Leftovers + Flour = Bread

"Turning leftovers into the staff of life."

Earlier this summer, I bought an old copy of the Tassajara Bread book on a friend's recommendation. I read through it for the first time the other day, and was particularly excited about one recipe that I found (and even more excited after it yielded delicious bread). The key ingredient is leftovers, and it's actually better if they have started to go sour since the bread has no yeast, and the slight fermentation will give the bread extra rise. Pretty much any leftovers- cooked grains (rice, oatmeal, quinoa, wheat, etc.), vegetables, soups, any just about anything else will work. It's incredibly easy to make, delicious, cheap, and makes use of precious leftovers that would otherwise need to be thrown out.

A quick note: using sour leftovers in this recipe is perfectly safe and is not a potential source of sickness or food poisoning. The bacteria that makes food sour is rarely harmful in the first place, and baking the bread will kill all of the bacteria that might be present anyway.

The recipe is as follows:

GRUEL BREAD

(per loaf)

4 cups rice gruel (cooked-together leftover rice, or other grain, soups, vegetables, salad)

6 cups whole wheat flour (amount will vary depending on how moist the gruel is)

1 teaspoon salt or soy sauce

1/4 cup oil (optional)

Add salt and oil to gruel. Add flour to gruel, first by stirring, then with hands, until a dough of kneadable consistency is formed. Mixture should be of "earlobe" texture, firm yet pliable. Leave slightly moist, as more flour is added while dough is kneaded on floured board until smooth (about 300 times). Make into loaf. Place in oiled bread pan. Brush top with water. Make a 1/2" deep cut down the center of the loaf. cover with damp towel, and set in warm place overnight. Bake at 350-375° for 75-90 minutes, until sides and bottom are dark brown.

NOTES:

This recipe is highly adaptable. I adjusted the amounts for 3 cups of gruel, since that is what I had on hand, and it made a loaf of decent size. If the gruel does not have a good amount of liquid in it, you will need to add small amounts of milk or water until there is enough for the amount of flour you have added. The salt or soy sauce is not necessary, especially if the leftovers already contain some sodium. When kneading bread, keep board and hands floured until the dough becomes stretchier and no longer sticks to hands or board. This is how you know when it has been kneaded enough (300 times seems to work perfectly). To bake bread, almost any oven-safe container can be used- rectangular bread pans, a round ceramic casserole dish for a round loaf, even a flat pizza stone would probably work well. The bread need not be set out to rise overnight; as long as it has 8-ish hours it is fine (bread doesn't know what time of day it is). I have not tried this recipe with any kind of flour other than wheat, but I'm sure that it would work just fine with any other flour as a gluten-free option. 

A great option for flour is "white whole wheat"; it is just as nutritional as ordinary whole wheat flour but is made from a more mild variety of wheat that is less strong tasting. It can be used for ANY baking, including cakes, desserts, and pastries, just like all-purpose flour.