The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [56]
Big Daddy Soy, of course, is a bean unto itself. No other boasts the protein or the range of vitamins and minerals, and few can match the cooked beans’ modest, sweetly self-effacing flavor either, for that matter. For the baker, though, soy presents interesting complexities and challenges.
For one thing, soy protein has a binding effect on bread dough, actually tying up the gluten so that the loaf is unable to rise very well. Learning this tidbit nearly knocked us over, because for years our daily loaf—a hefty one—was loaded with cooked, mashed soybeans. During that period we completely forgot that bread could spring up while it baked. Our research for this book revealed the reason and, happily, the remedy, too: 1 tablespoon of shortening or 2 tablespoons of oil mixed into each loaf will lubricate the gluten sufficiently to overcome soy’s binding effect. Taking this into account, all our soy recipes call for a conditioning amount of oil or butter, and if you want light bread, don’t leave it out. Soy affects dough in other ways, too, which we will discuss in the next pages.
Garbanzo and black turtle beans are not so concentrated nutritionally as soy, but they are nevertheless quite nourishing. Because they are easier on the dough, you can add a larger amount, and come out about even in protein—and perhaps ahead in flavor—after all. These two have the further advantage of making good bread without added fat.
COOKED BEANS
Probably our favorite way to use beans in bread is to cook them, mash them, and work them into the dough. Breads made this way are mild in flavor and have a moist crumb that stays soft for days—this is particularly true with soybeans.
Coarsely cracked soy grits offer an easy alternative to whole beans, because they cook so quickly and don’t bind the gluten as much as the other soy products. Don’t use the small crack grits, though: they make the dough heavy and crumbly. Soy grits have a nutty flavor and are easy to find in natural foods stores. To us, raw grits have a subtler flavor than toasted—but whichever you get, do steam and cool them before you add them to your dough, as suggested in Health Nut Bread.
BEAN FLOURS
Soy and garbanzo flours are available in natural foods markets, or you can grind them fresh at home if you have one of the powerful grinders. Garbanzo flour—try ¼ cup per loaf—pretty much disappears in bread; bakers have used it for centuries. Soy flour is more demanding.
We generally choose full-fat soy flour for baking; deep yellow in color, it contains all the original fat-soluble nutrients of the whole bean. When you buy full-fat soy flour, be sure it is fresh, because bread made with even a little bit of rancid soy flour will neither rise well nor taste good.
Defatted and partially defatted flours are less perishable. Commercial bakers generally prefer the defatted kind because it is less expensive and does not go rancid. The fat has been removed with a solvent, and the flour lightly toasted to destroy enzyme activity. A grayish beige color, it is sometimes called soy powder.
SOY FLOUR ENZYMES
Raw soy flour contains many active enzymes including lipoxidase, which even in small amounts bleaches flour, and conditions dough so that the bread made with it rises higher. The “improving” amount is about one tablespoon of soy flour per two-loaf recipe calling for two pounds of wheat flour. You can add this amount of soy flour to any recipe for its conditioning effect, but don’t expect miracles; it will be very subtle. In these amounts soy’s gluten-binding activity is negligible.
We suggest limiting the amount of soy flour to one-third cup in a two-loaf recipe, maximum. Beyond that, it seems to us, the flavor of the soy flour—which is pretty awful—takes over. Also, even at this level, the conditioning effect is so powerful that the dough ripens extremely fast. Let such doughs