The bread experiments continue.
Our latest recipe has been modified a bit:
15 ounces of flour (weighed) or 3 cups
1/4 teaspoon quick acting yeast
1 teaspoon table salt
1 bottle or can lager or pilsner beer
1 tablespoon white vinegar
Additional water as needed to get all the flour incorporated. Usually takes at most 1 extra tablespoon.
Mix the dry ingredients. Then stir in the wet ones and cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for at least 8 hours or longer. Kneed briefly and place dough on a parchment paper to let it rise for 2 hours. Slash the top before baking. Preheat a covered dutch oven and bake bread covered for 30 minutes then uncovered for 20-30 minutes more. We are using a 425 degree preheat and a 375 degree bake.
The pictures at the left show the mixing of the dough initially. What it looks like when it starts the long overnight rise. What it looks like as a sponge before kneading and just before I start kneading it.
Variations have been good:
Whole wheat using 5-10 oz whole wheat flour and the rest regular flour.
Rye using 7 oz rye flour and the rest regular flour plus 2 TBSP caraway seeds.
Herb add 1 TBSP dried parsley, 1 TBSP ground up dried garlic slices or dried minced garlic, needs to be chunky not powder, 1 teaspoon each of oregano, thyme, marjoram, white pepper, 1/8 tsp sage. My recipe also says add 1/8 tsp celery seed but I didn’t have any and it was still great.
Beer variations tried
Corona – Best so far
Budweiser – Good
5 barrel ale ok but more like regular bread
double pilsner – good
Pacifico – good but not as good as others
The experiments continue!