Spent grain bread recipes!
Spent grain is what is left over from steeping malted barley for brewing beer. The liquid is put into the wort, or fermentation base, of the beer, but the grains themselves are tossed. You can use them as compost, or you could bake them in bread for a delicious whole-grain recipe. Here's a couple of experiments with the different barleys we're steeping.
Justin's British Chocolate Malt Barley Bread
A dense, moist loaf with potent flavor. Could stand more flour than called for to allow it to rise better. [Uses the spent barley from this beer]
Blend 1/2c spent barley with 1/2c hot tap water until somewhat smooth
Transfer to a stand mixer bowl, and dissolve into the mixture 1T maple syrup
Toss in 1T yeast, and let proof (15-20 mins gave it a nice head for me)
Mix in 1/2c more of the spent barley (straight up, no processing needed), 1.5T canola oil, and 1t salt
Mix in 1c unbleached flour and optionally 1T vital wheat gluten and turn on the stand mixer to the lowest setting. (Or, just mix by hand.)
Keep mixing in flour, adding about a half cup at a time, until you've put in a total of 2-2.5c flour.
Knead (2nd setting on the stand mixer, or good old sweat equity by hand) for about 10 minutes, adding sprinkles of flour if necessary, until the dough is smooth. NB: Some stickiness here is tolerable; it just needs to not bind to your hand on contact. YMMV. (What? It's bread.)
- Allow the dough to rise for an hour or two. (With bread, longer is almost always better.)
Toss it in the oven at 375 degrees F for a half-hour or so, or until it's done. (Update: at 30 minutes, mine was a bit moist on the inside, so I put it in for another 10.)
- Try to resist tearing into it until after it's cooled a bit. I hear the flavors develop over the course of the next 12 hours. I'll report more as I find out.