The Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book_ A Guide to Whole-Grain Breadmaking - Laurel Robertson [58]
Form the dough into a ball and place it in the bowl. Cover and keep in a warm, draft-free place. After about an hour and a half, gently poke the center of the dough about ½ inch deep with your wet finger. If the hole doesn’t fill in at all, or if the dough sighs, it is ready for the next step. Press flat, form into a smooth round, and let the dough rise once more. The second rising will take about half as much time as the first.
Press the dough flat and divide in two. Round and let relax, then deflate and shape into loaves. Let them rise in a warm place until the dough slowly returns a gently made fingerprint. Bake 45 minutes to an hour at 350°F.
Soybean Bread
We made soy bread for many years, cooking the beans overnight before baking day in a crockpot set on high. We never dreamed that the loaves could be as light as this recipe makes them—a big improvement over the version in Laurel’s Kitchen. Soybean Bread is admired for its spectacular nutrition and its warmth of flavor; the cooked beans help the bread stay moist for a long time.
There are a few small challenges to preparing this bread, not the least of which is getting the beans cooked and ready when you want them. They do, alas, need to be freshly cooked. Even one night in the refrigerator and they may ferment enough to affect the bread’s rise.
You can simmer them overnight, in a crockpot or some other way. The heat should be high enough to keep them dancing—preferably, though, not all over the stove, which is one of the less fragrant likelihoods in this process. To prevent their boiling over, cover the pot only partially, and keep the flame low enough for just a slow boil. (Use a flame-tamer, if that helps.) The pesky critters will also try to boil dry, so use a big pot and plenty of water. Well, that’s the worst of it.
Soft-cooked, drained soybeans are easy to mash with a potato masher while they are hot. Or if you prefer, cook them only about 4 hours, in which case they will mash a little short of satiny smooth, and the bread will have little nubbets in it, which some people consider the last word in textural delight. You can, of course, use a grinder or food processor instead of a potato masher.
The thick stock from the beans is wonderful, not in the bread but for making Soy Gravy: Sauté chopped onion and garlic in 3 tablespoons oil, add 2 to 3 tablespoons lightly toasted whole wheat flour, and stir and cook gently for 2 minutes. Add a cup of soy stock and bring to a boil; season with salt and pepper. If you want to be fancy, add sautéed mushrooms and a pinch of marjoram. The gravy is so delicious, it’s worth cooking the beans just for that, but then it’s worth cooking them just for this, too: Cook the beans. Mash in time to add their warm pulp to the dough just before its second rise.
¾ cup raw soybeans (150 g), about 2 cups cooked
2 teaspoons active dry yeast (¼ oz or 7 g)
½ cup warm water (120 ml)
5 cups whole wheat flour (750 g)
2 ½ teaspoons salt (14 g)
3 tablespoons honey (45 ml)
1 ¾ to 2 cups lukewarm water (475 ml)
¼ cup fresh unrefined sesame oil (60 ml)
2 tablespoons lightly toasted sesame seeds (18 g) (optional)
(If you are not keen on the flavor of sesame, use another oil or butter, and omit the seeds on the crust.)
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water.
Mix the flour and salt in a bowl, making a well in the center. Stir the honey into the water, add the oil, and then mix the liquids and yeast into the dry ingredients, making a dough that is quite soft. Knead for 5 to 10 minutes, long enough to give it the strength to hold in the gas but not until the gluten is fully developed because you will be doing more kneading later on. Put the dough in a clean bowl, cover and set in a warm place to rise.
Check after an hour or an hour and a half to see if the dough is ready to deflate. Use the finger-poke test—make a hole about half an inch