Salt-Risin Bread

Dairy free, yeast free recipe

You will find many recipes on line for 'salt-risin bread'. You will read about hits and misses with attempts at making this bread. Most of them use milk, some use potatoes, some use baking powder. I cannot use dairy products. I've tried tofu with some success and some failures. The recipe below (using soy flour) has never failed to rise. The bread will have a flat top as opposed to a rounded loaf, but it does rise. For this reason I have added the products I've used.

3 Tblsp soy flour (Hodgson Mill all natural Soy Flour)
3 Tblsp corn flour
1 Tblsp brown sugar (Market Basket pure cane light brown sugar)
1/2 tsp salt (Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt)
1 cup warm water (1/3 plus 1/8 cup rapid boiling water in cup, then fill to top with cold tap water)

For the starter, mix above ingredients and place into a glass jar (such as a peanut butter jar), and cover tightly with the cap. Place the jar into a pan of hot tap water overnight (12-16 hours).

1 cup of warm water
1 cup whole wheat flour (King Arthur organic unbleached Whole Wheat Flour)

The next day the mixture in the jar will have a yellowish color liquid on top. You can stir this back in or pour it off and replace it with clear warm water (about 1/4 cup). Either way, for the sponge, pour the mixture into a bowl and add second ingredients. Place the bowl into a pan of hot tap water and cover with aluminum foil or a damp cloth, for 3 hours. Mixture should be bubbly at this point.

2 to 2-1/2 cups white whole wheat flour (King Arthur unbleached organic White Whole Wheat Flour)

Now mix in about 2 cups of whole wheat flour and turn dough onto a floured bread board. Knead the dough, (folding it 100 times), adding more flour as needed. Place the dough into an oiled bread pan (I used sesame oil). Oil top of dough and cover with a warm damp cloth. Let rise 2-3 hours in a warm place until doubled. If the dough rises to the cloth, you can remove it and let the dough rise another 1/2 hour to an hour uncovered. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes (35-40 minutes for a half loaf). Sometimes it may rise more slowly, needing up to 5 hours to rise. You can place in a cold gas oven, or an electric oven with the light on while it rises. Remove the cloth and turn the oven on and bake in a nonpreheated oven. Let the pan cool to touch before removing the loaf from the pan. Use a knife or spatula around the sides of the loaf and turn the pan over to let the bread fall out. Let cool on a rack.

If you need more time between the first and second step, you can add 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour to the jar after it sits overnight, replace the water in the pan with hot tap water, and leave it a few more hours before moving to the second step. In the second step add 3/4 cup of flour instead of 1 cup.

I usually make it on a Saturday night at midnight. Then make the sponge around 3 p.m. on Sunday. Let that sit until 6 p.m. and make the dough. If I need to go out on Sunday afternoon, I will add flour to the starter jar and proceed with step 2 at a later time in the day. For a loaf of bread you will need to use a loaf pan. This dough will not rise properly on a cookie sheet, it will just spread. It may rise above the loaf pan, depending on the size of the pan, but it has a sort of flat top as opposed to a rounded top shape.

Fried Salt-Risin Bread

Make dough as above. You can cut dough in half and make a small loaf with one half and fry the rest, or just fry all the dough.

Pour about an inch or more of peanut oil into a fry pan. Shape the dough into a roll and cut off about an inch or so and pat down into flat rounds with oiled hands. The oil keeps any dry flour from falling to the bottom of the oil while frying, and also makes it easier to handle the dough. Make the rounds a size that will fit into the pan easily and about 1/8 inch thick or less. These cook up fast so you may want to make a few of the rounds before you start frying, shaping more dough as you fry the first ones.

When you are ready to fry the dough, heat the oil. Drop a small piece of dough into the oil and when that is browned, remove it and begin frying the dough rounds. Turn the dough often with a pair of small tongs (once about every 15 seconds). Keep turning until light brown and bubbly on both side. If centers bubbles up during frying, gently push it down into the oil with the tongs so it will fry instead of steam in the oil. Remove to paper plates covered with napkins or paper towels to drain. Top with salt or sugar and cinnamon, or whatever you want.

You can also use these to make small pizzas. Top with tomato and cheese (or tofu) and bake in the oven for 10 minutes or so at 350.

Salt-Risin Flatbread

Make dough as above. Shape into flat rounds and bake on a hot fry pan until lightly browned on both sides, turning often.

Salt-Risin Banana Bread

1 recipe Salt-risin bread dough (above).

1 ripe banana
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
nuts (optional)

Make dough as above. Separate the dough into 2 equal parts. Bake one loaf in a small loaf pan for regular bread at 350 for 40 minutes, or fry it, whatever you choose. In a bowl mix 1 ripe banana, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1 tsp cinnamon, optional extras. Add the kneaded half loaf of dough. Mix with a plastic or wood utensil. Add flour and mix. Turn out onto a floured board. Knead dough about 25 times adding more flour as needed. Oil a small loaf pan. Add dough and brush oil on top of dough. Set in a warm place to rise, covered with a warm cloth. It may take an hour longer than the first half of dough to rise. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.

Salt-Risin Corn Bread

1 recipe starter (as above, using 3/4 cup water instead of 1 cup).
2 cups corn flour
1/2-3/4 cups white whole wheat flour

Make starter as above substituting 3/4 cup water instead of 1 cup. Make the sponge as above using 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1 cup warm water. Once the sponge is ready, mix in 2 cups of corn flour with a plastic or wood utensil. Turn out onto a floured (white whole wheat flour) board. Knead dough 100 times adding more flour as needed (1/2-3/4 cups). Oil a loaf pan. Add dough and brush oil on top of dough. Set in a warm place to rise until doubled, covered with a warm cloth (3-4 hours). Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Salt-Risin Tomato Focaccia Bread

1 recipe salt-risin bread as above.
1-1/2 cups pureed tomatoes or tomato sauce
oregano

Make salt-risin dough as above (whole wheat). Turn out onto a floured board. Oil two 9-inch cake pans. Cut dough in half. Shape each into a round and flatten with hands or a rolling pin to fit into the cake pan. Spread 3/4 cup of tomato on each. Sprinkle with oregano. Cover with aluminum foil to keep out draft. Set in a warm place to rise until doubled (3-4 hours). Remove foil and bake at 350 for 35 minutes.