“Wow, it sure seems like a waste to be throwing all these great grains into the compost,” Kyle said as he was removing the grains from the brew pot. After a little pondering he continued, “You know, I bet that you could make a bread out of these grains.”
“Hmm, you’re probably right,” I responded. I’ll look for some recipes, “Will you put the grain aside for me?” I then found a recipe that looked promising and proceeded to make it.
http://www.michiganbeerblog.net/2011/11/spent-grain-bread.html
As this bread baked and the scent wafted through the house we started salivating. Every three minutes Kyle would eagerly ask, “Is the bread done yet?” When the timer when off and I went to pull the bread out of the oven I said, “Uh oh…..”
“What’s wrong?” Kyle asked.
“Come look at this bread. Look at how short it is,” I noted.
The bread didn’t do much in the way of rising prior to baking and didn’t really rise much more during the baking process. We were left with a bread that was about an inch and half tall. When we eventually cut into it the bread was very dense and thick. The flavor was decent, but it wasn’t really the type of bread we were looking for. So it was back to the internet to find another recipe.
Not having had much luck with the googling of Spent Grain Bread, I decided to do things my own way. I went to the King Arthur Flour website and tried to a find a recipe that had grains or nuts in it, figuring I would just substitute the grains that we had from the brewing. I had some hope that this would work because every recipe that I’ve tried from King Arthur Flour has been a big success.
I found a recipe for 100% Whole Wheat Nut and Seed Bread that looked promising. http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/100-whole-wheat-nut-and-seed-bread-recipe
I used the doubled reciped as a baseline and then made my own adjustments. Again, as the bread was baking Kyle eagerly asked, “Is the bread done yet?” The smell of baking bread is just irresistable!
This time, when the bread came out of the oven I exclaimed, “Oooh, look at this!” This time we had a nicely risen light loaf. After it cooled a bit slices were cut and the bread was devoured.
We both really liked this bread. When it first came out of the oven we wanted it to be a little sweeter. But when we had it for lunches throughout the week the taste was just perfect. Next time I may try 8 tablespoons of molasses and 2 tablespoons of honey to see if that helps with the sweetness, but overall this recipe is fantastic as is and definitely goes into our make again pile.
Recipe for Spent Grain Bread
2 2/3 cups warm water
6 tablespoons olive oil
10 tablespoons molasses
3 teaspoons salt
3 cups white flour
5 cups wheat flour
2 cups of spent grains
5 teaspoons yeast
Directions:
Dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Using the bread hook of a Kitchenaid add in the rest of the ingredients. Knead until the dough is smooth. Allow the dough to rise, covered, for about two hours. Gently deflate the dough, shape it into a log, and place it in a lightly greased bread pan. Cover the pan with lightly greased plastic wrap and allow it to rise for two hours. Bake the bread in a preheated 350 degree overn for 40 to 45 minutes, tenting it lightly for the final twenty minutes of baking.
Note: The grains used in this were from making a Red Ale. We had Gambrinus Honey Malt, Caramunich Belgian Malt, and Victory (toasted) malt. I believe this recipe would work with any type of spent grains, but we haven’t tried it with other grains yet.
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