All grain bread

[DecoJuicer]

***PLEASE NOTE*** This is Deco's wife-please don't think he went soft and started doing the cooking!

Actually, he does do some of the cooking-but the "from scratch" stuff is my department. With that in mind, and considering there are probably a good percentage of men on this board, I will not post the recipe. If you are interested, contact Deco and I will email it.

Just a description-This recipe is for a whole wheat sourdough bread with the grains added from a mash that was concocted at Deco's home brew party. It is very light, not like many whole wheat breads. It does have a very nice texture, with a soft crust and the added grains make a huge difference.

There is no beer in this recipe-just the grains. I am going to come up with a beer bread that is not heavy...more the texture of regular yeast bread. Once I do, again if anyone is interested, I will have the hubby post.

[noby]

Originally posted by DecoJuicer
With that in mind, and considering there are probably a good percentage of men on this board, I will not post the recipe.

Er, this not being the fifties, I'm sure there's plenty of us men-folk who know our way around the kitchen, and would be curious to know the recipe.





(Don't worry Deco, we know it's actually you. Your secret's safe with us ;) )

[guildofevil]

Me too. I have been looking for a good recipe for bread, using spent grain.

I am the primary cook in our house and I do all the "from scratch" stuff myself.

Why not post the recipe here? Seems like the perfect forum for it.

Séan

[ClockworkOrange]

I'd like to try this recipe. I'm a big fan of spent grain pizza that many of the brewpubs offer.

[HogieWan]

I just made a loaf last night with ground crystal 60 - haven't tasted it yet, but I think I used WAY too much

[Magnew]

I'm also the primary cook in the house and would be interested in the bread recipe.

[mdblu1]

We want the recipe!
We want the recipe!

[xtalman]

I always find it interesting now a days how many guys are actually the primary cook in the family, I am one also. Is this a relativily new occurance or just a very old secret nobody talked about. :confused:

[HogieWan]

My wife and I split the cooking responsibility. She really likes to cook, but she knows I make great stuff when I just start throwing things in. I am more of a "from scratch" cook than she is.

I mostly deal with grain and yeast (bread or beer) and meat. She does the rest.

[chazwicke]

My wife cooks. I never cook. I used to cook in restaurants but I told her I forgot how. Actually cooking professionally is very different than at home. We eat out probably 60% of the time anyway but I never cook at home. And because she dirties the pots and pans cooking I tell her she made the mess so she should clean it up too.;)

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by chazwicke
And because she dirties the pots and pans cooking I tell her she made the mess so she should clean it up too.;)

I'm the opposite - I cooked dinner, you can clean up.

I always get her to clean because, even if I did clean up, she would come back behind me and do it again. We're both computer nerds, so I tell her that is inefficient

[DecoJuicer]

So, I just woke up(this is my last week on mids for the entire summer) and I got on the computer to see what was going on. Of course I came to RealBeer.com even before I read the news because after all, what could be more important than my daily dose of beer news?

Any how, imagine my surprise to see a post that I didn't remember writing! Now to be fair, I did loose a lot of brain cells to various things in the late 80's and early 90's, but I couldn't even remember getting drunk enough to forget writing a post on all grain bread. I thought that it was the early on-set of what I call Jim Ignatowski Syndrome.

The only thing to do was to open it up and read it. Imagine my surprise to find my Mrs. posting on the board under my account. At least I won't be having difficulty with my test for my drivers license this year(whhhhaaaaaaaat dooooooeeeeeeeessssss aaaaa yyyyyyyyeeeeeeeellllllllllloooooooooowwwwwwww llllllliiiiiiiigggggggghhhhhhhhtttttttt mmmmmmmeeeeeeeaaaaaannnnn).

Mrs. DecoJuicer is currently at the chiropractor, but will be home shortly. I will have her post the recipe then.

[HogieWan]

tell her to get her own account here. She is more than welcome on this site.

[corkybstewart]

Everyday cooking tasks, like dinner or cookouts are my responsibility, especially now that I get off work everyday at the same time. Cooking for large groups, or when a particularly fancy dessert is required calls for my wife to take over.
But I too would love too have the bread recipe. When I met my wife I baked most of my own bread, and I make my own pizza dough so it would be nice to have beer grain pizza.
And if Ms Deco Juicer is prodding you to go all grain she needs to join up-she may be the smarter of the family.

