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1 ½ cups whole wheat flour (225 g)

⅓ cup soy flour (23 g)

1 tablespoon salt (16.5 g)

2 tablespoons butter (28 g)

1 cup raisins (145 g)

The loaves will have a rich-colored crust and a pale, raisin-studded inside. Let them cool before slicing, as the bread is quite soft.

TIMING FLEXIBILITY

The slow sponge takes about 3 hours at 70°F; if you would like it to take 4 or 5 hours, add the salt to the sponge rather than when you make the full dough.

If you would like to speed the final rising stages of either option, dissolve another 1 teaspoon active dry yeast (3 ½ g) in the dough water measure. Keep the dough in a warmer place, about 90°F, and although it may take 45 minutes to an hour to rise fully, the shaped loaves will come up in the pan in as little as 20 minutes.

VARIATION

You can substitute garbanzo flour for the soy flour. If there is no soy in the bread, the butter is optional; without soy, you will need to allow the full dough to rise twice before you shape the loaves.

Health Nut Bread

Not all health nuts are nuts—here they are soy grits, acting nutty in one of the most popular breads we made while working on this book. All the versions tested were well received, even including a couple of early experiments that could in truth only be called duds.

When you add soy grits to bread, as we have previously bleated, if you have a choice in the matter, go for raw rather than toasted—and for the biggest ones you can find; don’t even bother trying the fine-crack type unless you crave bricks. Whatever grit you get, simmer and cool before kneading into the bread; otherwise they’ll rip up the dough.

Along with the nutty grits, you’ll be adding pieces of dried fruit. Our local rancher’s dried apricots are like mahogany chips, dark and hard. That kind has to precede its appearance in the bread with a brief hot-water bath: afterwards it is tender and wonderfully flavorful. (The yeast appreciates the bathwater enormously.) Fruit that is very soft will disappear into the dough, even if you don’t steam or soak it. The best treatment for that sort, so far as we have discovered one, is to cut the fruit into raisin-sized pieces (with wet scissors or knife), spread it out on racks on a baking sheet, and bake in a 200°F oven until it becomes firm—about half an hour. Even if the color darkens, the flavor is improved. Since this fruit can’t take stewing, use apple juice or plain water in the dough instead of the fruit broth. If you use water, the bread will be much less sweet, but good anyway.

Choose the intensely flavorful fruits: apricots and raisins, certainly; peaches, prunes, currants; probably not dates in this one, or figs.

Simmer the soy grits in water in a small, heavy saucepan for 15 minutes, covered. Keep the fire low so the grits don’t burn, and check them a couple of times, adding a few tablespoons of water, if necessary. You want to come out with nicely cooked, unburned soy grits and no extra liquid. Keep the grits covered in their pan while you make the dough.

⅓ cup large-crack raw soy grits (51 g)

½ cup boiling water (120 ml)

1 cup assorted dried fruits (140 g)

2 teaspoons active dry yeast (¼ oz or 7 g)

½ cup warm water (120 ml)

½ cup yogurt (120 ml)

3 tablespoons vegetable oil (45 ml)

1 ½ cups fruit broth, apple juice, and/or water (350 ml)

5 ½ cups whole wheat flour (830 g)

2 ½ teaspoons salt (14 g)

¼ cup toasted sunflower seeds (14 g)

Prepare the fruit by boiling, baking, or just cutting up, so that it is firm but not hard. If simmered, drain well and cool the liquid to use in the bread. Set the fruit aside.

Dissolve the yeast in the ½ cup warm water.

Mix together the yogurt, oil, and fruit broth, water, or juice. Add cold or warm water to make 2 ¼ cups of lukewarm liquid. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl and add the liquid ingredients and the yeast, mixing well. Knead for about 15 minutes. The dough should be elastic and supple, but not quite to the silky stage. Cover and let rise in a warm place. How long will depend on how warm it is