Craft Beer and Food

Wednesday, July 29, 2020

Spent Grain Bread in Five Minutes a Day


Avocado toast with tomatoes and my favorite bread knife

      Spent grain avocado toast with tomatoes and my favorite bread knife.



This recipe is a modified version of the The Master Recipe from The New Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg, MD and Zoe Francois.


I highly recommend buying this book if you want to bake healthy bread using a no kneed method.  It is wonderful and also has a favorite recipe of mine for Gluten free Boule.  The gluten free boule gets raves when me make it whether you require gluten free or not.


Spent grains are what is left over when making beer.  If you brew beer and love bread you should try to make this the day of your brewing.  If you don’t make beer but know someone that does, have them save some for you.  I think making it with the grains on the day of brewing is ideal, but you could put them in the refrigerator and make within a week.  Just make sure the grains are at room temperature before using for your bread.





Ingredients


4 3/4 cups whole wheat flour 

3 cups white bread flour

1/4 cup vital wheat gluten

1 1/2 tablespoons kosher salt

2 cups spent grains at room temperature

4 cups of warm water

1 1/2 tablespoons yeast

Trader Joe’s Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend or similar spice mix






Directions


Mix water and yeast in the bowl of a stand mixer and whisk together. If you do not have a stand mixer, put it a large bowl and whisk.  You can work dough by hand just takes a little more time.


Put flours, vital wheat gluten and salt in a bowl and whisk together.  I use the container I store my dough in.  Now add spent grains to flour mixture and mix well so there are no large clumps.

Spent Grains                                                Mix flour, salt and spent grains


Add flour and grain mixture to the bowl with water and yeast.  Mix for 5 - 10 minutes on low if using the bread hook.  Occasionally scrapes sides and bottom of bowl to make sure all the ingredients are incorporated.  If mixing by hand make sure there are no clumps and the drough is slightly elastic.




Put into a 6 quart container, cover loosely and place in a warm spot for 2 hours to allow to rise.

My trick for this is to put 1 cup of water into a glass measuring cup.  Place it in microwave, cook on high for 2 minutes.  Place my dough into the microwave and let it sit for 2 1/2 hours or until the dough has risen to the top of the container.


When dough has risen, put it in the refrigerator with the lid on loosely and refrigerate over night.  


To bake, take out 1/4 to 1/3 of dough and form into a ball using flour on hands and work surface.  Place on parchment paper and allow to rise for 1 hour.  After 1 hour, place dutch oven in the oven and preheat for 20 minutes at 450’.  After 20 minutes, brush the loaf with water, sprinkle with Everything but the Bagel Sesame Seasoning Blend to coat and then slice the top.


Place the loaf in the dutch oven with the parchment paper. Bake for 45 minutes. 

Remove from oven, discard parchment paper and place on a rack to cool.

They say you should allow to cool before cutting, but honestly the smell of baking bread really gets me and I rarely can wait for it to cool completely.  So I usually let it cool a bit before cutting into it and slathering with butter.  My justification is that I need to taste it to make sure it is acceptable to serve.



Just a few notes:


If you do not have vital wheat gluten (available from Bob’s Redmill) decrease your water by 1/4 cup.


I used Costco Bread Flour, but any will do.


The whole wheat for this recipe was King Arthur Stone Ground White Whole Wheat Flour - Organic.  This is my new go to whole wheat flour, I really like the way it reacts to the other ingredients and gives a great texture to all the breads I have made with it.


This bread is a little denser than others I make, but still has a great texture without being stodgy.