[wortchillergoal]

hey Decojuicer, Mrs. Fret did the same once thought the post was more had more chance of damaging Fret than your wife's post. Fret took it in good stead though.

[DecoJuicer]

[i]And because she dirties the pots and pans cooking I tell her she made the mess so she should clean it up too.;) [/B]

Hi all,
Mrs. Deco here. All of you get the recipe except Chaz.....unless he PROMISES to do the dishes!

And my sincerest apologies to all of you. My husband is excellent in the kitchen...um...is a very good cook...the from scratch for me just refers to bread, cakes, pies-I guess anything dessert-ish or...well, bread. After I read all these responses I remembered that from scratch is a general term. I never doubted for a second that men can cook-so please forgive me.

Here goes:
Spent Grain Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

1 cup sourdough starter (recipe follows)
4 1/2 cups bread (high gluten) flour
3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup spent grains
1 package (2 1/4 tsp) active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups water
3 tbls sugar or honey
3 tbls butter
1 tsp salt
cornmeal (optional)

1. Bring sourdough starter to room temp (should be set out and fed 8-12 hours before use)
2. In large mixing bowl combine 1 1/2 cups bread flour, 1 cup whole wheat flour and yeast.
3. In a saucepan heat water, sugar (or honey), butter and salt until 120-130 deg. F, and butter almost melts.
4. Add to flour mixture
5. Add sourdough starter
6. Beat until mixed and smooth, scraping bowl often
7. Stir in as much of remaining flour approx. one cup at a time starting with whole wheat-until dough makes a ball and is not sticky.
8. Add spent grains *NOTE* I use a stand mixer with dough hook, and incorporated the grains. They can also be added during the hand-kneading.
9. On a lightly floured surface knead in enough of remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic.
10. Shape into a ball and place in a greased bowl, turning once to coat dough surface.
11. Cover and let rise until doubled, approx. one hour
12. Punch dough down and turn out onto a lightly floured surface.
13. Divide in half, cover and let rise for 10 minutes.
14. Lightly grease a large baking sheet and sprinkle with cornmeal (or flour)
15. Shape each half of dough into a ball, place on baking sheet allowing enough room to rise again. Flatten to a 6 inch circle and make crisscross slashes with a sharp knife, approx. 1/4 in deep.
16. Cover and let rise for 30 minutes
17. Preheat oven to 375 deg F
18. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until slightly browned and tests done (thump on bottom of loaf-should sound hollow)
19. Cool on wire rack
20. Eat
21. Write to Deco and tell him how awesome his wife is, and what a lucky man he is.

[DecoJuicer]

[QUOTE1 cup sourdough starter (recipe follows)
[/QUOTE]

This recipe explains it best-all the gory details.
http://www.recipezaar.com/160135

[guildofevil]

Ok, I'm confused about the Sourdough Starter. I read the link provided by DecoJuicer's awesome wife, but I don't understand what causes the potato water to ferment.

It's boiled, so it's sanitized when you start. I'm sure there could be some yeasties in the flour, but surely that depends on how it was treated during manufacture. What causes the fermentation to start?

I know most people would probably just follow the recipe and hope it works as advertised, but I'm a beer geek. I need to understand all things fermentation orientated.

Séan

[DecoJuicer]

Sean,

I believe that you have to add yeast to the starter after it is cooked. The starter is just a good medium for the yeast to grow. The potato water provides starch and the sugar provides...well, sugar.

I think its pretty much like making a wort. You provide the yeast with something to eat, and it will continue to feed.

I have seen my wife keep a starter alive for over 2 months straight. It all comes down to feeding it often, and using it often.

Unfortunately, my lovely bride has left for the day, and I can't ask her. But rest assured, I will find ask her when she comes home and then I can give you a definitive answer.

And for the record, the bread is delicious. I finished off the loaf last night with a couple of bowls of soup. I am going to have to hurry to get my all grain set up going so that she has a constant supply of spent grain.

By the way Corky, she is the smarter of the 2 of us.

[HarkJohnny]

thanks for the recipe

I do a fair amount of the cooking at home too. some nights it's all me, some it's all her and others we are cooking together.

[HogieWan]

I just baked my Crystal Malt Bread last night - it was quite tasty. I normally make a sandwich to bring to work for lunch. It's nice to have "homebrew" bread instead of "BMC" bread everyday.

