Official "Share Your Menu" Holiday 2011 Thread

[mike____]

Made Spiderwrangler's bread recipe over the weekend. I'd have to say that is some of the best bread I have ever eaten! The family really loved it. Will be making this one again soon.
Thanks again for the recipe.

Mike

[spiderwrangler]

Cheers man, glad it turned out for you! Do you have a dutch oven? Other containers will work, but I still think the DO is the best for it.

[spiderwrangler]

I've started a sourdough starter with dregs of Jolly Pumpkin La Roja and Cuvee des Jacobins Rouge... we'll see how it goes.

[JakeAndBake]

I've been doing sourdough these last couple of weeks myself. I've got two loaves proofing for baking tomorrow, I made some last week that came out fantastic.

[Fugglupagus]

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.

I read someplace that most commercial baker's yeast ferment in the 5.0-5.5 range, and they don't do well at PH<5.0. Any chance the beer drops the PH that low?

[spiderwrangler]

Yes, beer pH will drop below 5, so if that is accurate, then it may be that bread yeast is being inhibited. I haven't gotten around to doing the second part of that little experiment, maybe I'll get that going tonight.

[Ironman]

I made a great ciabatta a while ago. I made a "sponge" of water, flour, and yeast that grew for four days and then I added more flour to create the dough and baked it. It was the best bread I've ever had. The flavors that develop through a few days in a bread have to be experienced. Bread does not get better.

[Fugglupagus]

I read someplace that most commercial baker's yeast ferment in the 5.0-5.5 range, and they don't do well at PH<5.0. Any chance the beer drops the PH that low?

The Bread Baker's Apprentice (Peter Reinhart). Reinhart says most baker's yeasts (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) do not like "acidic conditions". Also says they generally ferment in the 5.0-5.5 range. So I guess "acidic conditions" could be PH<5.0. FWIW, he also says sourdough yeasts (saccharomyces exiguus) ferment in the 3.5-4.0 range.