Spent Wheat Olive Bread

We gobbled up the last two breads, so it's time for another spent wheat bread.  This time, I doubled the spent wheat to 2/3 cup.

Here it is, stuffed, rolled up, slashed, and ready for the oven

 Smelled delicious as it was cooking.

 We're having it tonight with chicken cutlets with tzaziki sauce.

Not sure how the olives will go with grilled cheese, but we'll try that tomorrow.

Spent Wheat Bread

A friend is a beer maker, so when I found a recipe that uses the grain leftover from making beer, I sent the idea along - lo, and behold, I received the offer of wheat that they had just finished using in making beer.  I expected a cup or two - but a gallon arrived!!!!

This recipe rambles, because I was making it up as a went along, but it made a lovely loaf.

I mixed one cup of water, one cup of AP flour, and 1/4 teaspoon of yeast, covered it, and let it sit overnight.

The next day, I mixed 1 cup of hard cider, 1/4 cup honey, 1/3 cup spent wheat, 1 teaspoon salt, and 280 grams (that was what was left in the bag. . . ) of whole wheat flour.  (That's probably about two cups.)  And I added the flour mixture from the day before.  After mixing well, it was obvious that more flour was needed.  I added 1 cup bread flour, and because that still was not enough, I added 1/3 cup AP flour.

You may notice I'm getting rid of the odds and ends of flour in the house!

After beating with the Cuisinart mixer until it pulled from the sides of the bowl (about 10 minutes), I set it aside to rise.

After it had doubled in size, I folded it a few times and shaped it.

 I slashed the top, as is recommended for French bread or country boules.

I intended to bake in a preheated lidded pot - but when I put it in, it was too big to put the lid on, so I just baked it at 425 for 30-40 minutes.

 It has a nice texture, with the wheat chunks.  The wheat I received was quite dark, and the bread flavor approaches pumpernickel.  It will make great grilled cheese if I use a strongish cheese like gouda or muenster.

We'll have to try that tomorrow.  Today D had it with soup, and I had it plain.

Excellent!

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup water
1 cup hard cider
1 1/3 cup All Purpose flour
2 1/4 cup whole wheat pie and pastry flour (King Arthur)
1 cup bread flour (Sir Lancelot)
1/3 cup spent wheat left over from beer making (double it in the future)
2 1/4 teaspoon yeast (Red Star)
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon salt

Whole Wheat Olive Bread

The baguette recipe I used would make three loaves.  I made two (see following posts), but refrigerated one-third of the dough to use another day.  It does continue to rise in the refrigerator, so use a large enough container says the voice of experience!

I took it out of the refrigerator and let it warm up for a couple of hours, then patted it out into a round.

I added three packets of pitted green olives in oil and red pepper.

Then I rolled and tucked it into an odd shape.

I preheated the oven to 500 with the lidded pot.

Then dropped the bread, parchment paper and all, into the preheated pot,

covered it, and baked until it was 200 degrees.

We could hardly wait to cut into it.

D enjoyed it with Good Mother Stallard bean soup with sausage and kale.

Onion Soup

Now that I had good crusty bread (see the following post), I needed to make onion soup.

I started with two huge red onions from our garden.  This was a great year for onions - probably because we got so much rain.

These went into the dutch oven with some butter and olive oil, salt and pepper.

And they cooked, and they cooked, and they cooked.

I added red wine, stock, garlic, bay leaf, thyme.

 Then I toasted some of the baguette, topped it with Swiss Cheese, added the soup, and served.

Mmmmmmm.

Baguettes with Cider and Whole Wheat

This is a wonderful year for onions,

We had a lot of rain in June and July, and quite enough in August and September, and that may have contributed to the size of the onions.  This one weighs 1 pound, 9 ounces!

But you need good, crusty bread to hold up the Swiss cheese.

We were tasting hard ciders, and we wondered if cider would be a change for water in the dough.

Here's what we did:
Mix 1 cup cider, and 1 cup whole-wheat flour, and a pinch of yeast.  Cover and let sit overnight.

The next morning, add 1 cup of whole wheat, another cup of cider, 1 teaspoon yeast, 1 teaspoon salt.
Then add 3 cups of bread flour.  It was still too wet, so we added 1/4 cup AP flour.

Beat with the Cuisinart mixer until the dough pulled away from the bowl.

Let rise for an hour or so.

Shape and rise for another hour.

Preheat oven to 525 degrees, with the heavy roasting pan and huge cast iron pan in the oven.
The roasting pan, on the higher shelf, would receive the baguettes.
The frying pan would have water added to add steam to the oven.

These were done in 25 minutes (200 degrees internal temperature).

This had a more dense texture than some artisan breads.

The flavor was wonderful.

Ingredients:

2 c whole-wheat flour

3 c bread flour

1/4 c AP flour

2 c cider

1 t salt

1+ t yeast

D enjoyed his with chicken soup.

I had mine with hot Italian sausage and red sauce.

This recipe would make three baguettes - I held back one to cook tomorrow - I think I'll add olives to that one!  Bread dough is now resting in the refrigerator.  

Now, off to make some onion soup!