Deb's Daily Bread
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Recipes from my kitchen

Chocolate Stout Sourdough Bread

3/1/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Chocolate Stout Sourdough Bread
PictureChocolate Stout Sourdough bread
This winter, I decided to experiment with creating my own chocolate stout sourdough beer bread.  This process began because my boyfriend bought a six pack of a craft beer he did not like.  After the first sip he was about to throw away the rest.  I couldn't let that happen.  There were too many fun things to do with beer, besides drink it... beer batter fish fry (I'll post that blog separately), beer bread, steamed clams in a beer and garlic sauce... 

My first experiment was to try the bread.  Most of the beer bread recipes that I played around with gave me a dense, chewy, overly sweet bread.  I decided to use a lean sourdough formula, increase the hydration, and work with a fed starter.  After a couple of tweaks here and there, I came to this recipe. 

The results are amazing.  It gave me a truly complex flavor that distinctly called out the chocolate, the beer, and the sourdough.  


Ingredients:
  • 1 bottle of Samuel Smith’s Organic Chocolate Stout at room temp or a 12 oz bottle of beer + 4 oz of water
  • 1 cup of fed sourdough starter 
  •  5 Cups of bread flour
  • 2 Tbsp  brown sugar
  • 1 Tbsp of sea salt



Method:

Pour the beer and the starter into the bottom of a mixing bowl.  Using the dough hook, mix the beer and starter together for 1 minute to break up the starter. Let it rest 5 minutes.

Add the sugar and the flour and mix for 2 minutes on slow speed.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and flip the dough over.  At this point it should be very sticky and a little shaggy.   Mix again for two minutes on low speed.  Scrape the dough off the sides and flip it over in the bowl again.  Then cover and let it rest for 15 minutes.

Add the salt to the dough and mix on medium speed for 2 minutes.  Scrape down the sides, flip the dough over in the bowl and then mix again for another 2 minutes on medium speed. 

Lightly oil a large bowl.  Pour the (still sticky but you should have decent gluten development now) dough into the bowl and cover it with plastic wrap.  Let it sit on the counter (at approx. 70 degrees F) for about an hour. 

Pour the dough onto a floured work surface.  Using a bench scraper, fold the dough four times (top over bottom, left over right, bottom over top, right over left). Then brush off excess flour and cover with a damp towel (I use a wet, but rung out paper towel and then loosely cover with the leftover plastic wrap).  Let it sit on the work surface for another hour.

Heavily flour two round brotforms (wooden spiral baskets).   Cut the dough in half (you can weigh it to make sure each loaf weighs the same amount), and shape each half into a ball.  Place each ball into the brotform— seam side up— and cover with a damp towel.  Leave them on the counter for about 30 minutes, then place each brotform into the fridge overnight.

Take the loaves out about 90 minutes before you are ready to bake.  Preheat the oven to 500F.  Make sure you preheat your baking stone along with your oven on the center rack.   About 20 minutes before you are ready to bake, fill a metal bowl with water and place it at the bottom of your oven. 

Carefully arrange your two loaves onto a parchment paper that’s been dusted with flour.  Score the top of your loaves and then spray them with water (using a plant mister).   Put the loaves onto the baking stone.  I then pour about a cup of water onto the bottom of the oven – creating a burst of steam, then close the door and turn the heat down to 450F.

After about 12 minutes, remove the bowl of water from the bottom of the oven and rotate your loaves.   Continue baking until bread reaches an internal temp of 202F. 


Picture
Crumb from a Chocolate Stout Sourdough Bread
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Deb 

    I'm a home cook with a lifelong passion for learning, exploring and experimenting in my kitchen. You can find me at @Debs1 on Twitter and  @Debs121212 on Instagram.

    Categories

    All
    Bagel
    Beef
    Beer
    Bread
    Brisket
    Brownies
    Buns
    Cabbage
    Cake
    Calamari
    Challah
    Cherries
    Chicken
    Chocolate
    Cookies
    Corn
    Cupcakes
    Deep Fried
    Desserts
    Donuts
    Drinks
    Eggs
    Empanadas
    Frittata
    Fritters
    Fruit
    Garlic
    Grilled
    Ice Cream
    Ingredients
    Jam
    Lamb
    Lilac
    Meringue
    Noodles
    Pasta
    Pesto
    Pie
    Pizza
    Potatoes
    Preserves
    Salad
    Seafood
    Sliders
    Soup
    Sourdough
    Spread
    Steak
    Stew
    Sugar
    Thai
    Vegetables
    Waffles

    Archives

    April 2020
    March 2020
    December 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    September 2013
    July 2013

    RSS Feed

    This website uses marketing and tracking technologies. Opting out of this will opt you out of all cookies, except for those needed to run the website. Note that some products may not work as well without tracking cookies.

    Opt Out of Cookies
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact