The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

W / W

qahtan's picture
qahtan

W / W

 

 I am really in a quandary here.

 Should I soak my WW grain/flour before baking with it,
 I never have I mill the hard wheat berries and

continue to make my bread, now some say the flour should be soaked to remove some nasty thats in there........ Help................. qahtan

Zigs's picture
Zigs

I think you might be speaking of phytic acid, there have been a few posts on here if you'd like to search the forums.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phytic_acid

I don't concern myself with it too much, but I do know that soaking the flour in a slightly acidic solution will reduce the phytic acid in a few hours time. I use a mix of buttermilk and milk... or buttermilk and H2O. Someone else can tell us if that would actually work. You could also probably use a tbsp of lime/lemon juice. I have no idea what that would do to the taste of the end loaf though.

Generally if you're using the soaker/biga method for your whole wheat breads, that should work.

Something I'd like to know is the difference in amounts of Phytic Acid between store-bought whole wheat, and freshly ground.