Awesome Soaked GF Bread

We have a subscription to Mother Earth News. I love the articles in there! I look forward to walking out to the mailbox and finding the most recent issue tucked away inside. Last year they had an article about the book "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes A Day." Normally, an article like that would be of little interest to me. Why sulk over the lost love of bread since GF bread is usually far from tempting?! But this time, I caught a glimpse of the letters "GF" (bc you know I am now equipped with a GF radar. haha) The article stated that the new book contained a whole chapter on GF breads that were easy to prepare and make. I reserved a copy from our local library, and couldn't wait until it was finally my turn to check it out! Once I got it home, I was pleasantly surprised to find one of the basic GF bread recipes used whole grain flours that I already had in my kitchen. Major plus. White rice flour is not only bland, but has no nutritional value whatsoever. This recipe, however, called for sorghum, brown rice, and tapioca - flours with fiber, vitamins, and protein still intact. So I rounded up my ingredients and gave it a shot. The results were incredible! It was by far the BEST GF bread I had ever had. Not only did it have excellent flavor, but it was moist and soft on the inside with a nice crispy crust. Just like real homemade bread! And it was easy to make! Now that I knew it worked, I adapted it to the soaked flour method. The results were just as great, with the added benefit of the phytic acid being broken down and the grains being more digestible.

Here is my soaked flour version of the GF Crusty Boule from "Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day." Makes 2 loaves. (NOTE: You can make this bread dairy free by skipping the soaking process completely and replacing the kefir with water. You can also replace the kefir with kombucha for soaking and still keep it dairy free.)

2 cups brown rice flour
1 1/2 cups sorghum flour
3 cups tapioca flour
1 TB salt (or less depending on taste preference)
2 TB xanthan gum
1 1/3 cups lukewarm water
1 cup kefir, yogurt, or buttermilk

Mix dry ingredients well in a bowl. Gradually stir in liquid ingredients until well combined and clumps are gone. Form dough into a ball by scraping dough from sides of the bowl. Cover with a towel and let sit over night, or at least 7 hours.

After soaking over night, break up dough a little bit with your hands. If using a stand mixer, add dough to mixing bowl and turn on low. Start adding the remaining ingredients until dough is well mixed. If using a spoon to mix dough, it is easier to combine the remaining ingredients in a separate bowl and then gradually add them to the dough.

2 TB active dry yeast
4 large eggs (I have made this bread with flax gel instead of eggs and it worked out fine - 4 TB ground flax seed mixed with 8 TB hot water, let sit until it gels, about ten minutes.)
1/3 cup olive oil
2 TB honey

Once dough is completely mixed, cover and let rise 2 1/2 hours (more if your kitchen is cold, less if it's very warm).

After rise time, turn oven to 450 degrees. Place an oven safe dish with 1 cup water in it on bottom rack of oven. Stoneware works great for this bread, so if you are using that be sure to preheat it with the oven. Grease pans generously. Wet hands and separate the dough into two clumps. You can use two bread pans, or you can form the dough into two balls and bake round loaves (one at a time if doing round loaves). Bake bread for 30-35 minutes. You may need to cover the top of the bread lightly with foil towards the end of the baking to prevent over-browning of the crust.

Once the bread is done baking, BE SURE to let it sit and cool before slicing it. If you try to slice it while it's still hot, it will be gooey. :) If you find you forget to soak the flour overnight but still want bread, use the same ingredients and directions, just skip the soaking process.