Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 1/3 - 2/3 cup dried soy beans, soaked overnight
- 2 Tbsp linseed / flax seeds (40ml)
- 1 1/2 cups Wholemeal Plain Flour
- 1 1/2 cups All Purpose White Flour
- 1 Tbsp salt, iodised
Wet ingredients
- 1 1/2 - 2tsp dry yeast
- 1 tsp sugar, white
- 1 1/2 cups water, lukewarm
Tools
- 2 cups measuring jug
- Large mixing bowl
- Cast iron dutch oven
- Baking parchment for lining the base.
Instructions
Making Dough
- If you're using the soy beans, you need to soak them for 8 hours, or overnight... this requires forward thinking... not everyone's best feature but greed is always reliable, so i manage.
- Drain the soaked beans, rinse, rub off the bean skins if you can be bothered (i can't)... and dice the beans as finely as you care to - it's subjective, i like it chunky, but if you want it for the nutrition feel free to dice finely or pulse in a food processor... set aside.
- Measure out lukewarm water (if its too hot it will kill and waste the yeast). Add sugar and yeast. Stir then rest for 15 minutes. If it starts bubbling and creating a foam on the liquid surface, move on to step 2.
- In a large mixing bowl, measure out flour, seeds, soy beans and salt, stir and set aside. Make sure the beans and seeds are coated and as evenly spread through the dough as possible to avoid clusters later on.
- After the yeast has foamed and waited for 15 minutes (less time in warmer weather), add the liquid to the flour and mix into a shaggy dough, make sure its add incorporated, but don't over-mix, don't knead, its just wasted effort.
- Cover the mixing bowl with a silicone cover, a damp kitchen towel or plastic wrap, leave for at least 2 hours but you can leave it 8 - 24 hours if you want... it just changes the texture and gets slightly more sour - doubling in size is a good yard stick for appropriate rise.
Cooking
- Preheat the oven with a dutch oven covered and included to 200 - 220 degrees celsius, for 30 minutes.
- Once the oven is at temperature, Empty the contents of the mixing bowl onto a floured surface. With floured hands shape into a ball or log to fit the dutch oven you're using. (I use a loaf style dutch oven... so i usually dust the dough, pat to flatten and roll it into a log - means i can add a swirl of something inside if i want to as well.)
- Place the floured, shaped dough onto the parchment and drop into the dutch oven (with as much grace as possible without burning yourself... make good choices). Also, consider a shallow cut down the centre of your loaf - the crusty artisan bread likes to split - if you give it a cut (expansion point), you'll know where the crack is most likely to happen.
- Bake the bread covered for 30 minutes, then uncovered for 10-15 minutes (if you're not confident in the heat of your oven you can adjust the timing to your preference.
- Remove the bread from the dutch oven as soon as you can and cool on a wire wrack (this prevents the bread from sweating in the oven or the parchment.)
Notes
- You can use 2 cups All purpose and 1 cup wholemeal, but half and half works for me, good fibre, decent rise.
- I used 2/3 cup dry soy beans and i won't lie, it was a lot... you have to drain and dice them up before adding them to the flour... I loved it, but maybe its not for everyone? So, my husband usually makes the bread in our house... and he used to make pizza so, he kneads... its not necessary, and i suck at it so this is perfect. As mentioned above, i flatten and roll the dough... i can add cinnamon sugar or something savoury like a pesto or tapenade on the inside if i want, and i'm lazy... I like wholemeal and or grain bread personally, so if you try a blend of flours you'll find it yields a denser bread loaf (which is frankly just easier to slice...) You might want to bake it uncovered for an extra 5-10 minutes if its not crusted enough. Original recipe had no sugar and slightly less salt - it was delicious but it didn't rise for me... the added sugar ensures a rise and the salt boosts flavour without restricting it to being sweet or savoury.