Sally shows you how to make a batch of bread out of the beer or stout left in your fridge.
Robert (husband) has taken to brewing his own beer and stout. He’s not much of a drinker mind you, but loves playing around with the brews. There is however, a great quantity building up in the shed.
Last night he left half a stubbie of stout sitting on the bench. We needed bread so I threw it in as the liquid and was quite pleased with the result. This morning he told me he had kept a jar of the sludgy dregs from the base of a keg of stout. Now, that had potential! I quickly mixed up a batch of bread, incorporating a cupful of the brew. It worked really well – made a delicious dark loaf.
I remembered he had a stubbie of his beer down here in the house fridge, so made some bread with that also. It’s about to come out of the oven and looks amazing. I know it tastes good because I kept back a small piece to make into a bread roll for lunch – so good with pesto and roasted red capsicum.
I still had some of the keg stout dregs left, so decided to see how if t would perform as a raising agent for bread dough, thus eliminating the need to use commercial dried yeast. I mixed up one cupful of the liquid with 1 cup fo flour and have left it to its own devices. A couple of hours later it is bubbling away happily and I have great hopes for making a loaf of bread out of it tomorrow. I think it would be nice if I incorporated some rye flour into it, along with some caraway seeds.
All this works well for me as I hate waste so using the dregs from the home brew keg is great.
Anyway, here are the recipes for both the beer bread and the stout bread I have made so far. Both have a lovely yeasty sweetness that is not overpowering. The colour of the stout bread is astounding.
One final thing – you could add some dried fruit and spices if you wanted, make it into foccaccia, use it as pizza dough or make bread rolls with it – you are only, as they say, limited by your imagination.
Beer Bread
4 cups plain flour
4 teaspoons dried yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil
375ml beer (any sort) – or dregs from the keg
125ml hot water
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Make a well in the centre and pour in the oil. Mix together the beer and hot water – the mixture should be lukewarm; if it’s not, heat on the stove or in the microwave until it is. Pour into the well in the flour and mix to a soft dough. Mix well and leave to rise until doubled in size (an hour or two). Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 3 minutes. Cut into two even sized balls and place side by side in a greased loaf tin (13 x 21cm approximately).
Heat oven to 200 degrees C and, when bread is ready, bake for 40 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
Stout Bread
4 cups plain flour
4 teaspoons dried yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil
1 cup stout (or dregs from stout barrel)
1 cup hot water
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Make a well in the centre and pour in the oil. Mix together the stout and hot water – the mixture should be lukewarm; if it’s not, heat on the stove or in the microwave until it is. Pour into the well in the flour and mix to a soft dough. Mix well and leave to rise until doubled in size (an hour or two). Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 3 minutes. Cut into two even sized balls and place side by side in a greased loaf tin (13 x 21cm approximately).
Heat oven to 200 degrees C and, when bread is ready, bake for 40 minutes. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
