Official "Share Your Menu" Holiday 2011 Thread

[mike____]

Spider, that bread looks very tasty and I like the idea of the Dutch Oven.
Care to share your recipe?

[spiderwrangler]

Spider, that bread looks very tasty and I like the idea of the Dutch Oven.
Care to share your recipe?

The recipe is very simple, it is the bread version of the Reinheitsgebot.

~26 oz of bread flour
0.5 tsp yeast
1 tbsp salt
~24 oz water

Feel free to add in other things to mix it up... drop back on bread flour and add other flours, or add various grains, seeds, dried fruit, etc. Pretty much anything you want.

Mix dry together, add water and mix to combine (just get all the flour and water mixed in, add more of each as needed) with a large spatula. It will be very shaggy and wet. I use 4qt food storage containers for this part. Cover and leave to rise at least over night (I usually mix mine up before I go to bed and bake the next evening). Flour a surface, turn it out, flour and fold a few times, flouring as needed. Cover with plastic wrap for 15 min. Place into a large mixing bowl that has been floured on bottom and sides, cover with a clean kitchen towel for 2 hours. With 15 min left in the rise, turn oven to 450F, place dutch oven inside to heat. After end of rise, remove towel, tip and rotate bowl and flour sides of loaf to make sure it is free. Pull out dutch oven, drop loaf in, cover and return to oven. Bake for 30-35 min, remove lid and bake for 20-25 more.

[scotchpine]

Spider, have you ever tried replacing 1/2 the water and the yeast with a yeast primed, bottle conditioned beer? Do you think that would work, or what?

[spiderwrangler]

Following the questions that I asked Pax in the last show, I ran a couple experimental batches. I've done plenty with spent grains before, but hadn't tried doing it with beer until then, mostly because I wasn't sure how the sitting warm and exposed for 18 hours would treat the beer. I did a side by side half batches with straight plain bread and the same bread with Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter in place of the water. Didn't warm it, de-gas it or de-alcoholize it, just poured it straight in. The rise after 18 hours was about half that of the one done with water. I doubt that the temperature would matter too much as I'm using relatively cool water too, and over that long of a rise, I don't think the initial difference would account for that amount of variation. CO2 from the beer likely isn't a factor, since it makes bread rise, and most of it likely was lost when I poured it in and mixed it (lots of foaming). That potentially leaves me with the alcohol content stunting yeast growth, which is what Pax said may be an issue in response to my question.

The bread had a distinctly darker color to it, and a subtle yet firm bitterness that I found enjoyable, but on the edge of being too much (I've done one where the water I used was a hop tea... really bitter).

I'm planning on doing another round of trials with this where I'll heat the beer to drive off as much alcohol as I can and do a comparison side by side with plain bread to see if there is a large variation in rise volume. I've take pictures and plan to write it up for the blog I post on as well as my local club newsletter and sending the results to Pax. To address your question, I think that in the event that alcohol can be shown to inhibit yeast and thus rise volume, that adding a bottle conditioned beer may very well work, but may not rise as much. If you are asking whether the beer yeast can work for baking, I believe it should, thought I haven't tried this yet. I'd probably approach this by pitching the dregs of a conditioned bottle in place of bakers yeast in a loaf with water as the liquid portion and see what effect just the yeast has on rise volume and flavor. The amount of yeast needed for this type of batch is MUCH less than for a quicker bread, so I think that this could lend itself well to baking this style loaf.

I've also contemplated using dregs from a wild or sour beer as the inoculating culture in a batch of sourdough starter, but that's a bit down the line yet.

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

Nothing finalized yet. I'm definitely doing a turkey breast brined in cranberry mead. A sweet potato pecan pie is high on the list of probables. I'll do some whole grain rolls that contain some amount of crushed munich or crystal malt. May also do a loaf or two of my french bread recipe (this recipe got me my first cooking job in a hotel 25 years ago ). Not sure which beers to crack open to go along with dinner. The other night I picked up a bottle labeled "Special Holiday Ale". This is a collaboration beer between Nogne Ø, Jolly Pumpkin, and Stone Brewing. Never tried it, but it sounds good.

Wayne

I have GOT to come visit you, Boog.

[Quin]

Our Christmas meals have now gotten completely out of hand.

Christmas Eve lunch
Red and green enchiladas
Refried beans
Rice

Christmas Morning
Pinwheel biscuits - similar to cinnamon rolls but with biscuit dough, cocoa powder, sugar, and butter
bacon

Christmas Supper
Steak filets
stuffed baked potatoes
home made french bread
green salad

[scotchpine]

I made a horseradish butter with fresh rosemary and a little garlic and cayenne pepper mixed in with some porter and spread it all over a crown rib roast for new years day. Roasted high and fast and it made a great prime rib. The crust it made was so good and I can't say I've ever had anything quite like it before.

[mike____]

Thanks Spider! Think I'll give it a try this weekend.