Red River Cereal Bread
Begin the day before biga:
½ cup Red River cereal
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup lukewarm water
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
The next day:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 ¼ cups bread flour
1 3/4 cups lukewarm water
2 tablespoon melted butter
2 tablespoons honey
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon instant yeast
Directions
Place the day before ingredients into a bowl and mix, (biga) cover with plastic wrap and leave overnight 12-15 hours.
Next day, place the biga into a large bowl. Add in lukewarm water, mix till biga is dissolved, add the whole wheat flour and blend. Add the melted butter and honey, continue to mix. Stir in the salt. Then add instant yeast and continue to mix till blended. Add in half the bread flour and knead. Slowly continue to add more of the flour and knead for 4-5 minutes. Keep this dough on the sticky side. After the dough has been kneaded it should become smooth and elastic but a little on the sticky side.
Add a little oil to a large bowl. Place the dough into the bowl and turn to lightly coat all sides of the dough with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 1 ¼ hours. Place the dough onto a flat surface. Do not overwork the dough to much keep as much air within as possible. Cut the dough in half. Shape each piece into a ball. Try not to deflate the dough. Place into two greased 9″x 5″ loaf pans, cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise for another hour.
After the dough has risen, take a sharp knife and score the top of each loaf. Place into a preheated 375°F oven for 30-40 minutes. Insert a thermometer in the centre, it should read 180°-185°F. Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack.
Makes 2 loaves (20 slices each, 1 slice/serving)
As we have examined the eggs, leavening agents and flour in the making of bread and they’re relation to our faith walk, we will examine the water, required to create our loaves of bread.
Without water of course we are not going to gain success, we will just have a group of dry ingredients that have been sifted but nothing happens to them. They create nothing, are the edible, sure, but who would really want to, it is the water that is going to provide the indispensable ingredient to make our miracle called bread.
Without water our flour cannot form the gluten, water is a solvent it dissolves the salts and sugar, it causes the yeast to activate (ferment) the key ingredient to cause of bread to rise. Water is what brings consistency to the loaf, by it we bring temperature to the ingredients to activate them, to hot and we kill the yeast, to cold and the bread will not rise, so by us controlling the waters temperature we control the formulation of the final product, we get what we desire.
We can introduce various forms of water in our breads, it may be a form of another liquid, milk, tea, coffee, but they are still made of water. Some may think that soy milk or oat milk is another type of milk but really they are just the juice that made from the oat or soy plants, or in other words the water that squeezed from the plant.
We may introduce steam into our oven while baking, this too is water, just in another form, and it will perform differently in the making of the bread. When we want a nice crispy crust and a beautiful golden color we introduce steam to the oven during the first few minutes of baking, yet allow the steam throughout the entire baking it make certain that the crust will not be thin and crisp, it is important to finish the bake in a dry oven. Steam promotes a rich color to the crust and a surface shine on the loaf, and assists in increasing the volume of the bread. We can add steam simply by placing a pan on the bottom of the oven while the oven is heating up, when it comes time to bake our bread we place the loaves in the oven, toss a few ice cubes into that hot pan and there you have instant steam for that bread.
Water performs in many ways, the principle five are: 1. Suspended Solids 2. Turbidity 3. Color 4. Taste and Odor 5. Temperature.
- Suspended Solids, all the ingredients are suspended together by the water, the water molecule hold the ingredients in suspension allowing them to now interact with each other and actual come together to form a entirely new substance, a loaf of bread,
- Turbidity, the purity of the water, it is the cloudiness or haziness of a fluid caused by suspended solids that are usually invisible to the naked eye, it also means, thick or dense, confused; muddled; disturbed. The thickness of our mixture will reflect the final product we gain, pancakes (a type of bread) are certainly different to sandwich bread, one is thin with suspended solids while the other thicker. We seek the purest cleanest water for the bread, little or no chlorine, fluoride, with few additives, using distilled water works well for bread making.
- Color, the color of the product is our first indication that the bread is coming to completion and will soon be ready to remove from the oven. It is pleasing to the eye before it ever pleases the mouth. We can introduce various colors to the finished product by adding other ingredients. To obtain the “just right” color we want very few additives to our water, the clearer the better. Color may indicate what we serve with, within, or alongside the bread, a pink fruit infused bread likely won’t work with a savory dish.
- Taste and Odor, water should be colorless and tasteless as well as odorless, should it have a taste of chemical or an odor that is unwelcome keep in mind that these will factor into how the bread will taste in it’s final result. Heat will magnify both odor and taste so what may be slight during mixing could be much greater during baking. So once again pure water is what is best.
- Temperature, several factors will go into achieving the correct temperature to making your bread just right, you want to reach a final rising temperature of 78°F. There are several main factors that impact dough temperature: •Room temperature •Flour temperature •Water temperature •Friction factor (the warming of the dough through mixing, machine will give a higher temperature than hand kneading).
The greatest of these is the temperature of the water, hot water may kill your yeast giving the bread zero rise, to cold will make your bread take much too long to react and cause rising. We must consider three or four factors and thus calculate them into the dough to set the right temperature. To reach our desired dough temperature we must do a simple calculation, what we seek is a total temperature factor of 234°F, how? By multiplying our desired dough temperature by a factor of three. 78×3=234
What is our room temperature (72°F) what is our flour temperature (71°) what is the fiction factor temperature (22°F) we then subtract these from our total temperature factor 234-72-71-22=69 so we want our water temperature at 69°F to create our prefect rising temperature.
Like our ingredients we can see a powerful faith lesson with the water as well. Ecclesiastes 11:1 King James Version (KJV) 1 Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. Bread and water the two great symbols of giving and having fellowship with one another. The walk of faith is always one that is found in sharing, what little you may have, just a slice of bread and a glass of water could be enough to redeem someone from a life of despair. The lesson is, it will return, as we learned in Mark 4 the “sower sows the word” what we plant or sow returns to us, so too here, your gift continually given will return back to you, it will come as waves, waves of abundance. The next verse (2) Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. Show us that don’t fret as to who you give to, just keep on giving, give to 7 or 8, speaks to us that in doing so we will sow our seeds on many good grounds and as they grow we will have a harvest from many good fields.
The walk of faith is incomplete without the revelation of sowing and harvest (giving and receiving) we may sow, but we must also water that seed as well, without the water the seed with not grow, you may give it all the prefect factors it requires, soil, sun ph balance etc. but if you do not water it, it will surely die.
Our water must be that we get from drawing from the Word Himself, recall the woman at the well, Jesus told her that it was from Him we can have waters of life, the living water of the Spirit of God. John 4:13-14 King James Version (KJV)13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. The gift of water here refers to the Spirit of God, like water flows so does the Spirit flow, it brings to us all we require, flowing from the very presence of God Himself. What could we possible have need of that God cannot grant to us, as He does He will do it with the power of the Holy Spirit.
From creation until today the Spirit of God is present to resolve the greatest problems; faith in Him gives us the ability to overcome those hardships. Genesis 1:1-2 King James Version (KJV) 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. As the Spirit of God moved over the problem (a flooded world without light) God spoke and the Spirit when in action and did what God said, the result, “it was so”. What problem is covering you today, do you feel flooded and under water, let God speak from His Word, place it upon your lips and then see the Spirit of God move on your behalf. This is lesson of Mark 4 and 11, do your part in sowing the Word, then speak only what the word says to speak to your mountain, believe in heart and shall not doubt, you give license to the Spirit to move over the waters of your problem and bring you the result you require, remember we said it is a guarantee. Mark 11:23 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) I assure you: If anyone says to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him.
Some believe that ole lie of the devil, that Spirit of God stopped doing things when all the disciples died off, and the Spirit is no longer here, yet again we need but go the Word to see He is still here, still following the command of God, still working on your behalf, and beside that there now more disciples of Christ alive and doing His work then there has ever been. Ieve the Spirit and not some religious over taught fool. The Spirit is everywhere, seek Him and he will answer. Psalm 139:7-10 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
7 Where can I go to escape Your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, You are there.
9 If I live at the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits,[a]
10 even there Your hand will lead me; Your right hand will hold on to me.
I live in the city of Niagara Falls, here we have one of the seven wonders of the world, a stone cliff that is 188 feet high and likely that deep as well, over it flows 2.2 million liters of water per second, The power of that water flowing over the rock face creating the falls, is enough to cut that rock and cause the precipice to recede by more than one foot every year, before the controls on the river were install that erosion was close to five feet per year. That is the power of water.As the water has power force the Holy Spirit as the watering force of God has powerful force as well, nothing can stand before Him, and certainly not the minor problem you are facing. To you it may be great, a deadly disease, under water in your mortgage, a child following a harsh course in life, but the Spirit will and can wash it all away so you may be renewed. You may think you are facing that problems alone, but you need to know that Jesus by His Spirit is ever with you, you will not face anything by yourself when you see Jesus in it. John 14:16-18 King James Version (KJV) 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Comfort is not found in the problem continuing, comfort is found in the resolution of the situation, the Spirit if called the Comfortor, why? Because he brings resolution, He is the powerful force to wash it the problem away.
Water quenches fire, many of our problems and situation are demonic, you say you don’t believe in that, then hold on to your problem for even Jesus knew them and they fear Him, why? He was filled with the Spirit of God and by Him He was able to quench the fires of the Satanic. If your answer is found within the kingdom of God then know that no devil has a place there, remember what Christ did are to do as well, cast out that demon creating the trouble, do it by the Spirit of God and in the Name of Jesus, and see victory in His Word. Matthew 12:28 King James Version (KJV) But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.
Niagara has several hydro electric power plants generating 2.4 million kilowatts of electricity, enough to power 24 million 100-watt light bulbs. Since Telsa and Westinghouse first envisioned the opportunity Niagara held to create power the river has gifted North America with untold green energy. Yet these power plants can’t compare to the power that lies within the waters of the Holy Spirit of God. The power of the Spirit has brought healing to all who believed, raised the dead, Christ being one, equipped Him to defeat the devil in his dwelling, All the generating station in the world cannot compare to the Spirit of God, and He dwells in you. Romans 8:11 King James Version (KJV) 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Healing is in His power, freedom is in His power, His power leads us, convicts us, teaches us, and equips us to do His work and spread the gospel.
