RECYCLED GRAIN BREAD

By mz0926

*FROM WILD FERMENATION*
TIMEFRAME: About 2 days (Exactly how long will depend upon temperature.)

FOR 2 LOAVES!!

Ingredients

• 2 Cups leftover cooked rice (or oatmeal, millet, buckwheat or any grain)
• 2 Cups bubbly sourdough starter
• 2 Cups water (half can be another leftover liquid: soup stock, beer, sour milk, kefir, whey, or pasta or potato cooking water)
• 8 Cups flour (at least half of it wheat or spelt)
• 1 tsp. sea salt

Preparation

Step 1

PROCESS:

1. Mix a "sponge": Place leftover grains into a largebowl. Pour sourdough starter over it. (Don't forget to replenish your starter.) Add lukewarm water and 4 Cups of flour, enough to make it a thick batter. Use at least half wheat flour (whole or white or some of each, or spelt, which is very wheat-like but easier for some people to digest), but augment that with some of whatever other flours you have: buckwheat, rye, and cornmeal are all good. Stir the batter well. This glutenous mass is called a "sponge". Let the sponge sit in a warm place, covered with a moist towel or cloth, for 8 to 24 hours (it can be somewhat flexible around your schedule), stirring occasionally, until it is good and bubbly.
2. When it is good and bubbly, add salt. Salt inhibits the yeast, which is why we keep it out of the starter at the beginning of the process. But salt contributes to the development of the dough and prevents the yeast from acting too quickly; bread without salt tastes flat and lacking. Were the grains you added cooked with salt? If so, add a little less salt.
3. Add flour, about 4 cups gradually. Keep adding flour and stirring it in, until the dough becomes so thick that you cannot effectively stir it with a spoon.
4. Knead the dough well on a floured surface. Give it at least 10 minutes. A good way to tell if you've kneaded enough is to poke a finger into the dough and remove it. Well-kneaded elastic dough should resist the indentation and push back toward its original form.
5. Place the kneaded ball of dough into a clean, lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a moist, warm towel and set the bowl in a warm place for the dough to rise.
6. Rise the dough until its bulk increases roughly 50 percent, which may take several hours, and is quite variable depending on the temperature and the character of the dough and the yeast that has developed. In a cool space, such as an unheated kitchen at temperatures around 50 to 60 degrees, rising can take as long as a couple of days. But it will happen.
7. Once the dough has risen, form it into loaves. First, lightly oil 2 loaf pans. Then knead each loaf for a moment, sprinkling a little more flour if the dough is sticky.
8. Rise for another hour or two, until the loaves have risen substantially.
9. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake. (Note that ovens vary; at high temperatures, some ovens burn bread on the outside before it fully cooks inside. If that should happen to you, try baking at 350 degrees for 10 minutes longer)
10. Check loaves after 40 minutes. Most likely they will require 45 to 50 minutes, maybe even longer. The way to test doneness of bread is to remove it, upside down, from the loaf pan. Tap the bottom of the loaf. When it is done it will sound hollow, like a drum. If it's not done, return it to the oven quickly and continue baking.
11. When the bread is done, remove it from the hot pan and cool it on a rack or cool surface. The bread continues to cook and set as it cools. It's hard to be patient when it smells so good, but try to wait 15 minutes before cutting it'll taste that much better.