Dave-O's Comments

Just a couple of thoughts.

A few people have used fermented vegetables as starter for sour dough bread, although I cannot image the first couple of lots of dough would taste very nice! I imagine the soaked and pureed with kefir wheat would be similar - theoretically no additional yeast is required.

The idea with sour dough is that you always hold back some from the baking for your next batch of bread which implies a live culture is involved.

The other stray thought is that if you pureed the soaked wheat with water and then rested the result for two or three days you should end up with a pretty decent addition to the home baked bread. I wouldn't be brave enough to use milk for this except for some added with the remaining ingredients. I suspect the kefir culture prevents any undesireable form of fermentation etc

next to icons (in the forums) there is the option to send an off-forum message.

Did you obtain kefir yet?

I ordered mine through 'Dom's Kefir'.

http://www.kefir-grains.com/

Dom's sites are an excellent place to get all the information you could ever want about the care and feeding- and uses -  of both forms of kefir.

I think one of the reasons they are referred to as grains is to remind people that they are alive, and like all other living things have requirements which must be met in order to thrive.

Dom is actually in South Australia, but does ship all over the world.

I do recommend that you visit this site and check out the links at the bottom of each page before contacting Dom to order grains. Mine are very robust and lively - so much so that I have been 'Freecycling' surplus grains.

Ingredients

2/3 cup organic wheat, (rest in water until berries are soft, but not sprouting, and then drain)

10 oz/1.25cups of kefir-cultured milk

1/2 cup of either 'quick oats', or rolled oats that have been softened overnight with water

pinch of salt - optional

Up to 1 tbsp honey- optional

2 tsp butter

1 sachet of dried yeast or the equivalent amount of fresh

3 cups of unbleached flour

Method

Vitamise the softened wheat berries with the kefir cultured milk. Place the liquid in a glass bowl, cover, and allow to rest -at least overnight - for up to 30 hours.

Add your oats, softened butter, honey, yeast, salt and stir well.

At this stage you may need to transfer this into a larger mixing bowl.

Add in your flour, a half cupful at a time, and stir in until it gets too difficult to stir through.

(or use an electric mixer to this stage)

Knead in the bowl, adding more flour until you have a dough sufficiently stiff to form a ball, leaving the sides of the bowl clean. This may take more or less than the three cups of unbleached flour. If too much less, add a little milk or water to the mix and keep on kneading.

Work off any frustrations here - the more kneading, the better the bread.

Once the dough is thoroughly kneaded, cover bowl with a clean cloth and leave in a draft-free area for roughly one hour, (or in the fridge for up to 2 days - if you do this you will need to allow the dough to return to room temperature before the next step)

Grease your loaf tin, then knead the dough again and place in tin, squashing so it is even.

Turn stove on at 425f or 225C to preheat for 10-15 minutes.

Once preheated, brush the top of the loaf with warm salted water fora nicer crust, then bake for 10 minutes, then lower temp to 350f or 175Cc and bake for a further 30-35 minutes.

NB - different ovens cook at different speeds - mine is fan forced. If you cannot smell the bread it is probably too early to take it from the oven.

The bottom of the tin should sound a little hollow when tapped.

Tip loaf out onto a cooling rack.

(this is when I cut the first slice and have it with organic butter)

You can play with this recipe a little if you wish - remember if you use whole meal flour that it soaks up more liquid. Adding a little mashed potato and/or some linseeds works well. 

Bon Appetit!