Everyday Epicurean

It’s bread baking day, but having just read Farmgirl’s adventures with beer bread, I decided to give it a go. However, since I’m more familiar with having a dough based bread than a batter based bread, I made a few modifications to her recipe.

!/recipes/images/Bierbrot.jpg!

h2. Ingredients.

h3. Stage 1.

* half a cup of warm water
* 1.5 teaspoons of active dry yeast
* 3 teaspoons of white sugar
* half a cup of plain flour

h3. Stage 2.

* 1 cup wholemeal plain flour
* 1.5 teaspoons of salt
* 1 Tablespoon of baking powder
* half a teaspoon of dried rubbed sage leaf
* 3 to 5 cups of plain flour
* 375ml bottle of good ale (I used Coopers Pale Ale)

h2. Method.

In a large mixing bowl, place the warm water and sprinkle the yeast and sugar over it. Whisk until combined and smooth. Add the flour and whisk again until smooth. Allow to sit for 10 minutes until bubbling or frothy or risen (depends on ambient temp.)

Now add the wholemeal flour and salt and mix together with a little of the beer. Add the baking soda, sage and some of the plain flour and a little more beer, mixing into a batter. Continue to add & mix beer and flour until all the beer is used. At this stage you’ll have a sticky batter.
To make it into dough, work in enough extra flour until you have a slightly tacky but not stick dough.
Knead until springy (a couple of minutes), adding flour if sticky.

Place in a greased, covered bowl to proof for about 40 mins or so. It won’t rise much at this stage, unlike normal yeast bread.

Shape your dough and place into a bread pan. Glaze if you wish and sprinkle with sesame seeds.
Bake at 190C for 45 mins.

h2. Notes.

It may be wise to slit the top of the loaf before baking, no more than 1/4 inch deep, as this loaf rises while in the oven, causing tearing (as can be seen above).

— edit: I couldn’t resist, I’ve just cut it and had a slice with butter, a very tasty loaf indeed!