Spent Grain Bread

We helped a neighbor make his first batch of beer some grain was used in the brewing process so we thought we would attempt to make a Spent Grain bread. The recipe is adapted from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads book (if you like whole grain bread, this book is great!). It takes two days, but it is worth the wait. It uses 'spent grain’, which is the grains that are left over from brewing beer. In the home brewing process, these grains were steeped for about a half hour in boiling water. The taste, texture, and color of the bread will vary considerably with the type of grain used for the beer there will be a big difference between a stout and pale ale grains, our bread was made with pale ale grain. If you're not a home brewer try asking your friends or you could also ask a local microbrewery.

This recipe makes two medium or 4 small loaves, or about two dozen rolls.

Day 1:
About 20 minutes of work.
Soaker
The soaker works to hydrate the grains in the whole wheat by mixing it with water and salt and let it sit overnight. This makes the grain softer but also enhances flavor and makes the bread a little sweeter (check Reinhart's book for the whole explanation).
Ingredients:
• 454 g / 1 lb whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp (8 g) salt
• 1½ cups water
Mix all soaker ingredients until flour is fully hydrated, then cover and let sit at room temperature for 12-24 hours. Can be refrigerated up to 3 days.

Biga
Reinhart uses the term 'Biga' for an overnight starter that uses a small amount of yeast and also soaks the whole wheat flour to increase flavor and acidity.
Ingredients:
• 454 g / 1 lb whole wheat flour
• 5/8 tsp active dry yeast (1/2 tsp instant dry yeast)
• 1½ cups warm water
Make a well in the flour. Pour the water into the well and then sprinkle the yeast in the water. Mix the water, gradually drawing in all the flour until hydrated. Once you have a ball of dough, knead in the bowl using wet hands for about two minutes. You may need to wet your hands again, but be careful not to add too much water to the dough.
Let the dough rest for five minutes, and then knead again with wet hands for about one minute. This time, the dough will be easier to work with, although it will still be tacky. Cover and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.

Day 2:
About 2 hours de-chill, then 20 minutes mixing followed by 2-3 hours fermentation. Baking takes 45-60 minutes.
Now we make the bread. Remove the Biga from the refrigerator about two hours before starting to mix the final dough.

Ingredients:
• Soaker
• Biga
• 225 g spent grain
• 113 g whole wheat flour
• 2¼ tsp (10 g) salt
• 2 Tbsp + 1 tsp active dry yeast (1½ Tbsp instant dry yeast)
• 85 g (4½ Tbsp) honey
• 2 Tbsp vegetable oil (optional)
• Extra whole wheat flour for adjustments
Chop the soaker and biga into 10-12 smaller pieces each - sprinkle some extra flour to keep them from sticking to each other. Hydrate the yeast in a little warm water (just enough to form a thick paste). Add to biga and soaker pieces along with the remaining ingredients except extra flour. Mix with a spoon or knead with wet hands for a few minutes to evenly distribute all ingredients. Take the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 3-4 minutes until dough is soft and tacky but not sticky. Form the dough into a ball and let it rest on the counter for five minutes.

Knead the dough again for about a minute. The dough should feel soft, supple, and very tacky. Place the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, covering it in oil on all sides. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise at room temperature for 45 to 60 minutes.

Form the dough into two loaves or smaller rolls. Cover loosely and let rise an additional 45 to 60 minutes.

IN A COVENTIONAL OVEN: Preheat oven to 425F. Add a steam pan to the oven and a hearth stone. When you put the bread into the oven, pour a cup of water into the steam pan and spray several times with a water mister inside the oven (not on the bread). The purpose is to create steam that will produce a crusty crumb on the bread. Lower the temperature to 350F and bake for 20 minutes. Rotate the bread 180°and bake another 20-30 minutes until the bread is done (thump the bottom to hear if it sounds hollow).

IN A BRICK OVEN: Heat oven to about 500F have a cast iron fry pan heating in the oven. Take out coals and cast iron pan and brush off hearth surface. Put pan back in oven and pour heated water in pan to create steam. Place the loves of bread in oven. Spray inside of oven with a misting spray bottle Close oven check after one half hour you may need to let the loaves stay in for another 15 minuets or so (thump the bottom to hear if it sounds hollow).

Cool on a wire rack and enjoy! Leave a comment if you try it out and let us know how it went.

SEE THE WHOLE PROCESS IN PICTURES..CLICK ON THE PHOTO BELOW TO SEE THE ALBUM

Spent Grain Bread

New England Brown Bread

We were invited to a birthday party and when I asked the hostess what could we bring she suggested brick oven baked beans and New England Brown bread. We have made beans in the oven many times but the brown bread, now that was different.

For those of you who are not from New England; brown bread is steamed bread cooked in a tin can!! It is sweet, moist and goes great with baked beans.

1 cup of whole-wheat flour
1 cup of rye flour
1 cup of corn meal
1 ½ teaspoons of baking soda
1 ½ teaspoons of salt
2 cups of buttermilk
¾ cup of dark molasses
1 cup of raisins

We sprayed two tomato tin cans with vegetable oil

Combined all dry ingredients, added the wet ingredients stirred then added the raisins and mixed again.

We poured the batter into the oiled cans. Covered with tin foil

In a large cast iron pot we placed to upside down ramekins and placed the tin cans on top. We then added the water to the half waypoint of the can. Covered the pot and put it in the brick oven for 2 ½ hours the oven temperature was about 300 F. You can cook this on top of your stove simmering for 2 hours.

