Kefir Tanesi

Ingredients

* 1 cup/ 140 g strong unbleached white bread flour
* 2 cups/ 480 ml water-kefir
* 1 tea spoon barley malt extract/ honey/ maple syrup
* 1 large glass jar, at least 3/4 litre/ 25 oz

Mix the flour with your lively water-kefir so that you get a lump free thin batter, this may be done directly in the jar. You may use less liquid if you like. Cover and leave overnight in a very warm place. I put mine in the airing cupboard. Then feed your water-kefir grains with another teaspoon of whatever sweetener that you are using, and top up with water.
The sponge

For those unfamiliar with sourdough bread making this is an intermediate stage necessary to increase gradually the bulk of your fermented flour in order to enable you to make a decent batch of bread. So the following morning you are going to add to your starter, which should be bubbling away nicely, quite a good lump of flour.
Ingredients

* 4 ½ cups/ 560 g strong unbleached white bread flour
* 1 cup water-kefir, see text

In a medium bowl mix your starter with the above ingredients. Mix the whole thing vigorously with a wooden spoon, add enough water-kefir to make a nice working dough. Knead it until elastic, cover with a damp cloth or plastic, and leave for a few hours in a very warm place. Mine goes back to the airing cupboard. In the afternoon, if everything goes well, it should look a lot bulkier and spongier, and if so you are now ready for the last stage. Otherwise wait until the next day or, if you are in a hurry, add a bit of bakers yeast in the next stage.
The dough

At this stage an experienced baker can easily adapt any recipes to this water-kefir sourdough. What really matters is to keep track of the amount of stron white flour used. This is very important if you want to get the salt right. I aim at using a total of 1,350 g white flour and keep track of the amount used in the previous steps by writing on the flour packet the weight before start. Then I add one part in three - 500 g - of whole wheat flour, and one part in ten - 150 g - of either brown spelt or rye flour, for extra flavour. Whatever flours you decide to use, add the water-kefir slowly and stop when the dough gets dry enough to knead. For the beginners sake I give here a recipe with just two flours, which should give a lightish easy to make bread.
Yield

3 loaves
Ingredients

* 4 ½ cups/ 650 g strong unbleached white bread flour
* 1 cup/ 150 g rye or brown spelt flour
* 1 table spoon sea salt
* 5 table spoons of good olive or walnut oil
* 1 cup/ 240 ml/ 8 oz water-kefir, see text

Oven at 220º C, 425º F, gas mark 7.

Tip the sponge in a large pre-warmed bowl and add it to the flours, salt, and oil. Slowly add enough water-kefir to obtain a good kneading dough. Knead vigorously until the dough is soft and elastic. Cover with plastic or damp cloth, and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled. Knock down, divide in three equal portions, put them in well oiled tins. Cover again, this time with oiled cling film so that when you remove it doesn’t stick to the dough and deflate it. Again, let the bread prove in a warm place. When well risen, remove the cling film and bake in a very hot oven for about 35 to 40 minutes or until it sounds hollow. Cool on racks.

At the end, if you don’t want to go on making any more water-kefir, please put your grains back together with your mother-culture which has been feeding on dairy milk. Kefir grains love feeding on their favourite sugar - lactose - and once back with their not so tipsy brothers will quickly recover their symbiotic make up and shift themselves back to the top of the milk.

In this recipe I’ve used very little of rye or brown spelt flours. You may with great success increase amount of the latter. However the same doesn’t apply with the former. A dough with a higher proportion of rye flour can become very sticky and the above recipe is no longer applicable. For scrumptious water-kefir sourdough apple or pear breads see here.

Maria Fremlin, 5 December 2005

Ingredients

* 320 g/ 2 cups/ 11 oz unbleached white strong bread flour
* about 2/3 cup kefir

Add enough kefir to your flour in order to make a nice kneading bread dough. Knead until the dough is elastic and smooth. Place in a bowl, cover with cling film and leave overnight in a warm place. I leave mine in the airing cupboard. Next day, when the dough is well risen and before it collapses, knock it down and go to the next step.
The dough
Yield

3 loaves
Ingredients

* 750 g/ 5 cups/ 2 lbs 3 oz spelt flour
* 430 g/ 3 cups/ 7 oz strong unbleached white bread flour
* 1 tablespoon sea salt
* 1 sachet/ 7 g easy blend yeast
* 3 slugs of good olive oil
* 1 tea spoon honey
* 1 cup/ 240 ml/ 8 oz warm water, see text

Oven at 220º C, 425º F, gas mark 7.

Move your starter to a large bowl and to it add the flours, salt, yeast, honey and oil. Slowly add enough water to obtain a good kneading dough. Knead vigorously until the dough is soft and elastic. Cover with plastic or damp cloth, and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled. Knock down, divide in three equal portions, put them in well oiled tins. Cover again, this time with oiled cling film so that when you remove it doesn’t stick to the dough and deflate it. When well risen, remove the cling film and bake in a very hot oven for about 35 to 40 minutes or until it sounds hollow. Cool on racks.

I must tell you that I have got into the habit of dividing the dough not in 3 parts as I mention above. I tease out a forth smaller one and with it I made a pizza. So it has become a habit to have pizza on the bread baking day or vice-versa. Whichever way I say it saves quite a bit of my time and the pizza is particularly popular! To do bake the lot in one go I start by baking the loaves first and then time the pizza so that everything is ready at the same time.

I am pretty sure that any of your favourite bread recipes can be adapted to this method. Just let me know of your successes as I would love to hear from you.

Maria Fremlin, 27 February 2001

Yield

Serves four people.
Ingredients

* 200 g / 7 oz self raising flour
* 50 g / 2 oz butter
* 50 g / 2 oz Parmesan cheese
* 70 g / 3 oz raw grated pumpkin
* 30 g/ 1 oz ground almonds
* nutmeg, pepper and salt
* kefir or yoghurt

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6, 200º C, 400º F.

Put all the dry ingredients and the grated pumpkin in the blender, whiz around and then slowly add the kefir or yoghurt, stop as soon as the dough makes a ball. Place walnut sized lumps on top of your casserole and bake for around 30 minutes. Serve at once.

Maria Fremlin, 2 March 2001

Ingredients

* 1 cup/ 140 g/ 5 oz strong unbleached white bread flour
* 2 cups/ 480 ml/ 16 oz water
* 1 lump of kefir grains preferably in a closed bag
* 1 large glass jar , at least 3/4 liter/ 25 oz

Mix the flour with the water so that you get a lump free thin batter, this may be done directly in the jar. Pop in the kefir grains, cover and leave at room temperature preferably in a place where you can watch what is going on. You will notice that soon the contents of the jar will settle into two distinct layers: the flour sits at the bottom and the aqueous layer above it has a creamish to grey colour, which is normal. The latter is where the bag prefers to be, and soon you can see bubbles coming up from the flour below. When the flour is studded all over with bubbles the starter is ready. It behaves very much like fermented milk and even has a very similar pleasant smell. Put it in the fridge until you are ready to use it.
The sponge

For those unfamiliar with sourdough bread making this is an intermediate stage necessary to increase the bulk of your fermented flour in order to enable you to make a big batch of bread. The general procedure is: (i) Bring your starter jar to room temperature to reactivate the culture. (ii- a) If the grains are in a bag remove it and tip the jar contents in a medium sized bowl. (ii - b) If the grains are loose, stir the starter very well and then sieve it through a colander over a medium sized bowl. If you have trouble recovering the grains then I strongly advise you to try a bag instead. (iii) Put the precious grains back in a clean jar - resist the temptation to wash them as this is known to slow its growth - and proceed like for the starter. If using a bag give it a good shake in the batter to make sure that the mesh is clear. The beauty of this method is that you will always have your starter. The more you use the better it will work. (iv) Now back to the medium sized bowl with the grain free batter, add to it:
Ingredients

* 2 cups/ 280g/ 10 oz strong unbleached white bread flour
* 1 dollop malt extract or honey

Mix the whole thing vigorously with a wooden spoon, cover with a damp cloth or plastic, and leave overnight in a very warm place. I put mine in the airing cupboard. Next day, if everything goes well, it will indeed look like a sponge and so you will be ready for the last stage.
The dough

Now you might ask, quite rightly, which flours could be used? The answer to that is any that are used in sourdough bread recipes. The experienced baker can easily adapt any recipes to this kefir sourdough. It is all a matter of taste or diet. For the beginners sake I give here a recipe that should give a lightish bread. I am living in the United Kingdom where the home grown wheat has very low gluten, supermarkets sell their own ’strong brown bread flour’ which, I suspect, has some imported high gluten flour. I chose that one because it gives a lighter bread. Whatever flours you decide to use, add the water slowly and stop when the dough gets dry enough to knead.
Yield

3 loaves
Ingredients

* 1 kg/ 7 ½ cups/ 2 lbs 3 oz strong brown bread flour
* 0.2 kg/ 1 ½ cups/ 7 oz strong unbleached white bread flour
* 1 table spoon sea salt
* 1 sachet/ 7 g easy blend yeast
* 3 slugs of good olive oil
* 1 cup/ 240 ml/ 8 oz warm water, see text

Oven at 220º C, 425º F, gas mark 7.