Water is an excellent solvent. It will dissolve anything it comes up against, it may take time but it has the power to absorb, encase, to hide it, seal it in so there is no escape. Think of it this way, we take our yeast for our bread, add a little sugar, some water I and in a few minutes the yeast is activated, the sugar is gone, hidden, invisible, now try to separate the yeast form the sugar from the water, it has become impossible, it simply caan not be done. The Spirit of God infused with faith is the same, nothing in Him can be separated, from Him, religion cannot separate it, crazy false doctrines cannot not, and foolish teachers certainly cannot. What is hidden in Him, sealed in Him is just for you and with it you defeat your problem situation, devil. Ephesians 1:13 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB) When you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and when you believed in Him, you were also sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.
All that works against must fall when you speak faith and believe that the Word and Spirit of God in on your side. Water washing over you in this fashion is called the Believers Triumph, are you ready for it? No matter what you face, in faith, by the Spirit it dissloves: Romans 8:31-39 Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
The Believer’s Triumph
31 What then are we to say about these things?
If God is for us, who is against us?
32 He did not even spare His own Son
but offered Him up for us all;
how will He not also with Him grant us everything?
33 Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect?
God is the One who justifies.
34 Who is the one who condemns?
Christ Jesus is the One who died,
but even more, has been raised;
He also is at the right hand of God
and intercedes for us.
35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ?
Can affliction or anguish or persecution
or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?
36 As it is written:
Because of You
we are being put to death all day long;
we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered.[a]
37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious
through Him who loved us.
38 For I am persuaded that not even death or life,
angels or rulers,
things present or things to come, hostile powers,
39 height or depth, or any other created thing
will have the power to separate us
from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!
Water has high heat (temperature) capacity. In other words, water has the power to be a blessing, The enemy wants to set a fire under you, cause you fail on his pressure, his heat, but water quenches the fire, when you walk with faith, you believe God, water becomes your friend, and you may see its ability to quench any fires the enemy throws against you. Ephesians 6:16 King James Version (KJV) Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. This shield of faith was a shield that could cover the entire body, it hid the bearer from anything that could be thrown against them, it could be linked with others to provide a means to safety while they advanced in the fight. So too our faith, protected by the shield we move forward by the power of the Spirit to win our fight. No matter how hot it gets, how much fire the enemy sends our way the Spirit of God by the shield of faith defeats all. Because water has a high heat capacity we use it to extinguish fire, all that heat the enemy fires at you, is washed away by faith. When the battle is over you are one left standing, surveying what the spoils of war has left you, you have stood and you have won, because your faith extinguished all the enemies’ weaponry. Keep in mind you are equipped with God armor, the devil doesn’t know who he is battling, is it you, or, maybe its God, he doesn’t know unless you tell him. Act like God while you’re in His armor, that ole devil will flee, it becomes he who cannot stand the heat. Ephesians 6:11-16 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC)11 Put on God’s whole armor [the armor of a heavy-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil.
12 For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.
13 Therefore put on God’s complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day [of danger], and, having done all [the crisis demands], to stand [firmly in your place].
14 Stand therefore [hold your ground], having tightened the belt of truth around your loins and having put on the breastplate of integrity and of moral rectitude and right standing with God,
15 And having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the [a]firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness [b]produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace.
16 Lift up over all the [covering] shield of [c]saving faith, upon which you can quench all the flaming missiles of the wicked [one].
Clearness of water, if you stood at the very edge of the falls in Niagara you can clearly see the bottom of the river as the water flows at five MPH, its power on display, nothing can stand on that edge. You may be facing a river that is flowing across your life in some kind circumstance, but know this because of faith and the clearness of His Word you will be able to see clearly through it.
There is a clear powerful river flowing from the throne of God into you, your heart, powerful enough to destroy anything that is not of Him. Revelation 22:1-3 Amplified Bible, Classic Edition (AMPC) 22 Then he showed me the river whose waters give life, sparkling like crystal, flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 Through the middle of the broadway of the city; also, on either side of the river was the tree of life with its twelve varieties of fruit, yielding each month its fresh crop; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing and the restoration of the nations. 3 There shall no longer exist there anything that is accursed (detestable, foul, offensive, impure, hateful, or horrible). But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall worship Him [pay divine honors to Him and do Him holy service].
We see clearly, what do see, we win, remember faith see you as Jesus is, not as He was on the cross, not as He was while defeating all of hell, not even as He was while walking here in ministry, faith sees Jesus as He is right now, in heaven, living the life of King, faith sees Jesus and then declares we are just as He is right now. Let that water flow from heavens throne to you and become the very same as Jesus is. 1 John 4:17 King James Version (KJV) Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.