Spent Specialty Grain Bread

[wildschwein]

I had some spent specialty grains left over from a steep. Usually I give these to my chooks but I thought I might try and eat them myself so I could get a bit of roughage. The recipe went something like this.

50g (dry weight before steep) of broken spent Chocolate malt
200g (dry weight before steep) of broken spent Crystal malt
2 teaspoons of salt
4 teaspoons of sugar
2 tablespoons of dried baker's yeast
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
4-5 cups of plain flour
luke warm water

Method.

In a large bowl throw in all ingredients except the water, starting off with only 4 cups of flour. The spent grains still contain a lot of moisture and will get the mixing process started. Use a spoon to start mixing adding a little water at a time until the whole mix comes together into a sticky but consistent mass. Start kneading and adding flour as necassary. If your bowl is big enough you can do it in there or you can need on a clean bench. You're after a pliable dough that doesn't stick too much to your hands. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes, adding flour as needed. The kneading develops the protein (gluten) in the wheat flour which creates a structure in the loaf that catches and locks in the C02 expelled by the yeast. More needing=better loaf and better rise. After kneading, form the dough into a ball and cover with a light dusting of flour all over. Put in a large bowl and cover with cling film or a damp tea towel. Leave in a warmish place to prove (grow in size) for about 1-2 hours. After this, punch the loaf down, briefly knead again and then shape into a large ball. Put onto a greased baking tray. dust again with flour and cut some light slashes across the top. Heat your oven to 190c and leave the loaf to prove for a second time. I usually find putting it on top of my stove while the oven is heating provides enough ambient warmth to assist the second rise. When the loaf has doubled in size place it in the oven and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour depending on how crusty you like it. To test if your loaf is cooked turn it over and tap on the bottom with a spoon. If you hear a hollow sound it's ready.

Of course, you could always use a bread maker if you have one, but this batch may be a little big for most brands of machine. Either way this is a good method to use up spent grains.

[KEG]

what a great idea!

have you tasted the bread? does it have a real roasty flavour from the choc grain?

[wildschwein]

Yeah I had some this morning. Made bacon, egg and cheese sandwich with mustard and ketchup. Tasted really good. The choc malt gives a good brown colour, (a bit like rye loaf) and a slight coffee, roast nut flavour and aroma. It was really moist too. The husks weren't too noticable either as all the kneading had broken all the moistened spent grains up. I'm really happy with this beer by-product. I reckon you could do this recipe with any spent grain except maybe black malt; you'd probably wanna go easy with that one.

[Chris]

I am DEFINITELY going to give that a try! Sounds great.

[KEG]

Made some yesterday with some used crystal malt. Only made a couple small loaves (out of flour ), but happy with the result. The bread would be fantastic lightly toasted with some thick pea and ham soup.

[wildschwein]

Funny you should mention it, I served up some of mine with some pea and ham soup. Went down a treat.

[Pale_Ale]

Great idea, I'll give it a go sometime

[ryan]

Aaahh-just had chicken curry on wholegrain bread and a glass of port for breakfast, steady rain here and about 14*. Good lager brewing weather.

[Aussie Claret]

Ryan,
F*** me you've got a good job, you need any help?

AC

[ryan]

Ryan,
F*** me you've got a good job, you need any help?

AC

Work for myself,AC, building site cleanups. Can`t do much with this rain. Should be clear by tomorrow,then the westerlies start. Love it