Beer Bread

I'm not really sure whats gotten into me this week. It must be the change in the weather: it's getting colder, the rainy season has obviously started...it must be November. And with November comes Thanksgiving. The one (or two) days out of the year where it's totally okay to overeat a bunch of heavy, starchy foods. Awesome. So I had this intense need to make some sort of rye bread. I looked up a few different recipes which either didn't suit my time limitations(admittedly, I did procrastinate this week..) or didn't posses all of the qualities I was interested in for this week's project. So I sort of made the Frankenstein of Rye bread... but that's okay because it has beer in it.


ingredients:

1 teaspoon molasses
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 tablespoons oil
4 tablespoons milk
1 cup of stout or porter(I used chocolate stout. I mean, hey, why not)
1 3/4 teaspoon dry active yeast

about 1 1/2 cups rye flour
about 1/2 cup barley flour
the rest should be white flour (up to 3 cups but probably more like 2)

Start by activating your yeast with 2/3 cup of warm water. Let it sit for 10-15 minutes until frothy. In the mean time, measure out your dry ingredients (flours, caraway, fennel, cocoa powder, and salt).

Heat 1 cup of stout (or porter) in a saucepan with the heat on medium to low. Once warm, add the stout to the yeast and then add the molasses, oil, and milk. Add the dry ingredients gradually, mixing well (add as much white flour as needed to get to a good consistency. The dough I made was slightly sticky, but not runny at all).

Knead the dough for about 10 minutes until smooth and elastic. Return to bowl, cover and set in a warm place to rise for about an hour and a half or until doubled in size.

Punch down your dough and knead it again. Form it into a loaf (or blob, totally up to you), cover and let it rise again until doubled.

Bake in a preheated oven at about 400 degrees. My oven runs warm, so I had it set to 350, but it was probably near 375... Let it bake until the crust is dark brown, should sound hollow when tapped. Mine took about 25 minutes to bake (but your bake time may vary..)

enjoy your Frankenstein Beer Bread!

the bread I made was loosely based on a recipe for Black Bread found in The Bread Book by Sara Lewis