yogurt can work in place of the buttermilk. If you use yogurt, use 2 cups yogurt and 2 cups water.

When ready to use, add 1 Tbsp. baking soda and 1 Tbsp. Real Salt to the dough and mix well. Proceed as follows:

Flatbread- roll out dough, using a little arrowroot as necessary to prevent sticking, and cook using a tortilla maker or on a lightly buttered pan on stovetop until bubbles form and the edges look done (not sticky or doughy) . Turn once and serve hot with butter or cheese, or any other topping of your choice.

Rolls- Shape dough into any sort of roll you desire and bake in preheated 350º oven for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown and smelling delicious.

Pizza- Roll out dough onto pizza stone, using a little cornmeal on the bottom, if desired, and bake at 350º for approximately five minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove from oven, add pizza sauce, desired toppings and cheese and broil until cheese is bubbly and slightly browned. Another option is to not pre-bake the crust, but to simply add sauce, topping and cheese onto rolled out dough and bake until the crust and cheese are golden. Enjoy!

Crackers- Roll out dough and spread with ¼ cup melted butter or coconut oil. Optional- sprinkle with seasoning of your choice (onion powder, garlic powder, salt, chili powder, or sucanat and cinnamon, etc.) Dehydrate or bake at 200º until crisp.

Empanadas, cheese bread, bread sticks, pizza pockets, tortillas, scones, you get the picture- use your imagination! This dough is very versatile and easy to use. Just roll it out in a little arrowroot powder, if needed, and proceed. Here are a few more variations to try:

Cinnamon rolls- Add a little sucanat to your dough when you are mixing in the salt and baking soda (approximately ¼ cup) and proceed to roll out dough into a nice rectangle shape. Spread dough with butter or applesauce, cinnamon, sucanat, raisins or nuts (optional, of course) and roll as you would to make ordinary cinnamon rolls. Cut dough with dental floss and place on stoneware or cookie sheet. Bake for approximately 20 minutes, or until done. Mix a little honey and vanilla in some Daisy sour cream and spread on hot rolls. Bon appetit!

Muffins- After you have mixed in the salt and soda, split the dough in two halves and set aside one half for later use. If you are using your bread mixer, change the dough hook to the cookie whisk and proceed with recipe. Add two to three eggs (you will have to experiment with this to see which consistency you like best), ¼ to 1/3 cup sucanat, 1 teaspoon vanilla and whatever mix-ins you prefer (blueberries are yummy, as well as pecans, etc). Blend well in mixer with cookie whisks and bake in muffins pans for approximately 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown on top. Serve with butter, honey butter, or cream cheese.

Bread- You can make bread with this dough if you use smallish pans and make sure that the bread is cooked through before removing it for good from the oven. Simply shape the dough into loaves and bake at 350 degrees until nicely browned on top and has a hollow sound when you knock on the top. You can also make cinnamon raisin bread by rolling dough out with butter, cinnamon, sucanat and raisins, then rolling back up and forming into a loaf. Herb bread is also yummy. I have found that larger loaves can cooked all the way through if you turn off the oven after baking but leaving the bread in there for an hour or so- I've baked them just before bed and then turned off the oven upon retiring and taking beautiful loaves out in the morning. I have not tried this with bread pans yet (I think stoneware would work best) but just hand-shaped "peasant" loaves, and this works great. I will try my stone bread pans and see if this will work equally as well, and post when I know- or one of you could try and comment for me! ;)

Soaked yeast bread- Soak ten cups of wheat in 3 cups of buttermilk and ½ cup butter or coconut oil. (You may also use the basic recipe- determine which recipe works better for you, and make a note of your preference.) When the dough has soaked for 12 to 24 hours, put 2 Tbsp. dry yeast and 4 Tbsp. honey in ¼ cup warm water and let sit for 5 minutes. Add 1 Tbsp. salt and ½ Tbsp. baking soda and mix well. Pour yeast mixture into soaked dough and process until a smooth dough forms.

Place the dough in a buttered bowl, cover with a towel and let rise two hours, until doubled in bulk. Punch down, throw the dough back in the mixer with the dough hook for 30 seconds, and then form into loaves and place in buttered loaf pans (preferably stoneware). Cover with a towel and let rise 1-2 hours, until doubled. Bake for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool on racks.