TO SEE THE PROCESS CLICK ON THE PHOTO BELOW

New England Brown Bread

4th of July Feast - PIG ROAST!!

We started the smoker up at 6am! I am sure the neighbors were wondering what the heck are they doing now! It’s 4th of July and we are having a feast. Phil made cuts into the top layer of fat then coated the beef brisket and fresh pork shoulder with a spice rub consisting of the following

Spice Rub
Brown Sugar
Garlic Powder
Onion Salt
Cinnamon
Dry Mustard
Ground Allspice
Ground Coriander

The meat made it onto the smoker by 6:30 am; we added wood to the smoker about every half hour or so.

Our side dishes – baked beans and Asian style cole slaw. We soaked the great northern white beans overnight then boiled for one hour. Placed them in a crock-pot on low and added dark brown sugar, molasses, dry mustard bacon and onions fried in the bacon grease. The cole slaw is simple and delicious and no need to worry about mayo going bad in the heat. We shredded two heads of cabbage and four carrots, added rice wine vinegar, salad oil, sesame oil, salt, black and white sesame seeds.

Now for the star of the show the pig!! Phil arranged her on a bed of sweet potato, celery, onion and carrots. We filled her cavity with some red bliss potato, placed one in her mouth to hold it open during the cooking process and surrounded her with a few more potatoes. He then rubbed her down with a blend of cayenne pepper, onion and garlic salt and SMOKED paprika.

Phil makes a to die for BBQ sauce that was used for the pulled pork and beef. It keeps well so you can make one batch and use it several times. We store ours in old ketchup bottles.

BBQ Sauce
2 32ox bottles of ketchup
2 limes juiced with zest
½ cup cider vinegar
½ cup of Tequila or triple sec
4 tablespoons of cinnamon
1 tablespoon of each – Allspice, cumin and coriander
½ teaspoon of chili powder
1 pound of brown sugar

The Wood Fired Oven was fired up at noon, and the pig went in at 1:30. The oven temperature was about 500F. The Pig went in uncovered to sear and crisp the skin we covered her with heavy-duty tin foil about ½ hour later. We slowed the fire by removing some wood and allow the pig to cook slowly. She stayed in the oven for two hours we pulled her out and let her rest covered for about one hour, the internal temperature was 150F and will continue to rise as she rests. After pulling her out of the oven we brought the temperature of the oven back up so we could make some pizza it never got up to the high temperatures, we normally cook pizza at but due to time constraints, we went ahead with making 13 pizzas for appetizers. The pig went back in the oven after all the pizzas were cooked just to warm up Phil carved her and everyone devoured her!! She was cooked perfectly and was very tasty.

To view album click on photo below

2009 4th of July

Mia's 18th Birthday

August 10th 2008 Mia turned 18, so we had a pizza party. We now have the technique down and are experimenting with more exotic types of pizza!

Of course we had the standard Pizza Margarita with San Marazano tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil from the garden. We also feasted on a pesto pizza with shrimp, BBQ chicken with caramelized red onions, mushroom and onion and sausage and pepper pizzas.

Cold Stone Creamery made the Red Velvet and Cake Batter Ice Cream cake....Christina finished off the night with some roasted marshmallows.

Click on the photo below to view the album

Mia's 18th Birthday

4th of July our first official party

4th of July 2008 we held our first official party; the menu homemade soda, beer and wine. PIZZA of course was an appetizer. Our guests were amazed that a pizza could cook in 3-5 minutes. We stuck to the basics, tomato, mozzarella, pepperoni and basil. Nothing exotic but it was Good Eats.

Our entree was Paella cooked in a large cast iron pot. Lots of great ingredients, fresh clams, Chirico sausage, chicken, squid and frozen peas...yumo! It came out perfect!

Desert....three pies, apple, strawberry and peach, and because that was not enough we grilled pineapple soaked in rum, brown sugar and cinnamon.

4th of July 2008

Our Brick Oven Build April 2008 - June 2008

We began to plan our brick oven in October of 2007. Phil did lots of research on the Internet and read books on the subject. After much negotiating with me I finally gave him the green light to proceed, still not convinced that this was at all possible.

Phil had worked as a professional chef for many years, one of the restaurants he spent time in was Addesso on Providence's East Side. This famous eatery had one of the first wood fired brick ovens in the area.

Most of the brick we used came from my efforts of scanning Craigslist.com for used brick as luck would have it I found someone who had just knocked down his indoor fireplace and chimney. We took home 2 pickup truck loads of both red brick for the outside of the oven and fire brick for the interior. The fire brick is needed due to the intense heat generated by the wood burning inside.

We began to dig the additional patio extension the second week of April. Poured a 12 in thick foundation for the oven by the 1st week in May, and began to lay cinder block and brick shortly after that. We went through truck loads of sand, bags of regular cement, a few bags of refractory cement (high heat resistant), lots of lime, water and most of all sweat. By the end of June we were lighting curing fires, you need to SLOWLY cure the cement with small fires building up to the inferno type fires that you need to cook a pizza in 3-5 minutes! The small fires dry out the cement without cracking it; if you crack the cement you will lose heat!!

So we had our first official pizza party July 4th 2008, and have not stopped using the oven since.

Click on the photo below to see the photo diary.

The Red Dragon Cafe