I think I used too much crystal, though. I WILL try it again. I also have some extra black patent and I'm thinking of using some in a loaf, too. We'll see.

[chazwicke]

Originally posted by DecoJuicer
Hi all,
Mrs. Deco here. All of you get the recipe except Chaz.....unless he PROMISES to do the dishes!

21. Write to Deco and tell him how awesome his wife is, and what a lucky man he is.


NO WAY!! Actually she has been making dinners at Dinner Done.

www.dinnerdone.com

So there is very little clean up anyway. And actually, we eat out 60% of the time.

As for #21 above......I'm looking forward to meeting you both in the fall when you come to DC.

[zoom6zoom]

I've been baking with sourdough starter for 20 years. If your starter is good you shouldn't need to add additional dry yeast. But I think it would be appropriate to use yeast recovered from your brew!

[DecoJuicer]

Sorry for the delay-although my hubby seems to think I am the smarter one, there is no question as to the better listener! He told me ya'll had a question-I have just been swamped (and on the dog sites! :D )

There are different ways of making the starter. I use dry yeast as it is the easiest. I would imagine leftover beer yeast would make a good starter, although I do not know how much taste it would actually impart. I don't think as much as it does to beer, but please correct me if I am wrong. The additional dry yeast in the bread recipe makes for a lighter bread-it seems to give extra rising power.

You can also make a starter with wild or captured yeast. The recipe can be found on http://www.recipezaar.com and is sorta like put water, sugar and flour in a bowl. Let it sit out for a while (can't remember the time frame) and it will start to collect airborne yeast. I am not brave enough to try this one, as with 3, soon to be 4, dogs and 2 kids I think we would catch a lot more than yeast.

I think my next batch will be with beer yeast, just to see the difference. I am also off right now to attempt a sourdough beer recipe. My poor family-how I love to experiment!!

And thank you all for the invite, but it is so much easier to put the few posts on under Deco's ID, rather than switching back and forth all the time!

Let us know how the bread turns out!

[HogieWan]

FIY - beer (ale) yeast is very similar to bread yeast, but the bread yeast works quicker. Making bread with beer yeast will take a lot (2-3 times) longer.

[corkybstewart]

And used beer yeast probably should be "washed " to get a lot of the trub and hops debris out. They probably won't enhance the flavor of your bread.

[brewmonkey]

Originally posted by DecoJuicer
***PLEASE NOTE*** This is Deco's wife-please don't think he went soft and started doing the cooking!



There is nothing at all wrong with a man doing the cooking. :cool: In fact I try to keep my wife out of my kitchen and away from my cookware and cutlery lest we all die a slow agonizing death from botulism...

[zoom6zoom]

Originally posted by HogieWan
FIY - beer (ale) yeast is very similar to bread yeast, but the bread yeast works quicker. Making bread with beer yeast will take a lot (2-3 times) longer.

Not a problem in my book - the slower rise times actually develop better flavor and texture. I actually retard many of my loaves overnight in the fridge to force them to rise slower.

[DecoJuicer]

Originally posted by zoom6zoom
Not a problem in my book - the slower rise times actually develop better flavor and texture. I actually retard many of my loaves overnight in the fridge to force them to rise slower.

Same here-especially with wheat bread. Seems to be the general complaint of whole wheat recipes-too heavy and not enough taste.

Umm.....how do you wash yeast? And do I have to blow dry too?

Mrs. Deco

[HogieWan]

I've put a couple loaves in the fridge just because I didn't have time to let it rise and bake that night.

Maybe you should use a lager yeast and let it rise in the fridge over a couple days.

[zoom6zoom]

I used to dry some of my sourdough starter and send it to folks so they could reconstitute it, but recently the postal service seems to be somewhat apprehensive about peeps sending dry white powder in envelopes.

[SoxyinMO]

Originally posted by HogieWan
I'm the opposite - I cooked dinner, you can clean up.

I always get her to clean because, even if I did clean up, she would come back behind me and do it again. We're both computer nerds, so I tell her that is inefficient

We do it the opposite! IF you cook, you clean; that makes it easier to make as big or little a mess as you like without leaving too much of a mess for the other.

Mrs. Deco, thanks for the recipe.