Brewed Bread

As you have probably discovered by now, Trista is the main baker of the two of us. However, sometimes I (Serena) get inspired by her experiments and try some of my own. She had told me about baking bread in a dutch oven, and that she agreed with the recipe, that the loaf had turned out to have a good, moist crumb and a crust that gave the appearance and flavor of a professional artisan bread.

She shared the recipe with me, and I found another one that was similar; using a dutch oven, but this time adding beer. The claim was that the bread was more flavorful with beer and a bit of vinegar. I tried the recipe she gave me, and had similar results. It was a nice loaf, although a bit small. However, the idea of having more flavor was a siren call I had to answer. So, I tried the beer recipe. Well, it did have more flavor, but the loaf was still small. The newspaper then had a recipe for a large round loaf to be baked on a cookie sheet. I looked at that recipe, and then looked at the beer recipe, and decided to see what I could do to use beer in the other loaf's ingredients, and then bake it in a dutch oven. Yay!! It worked wonderfully well. I have repeated the recipe, refining the directions, and now I am satisfied that it will work every time.


The best part was sharing it with Trista today, and since she just about jumped out of her seat with pleasure at the freshly baked bread, it was time to share it with you. In the loaf pictured above I added 1 tablespoon potato flour for each cup of flour along with wheat germ and flax seed.

Dutch-Oven Beer Bread:

Yield: 1 large loaf

Ingredients:

3/4 cup unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon yeast
1 cup water -- room temperature
1 1/2 cups beer, light (or a whole 12 ounce bottle of beer)-- room temperature
2 tablespoons vinegar
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon salt
4 1/2 cups unbleached flour

In a large mixing bowl stir together the flour, yeast, and water until it is smooth with some lumps, like pancake batter. Cover with plastic wrap or clean kitchen towel and leave at room temperature for 2 hours. It will become bubbly.

Into the starter, stir the remaining ingredients with a few strokes to make a scraggly dough. Cover the bowl and set a kitchen timer for 10 minutes to let the flour absorb all the liquids.

If using a stand mixer, attach dough hook and mix for 10 minutes on medium speed. The dough will clean the sides but stick to the bottom. Using a spatula, scrape the dough hook, sides, and bottom of the bowl to collect all the dough into a ball. Leave in the bowl.

If kneading by hand, work the spatula firmly through the dough to collect as much of the flour as you can. Scrape the dough onto a clean, unfloured countertop. Set a kitchen timer for 15 minutes and knead. The dough will become very elastic and will still be sticky. Using the spatula collect the dough, including any scraps from the counter and your hands, into a ball. Flour your hands and place the dough back into the bowl.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or clean kitchen towel. Let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.

Lay a piece of parchment paper - about 12"x18" - in the bottom of a skillet. You can either spray it with nonstick spray or cover it with about 1/4 cup cornmeal (that's what I do).

Dust the countertop with flour and tip the dough from the bowl onto the floured surface. Use a spatula to remove all bits of dough from the bowl. Flour your hands well and lift and tuck the edges of the dough underneath over and over until the dough has formed a smooth ball.

Place the dough ball with tucked edges down onto the cornmeal-covered parchment paper. Sprinkle lightly with flour. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or kitchen towel and leave to rise until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with a finger, about 2 hours.

About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place 6- to 8- quart heavy-bottomed dutch oven with lid on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough (if needed beyond what you did before) .

Using a razor blade or sharp knife, make a slit in the top of the loaf about 6" long and 1/2" deep. Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid.

Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower gently into pot. Let any extra parchment hang out, and put on the lid.

Place in oven and reduce temperature to 425 degrees. Bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake an additional 20-30 minutes longer, to between 200-210 degrees on instant-read thermometer, or well-browned on top and golden brown all over.

Carefully remove from pot using edges of parchment. Place on a wire rack to cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.

If desired, you may add 1/2 c pitted, chopped green olives, 2 cups grated Parmesan cheese, and 1 tablespoon minced fresh rosemary to recipe when ready to knead. Delicious served with spaghetti.

If desired, you may add wheat germ, flax seed meal, potato flour, or similar add-ins (soy flour, oat flour, etc). Just place 1 tablespoon of each you wish to use in the bottom of each cup of flour before measuring, so the same amount is added overall. The potato flour helps to keep the bread moist. The wheat bran and flax seed meal add extra nutrition, as may your other add-ins.

Enjoy!