Spent Grain Honey Bread

I found an awesome recipe for Simple Honey Wheat bread that I tweaked to make a spent grain version.

Spent Grain Honey Bread (yields 2 loaves)
2 c. warm water (110F)
1/2 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. active dry yeast

1/3 c. sugar
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1/3 c. honey
2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 c. spent grain flour
5 c. bread flour*

*use additional flour as needed during the kneading process

In a small bowl, dissolve sugar into warm water.  Stir in yeast.  Let sit for about 5 minutes or until the yeast mixture is foamy.

In the mixer bowl, mix together the sugar, oil, honey, and salt.  Stir in the foamy yeast mixture. 

With the mixer bowl set up on your stand mixer, use the whisk attachment to mix the spent grain flour in with the honey yeast mixture.  Add bread flour in 1/2 cup increments till mixture just begins to thickens and covers the whisk.  At this point, change out the attachment to the dough hook and continue to add bread flour in 1/2 cup increments till the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.  At this point, increase the speed on the mixer to a 4 and begin the kneading process.  Knead the dough for about 6 minutes.  Keep an eye on the bowl and dust with more bread flour as needed.

Turn oven on to lowest setting (I used the 'warm' setting).  Transfer dough to a large lightly oil bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap.  Turn oven off.  Place bowl on the lowest rack in the oven and let rise for about 45 minutes.  **Make sure your oven isn't too hot.  If it is too hot to touch, leave oven door open for a minute, then place bowl in oven.

After 45 minutes or when dough has doubled in size, remove bowl from oven.  Punch down dough.  Prepare to loaf pans by spraying them with a non-stick spray.  Divide dough into two equal portions.  Shape each portion into a loaf and place in pan.  Turn oven back on to warm for a few minutes, then turn off oven.  Place loaf pans in oven for about 30 minutes to rise again.

Once the loaves have risen, remove from oven.  Turn oven on to 365F or halfway in between 350F and 375F.  Once oven has heated, return loaves to oven and bake for 25 minutes or until tops are lightly browned and bread sounds hollow when tapped.  If your loaves are browning too quickly, loosely lay aluminum foil over the loaves. 

Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.  Remove bread from pans and finish cooling on wire racks.

Enjoy!

Taco Rye PA Soup

Weekends usually involve a crockpot meal, most likely a soup.  I'm a busy bee on the weekend and try to avoid standing over the stove for too long.  I mean, I'd rather be taking a stroll around a lake, walking along where the ocean meets the sand, visiting museums, or swinging by Wilmington Homebrew for a brewing demo and chitchatting with fellow homebrewers.  The solution to the dilemma of being chained to the kitchen is the trusty old crockpot.  This soup is going for a taco flavor but is doing double duty by cleaning out some goods in my pantry/freezer.

The great thing about this type of soup, you can really customize it to your tastes.  Add a can of whatever kind of beans or chopped tomatoes.  Make it as spicy as you want with adding more or less spices or hot sauces.  Have fun with it and in the process get rid of some of those cans that have been in your pantry for a while.

Taco Rye PA Soup (yields 6-8 servings)
1/2 white onion, chopped
1/4 red onion, chopped
1 can of black eyed peas (I actually used some leftover black eyed peas from New Year)
1 can black beans
1 can creamed corn
1 can tomato soup
1 (12 oz) bottle of Rye PA

1 tbsp. chili powder*
1/4 tsp. garlic powder*
1/4 tsp. onion powder*
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes*
1/4 tsp. dried oregano*
1/2 tsp. paprika*
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin*
1 tsp. salt*
1 tsp. pepper*
*(OR you can use 1 pkg of taco seasoning)

1/2 lb. ground turkey, browned

Topping:
Shredded cheddar cheese
Sour cream
Sliced jalapenos
Tortilla chips, crushed

Put all ingredients, except for toppings into a crockpot.  Cover with lid.  Turn on low for 5-6 hours. 

Serve in bowls and top with any of the desired toppings.

Enjoy!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ale

First of all... let me disclose that I do not know the science and all that mumbo jumbo behind brewing, so please do hate on me for it. I just enjoy brewing and drinking good beer.

With the holiday season having just passed, I have been doing a LOT of baking. I couldn't help but have cookies on the mind when I was trying to figure out what my next brew should be. I came across a few recipes dealing with oatmeal & raisins and oatmeal cookies. So I decided to brew an oatmeal raisin cookie ale. Plus my hubby's favorite treat is an oatmeal raisin cookie.

I must admit, after the fermentation and carbonation was complete, I was a little disappointed in the flavor.  I mean, it was a good beer, but it wasn't the flavor profile that I wanted for an 'oatmeal raisin cookie' concept.  I will try again.  Perhaps next time I will use some molasses and more spices to give it a hint of that cookie flavor.



Oatmeal Raisin Cookie Ale (yields 5 gallons) 
1.5 lbs Victory malt
1 lbs flaked oats
1 lbs crystal-60
0.5 lbs Carapils
6.6 lbs amber LME
12 oz. brown sugar
8 oz. milk sugar
2 oz. Northern Brewer
0.5 c. raisins, rum soaked
1 cinamon stick
1.5 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. Irish moss
British ale yeast (WLP 005)

Mash grains for 90 minutes at 150F.  Sparge into boil pot. 

Bring to boil.  Remove from heat and add amber LME and stir till well mixed.  Mix in brown sugar, milk sugar, raisins/rum, cinnamon, and vanilla.  Return to boil.

Add 1 oz of Northern Brewer.  Boil for 40 minutes.

Add 1 oz of Norhern Brewer.  Boil for 5 minutes.

Add Irish moss.  Boil for 15 minutes.

Remove from heat.  Let cool 15-20 minutes.

Strain wort into fermenter.  Add cold water to bring total volume to just over 5 gallons.  When wort temp reaches 70F or lower, pitch yeast.

OG:  1.058
FG:  1.020