June 12, 2010

Mellow Bakers Beer Bread with Roasted Barley

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Beer Bread with Roasted Barley

I meant to go mellow this month intending to bake just one bread but I got suckered into baking Beer Bread with Roasted Barley. It's an interesting recipe because it requires roasting malted barley. Malted barley means soaking and sprouting the husked [or unhusked] barley, drying the sprouted grains then grinding to a fine powder. The result is a sweet tasting barley.

I found a small packet of malt flour among the array of flours I have in my pantry (21 different flours so far), but reading the MellowBakers forum I got curioser and curioser and bought a 2-pound bag of peeled barley, cost is $1.99. I sprouted, roasted, and ground a quarter of a cup and used 2 tablespoons for half recipe. BTW, I ate a few roasted grains and indeed they were sweetish.

For the beer, I used Guinness Extra Stout which is dark, malty, and has a caramel flavor. I don't drink beer and I can't stand its smell. I felt a bit ill inhaling it while handling the dough. The dough was easy to knead but after the fold it became a little bit more slack. I was puzzled and wondered if that was even possible, maybe I was just intoxicated with the beer fumes.

Beer Bread with Roasted Barley

I was not expecting to like the bread but surprisingly I did not just like it, I loved it! It is delicious, sweet-tasting, full flavored, and has a caramelly aroma that is almost chocolatey. There's a slight bitterness [IMHO] from the beer which I don't mind, sometimes I like bitter. The flavor of this bread is the perfect vessel for the chicken liver pate I made. I'm glad I decided not to skip baking this bread. It has the potential to become a favorite.



The recipe is here or better yet, get the book, BREAD.



3 comments:

SallyBR said...

OH, I look forward to this one already! Just found barley today, so I'm ready

not sure when my schedule will allow me to make it, but I'm hoping for next weekend

Loved your post...

Rosemary & Garlic said...

Isn't it amazing what we end up trying and liking? I thought that it was a very slack bread as well, my scoring disappear while yours looks quite lovely.

Oggi said...

Sally, thanks. I hope you'll love it too.:)

Anne Marie, so true. And for someone who doesn't like the smell of beer, I don't know why I keep smelling the slices just before eating. I really love its aroma.;p

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