My local homebrew club, the Cascade Brewers Society, sent an email asking for a recipe to put in their newsletter so they could help me get the word out about this project. Here is what I sent to them:
Here are two recipes that are favorites. Brewers should feel free to play with the recipes once they get the idea.
The basic recipe is 3 cups of "flour and stuff." I recommend you not let the "stuff" go over 1 cup. In fact, at first keep it down to about 1/2 cup to avoid a heavy loaf.
I use sea salt because the minerals add flavor. These recipes use regular dried bread yeast. I use the regular, not the fast-rise style. I prefer King Arthur unbleached flour. I often make lots of "bread mixes" at one time, just writing down in my breadlog notebook what dry "stuff" I put into each quart ziplock-bag.
Folks can certainly experiment with their homebrew beer yeast, as long as the beer yeast is in fresh, repitchable condition. Not sure of the quantity for that, but I'd guess start at 1/4 cup. All that's required is patience to see what the yeast wants and how long it wants to take. See below for baking instructions.
CRYSTAL - WHEAT GERM - POTATO BREAD
1 TBSP dark 135-165-L Crystal (minced in the blender)
2 TBSP Wheat Germ
1/4 cup Potato Flakes
1/4 cup Gluten Flour
2+ cups unbleached flour (Total for all "flour and stuff" listed above should be 3 cups.)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp yeast
Please note this bread uses a tiny amount of yeast. It is a slow-rising bread with a "sour tang" from the beasties in the air. If you want your bread to rise faster, use up to 2 teaspoons of dried bread yeast. The directions below follow this slow-rise (1/2 tsp yeast) method:
Mix all the dry ingredients in a 3- to 6-quart plastic bowl with lid. Make a well in the middle of the bowl. Warm 1 cup of liquid in the microwave for about 30 seconds or until bathtub hot only. You can use water, your favorite beer, half-water and half-beer, milk, cream with water, whatever you want. (In one experiment in 1989, I used half-milk and half-apple juice. That combination curdled, but you should experiment anyway!)
In the evening after dinner:
Add the warm (not hot!) liquid and stir it in with a fork. Keep mixing it until the liquid is absorbed. If the dough is too sticky, put the lid on the bowl and leave it for an hour or two. If you've used any whole wheat flour or other non-white flour, they take longer to absorb the liquid. Once most of the liquid is absorbed, knead the dough in the bowl if you can (keeps your countertop cleaner), adding more flour as the dough becomes sticky again. Knead by folding the dough over on itself and pushing down, then turn 1/4 turn, and repeat. Knead until the dough doesn't absorb any more flour, or for about 5 minutes. Put the lid on the plastic bowl and set on the counter.
The dough will rise faster in the summer than in the winter due to the temperature of your house. No need to push/force the dough by putting it near a heater! You could kill the yeast that way. Think of the dough as your homebrew. Cooler is good. Slow ferments force the yeast to reproduce more generations. Slow ferments also make for a smaller "bubble" in the loaf, and the bread will go stale more slowly. More salt gives you a crunchier crust, but will slow down the yeast. I find 2 teaspoons of sea salt just right for me, but I use unsalted butter on the bread. You will have to adjust the salt for your own taste buds.
If the dough has risen by the time you go to bed, punch in down just before bedtime, and knead it for a few minutes, adding flour if necessary.
The next morning:
Depending on how much time you have, you might have to shorten this longer method by begining the baking in a cold oven (as described below).
Punch down the dough and knead again for a few minutes until the dough seems tight and rubbery. If you push your finger into it, does it spring back? Or hold the finger shape? If it holds the finger shape, then knead it some more until it is springy. Form the dough into a tight ball, pushing any odd edges underneath.
Now here's where I follow the "undercover baking method" as taught by Elizabeth David in her book, "English Bread and Yeast Cookery." However, to keep this post shorter and simpler, I will just list some Regular Baking Directions, which are more common. At some point, I will post information on the Undercover Baking Method on this blog.
Regular Baking Directions:
Form the dough into a loaf and put into a greased loaf pan. Grease the top of the loaf with some olive oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1-3 hours. Bake at 35-375 degrees until an instant-read thermometer reads 190-210 degrees in the center. Bread will feel hollow when tapped. Time will be about 45-60 minutes, maybe more. Cool on a wire rack. Wait at least 5 minutes before cutting so you don't squish the loaf.
If you have made a bread that has a lot of heavy four in it, such as 1/2 cup oat flour or more, or if you used pure first-runnings of wort (which I don't recommend) then your loaf will be heavy, probably won't rise as much, and you will probably need to get the interior temperature to 210-215 degrees or more to avoid a doughy center. Bread will feel hollow when tapped when done.
If your bread dough is a little shy of "doubled in bulk" and you're running out of time, then put the bread into a cold oven. The bread will rise more as the oven heats. If you peek in after about 5 minutes of baking time, and it hasn't risen enough, then with a sharp serrated knife, cut slits or cross-hatches into the top about 1/4-inch deep.
Here is the second recipe. Please follow the directions outlined above.
THREE GRAIN BREAD
1/4 cup Flaked Wheat
1/4 cup Flaked Barley
1/4 cup Flaked Rye
(Crush the above homebrew store ingredients in a blender.)
1/4 cup Gluten Flour
~ 2 cups unbleached flour (The above ingredients should measure 3 cups total.)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried yeast
Have fun and be creative!
Happiness is discovering a new bakery in town, especially one with a traditional wood-fired oven!