Tip the sponge in a large bowl and add it to the flours, salt, yeast and oil. Slowly add enough water to obtain a good kneading dough. Knead vigorously until the dough is soft and elastic. Cover with plastic or damp cloth, and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled. Knock down, divide in three equal portions, put them in well oiled tins. Cover again, this time with oiled cling film so that when you remove it doesn’t stick to the dough and deflate it. When well risen, remove the cling film and bake in a very hot oven for about 35 to 40 minutes or until it sounds hollow. Cool on racks.

Bom apetite!

If you like to make bread entirely without baker’s yeast I suggest, to start with, you do it with half the listed dough ingredients. It will take longer to rise but will get there in the end. I have tried it with half spelt and half strong white flours and it was indeed a very tasty compact and good keeping bread. Good luck with your experiments and, by the way, I would love some feed back from you.

Maria Fremlin, 25 February 2001

Ingredients

* 300g/ 2 cups/ 11 oz unbleached white strong bread flour
* about 3/4 cup kefir
* 1 teaspoon sea salt
* 1/2 cup coriander (cilantro), chopped
* 2 fat cloves of garlic, pressed
* 6 black olives Greek style, without pips and chopped
* 1 tablespoon clarified butter (ghee), butter or margarine

Oven at 220ºC, 425º F, gas mark 7.

The day before add enough kefir to your flour in order to make a nice kneading bread dough, add the salt. Knead until the dough is elastic and smooth. Place in a bowl, cover with cling film and leave overnight in a warm place. I leave mine in the airing cupboard. Next day, when the dough is well risen and before it collapses, knock it down and stretch over a floured working surface. Put the coriander, olives and garlic on the top and with your hands incorporate them into the dough. A bit messy but don’t let it worry you. Divide into 8 buns. Any bits sticking out can be pushed back into the dough, so that they don’t get burned in the oven. Place on a well oiled tray dusted with maize meal, cover with oiled cling film and leave in a warm place for about half an hour or until risen. Before baking, gently brush the tops with the melted fat of your choice, just to give them an extra touch of luxury. Bake for about 5 to 8 minutes or until they have coloured a bit. Serve at once or keep wrapped in a cloth until needed.

These herby buns don’t keep that well. However you can revive them, by sprinkling with water and placing them in a hot oven or grill, just for a few minutes.

Of course if you want to bake these in one day then add 7 g (one sachet) of easy blend yeast to the dough and you will have them in about 3 hours, but may be they will not taste so nice. Also depending on what is in season you can add different herby mixtures. For a French flavour try parsley, tarragon and thyme!

Maria Fremlin, Colchester, U.K., 26 February 2001

Ingredients

* 250 g/ 1 3/4 cup/ 9 oz unbleached white strong bread flour
* about 3/4 cup kefir
* 1 teaspoon sea salt
* 1 tablespoon clarified butter (ghee), butter or margarine

Oven at 220ºC, 425º F, gas mark 7.

The day before add enough kefir to your flour in order to make a nice kneading bread dough. Do not forget the salt. Knead until the dough is elastic and smooth. Place in a bowl, cover with cling film and leave overnight in a warm place. I leave mine in the airing cupboard. Next day, when the dough is well risen and before it collapses, knock it down and divide into little lumps. I usually made 16 little ones, but you can make bigger ones if you like. Stretch them out by hand so that the dough is about 1/2 cm thick. Place on a well oiled tray dusted with maize meal, cover with oiled cling film and leave in a warm place for about half an hour or until risen. Before baking, gently brush the tops with the melted fat of your choice as this gives the bread an extra touch of luxury. Bake for about 5 to 8 minutes or until they have coloured a bit. Watch out that they don’t get toasted, this bread should be soft. Serve at once or keep wrapped in a cloth until needed.

These little flat buns don’t keep that well. However you can revive them, by sprinkling with water and placing them in a hot oven or grill, just for a few minutes. You can, before baking, sprinkle the buttered tops with poppy or nigella (charnuska) seeds. Or even with some garlicky herb butter. Delicious!

I have also used this kefir dough as a pizza base. For that just make enough dough the day before for your usual size pizza. As a rough guide for each cup of flour you need a third of a cup of kefir. If you haven’t got enough kefir to spare, top it up with water. With luck the bugs in the kefir grains will not let you down. Any problems? Then get in touch with me. I would love your feedback.

Maria Fremlin, Colchester, U.K., 25 February 2001