EUREKA!

February 3, 2012


I was very nervous about that new bread dough I created yesterday.  It was the first time I've really gone out on a limb to use what I've learned on bread making and combine a few things I've done in the past to make a beer bread.  It ended up taking longer than I expected to rise (my normal bread is fine after a couple of hours of rising -- this I let sit for a good 4 or 5 hours before I was happy).

But I am stoked to say that this was the best bread I have yet to make and here is the recipe:

3 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
2 3/4 cups of whole wheat flour
1 cup of spent grain (in this case, from our all grain Heffeweissen belgian yeast brew)
1 1/2 cups of the Cummings sourdough starter
1 1/2 Tbsp kosher salt
1 3/4 cups of warm water
1/2 cup of home crafted California Common Ale (heavily hopped with Amarillo)
1 Tbsp malt barley syrup
1 tsp commercial bread yeast
1 - 2 Tbsp flax seeds for crust when baking

Combine salt, spent grain, starter, yeast, malt barley syrup in a 5 quart container
Add the water and the beer and stir
Add all of the flour
Stir to combine using wet hands to incorporate the last of the flour (keep wetting hands as necessary until you have a nice wet dough).

Let it rest in a nice warm location (I use our small laundry room and turn on the clothes dryer to heat up the room a bit more).

When you're happy with the amount of rising (2 - 5 hours) -- it should have at least doubled in size -- you can get ready to bake your first loaf.

Oven to 425 degrees with a pizza stone -- and let that heat up for a half hour while you shape and then rest your loaf.  Put some corn meal on the pizza peel underneath the loaf.

After resting, score the top with a wet bread knife.  Use either an egg wash or Quick Shine Spray (my favorite new find) and dust with flax seeds.

Bake for 20 mins, putting a pan on another shelf of the oven with a cup or so of water in it (for steam).  At 20 mins, remove the pan of water and put the loaf on the top shelf for 10 more minutes.