Babes Bake Beer Bread - Eh?

This April we are gathered round Natashya's kitchen table at Living in the Kitchen with Puppies (take care to not step on any doggies) as we bake a lovely Canadian bread; Granville Island Beer Bread which has a full 12 oz of beer in it. Surely you have some left over from Spring Break, right? Thanks goes to Chuck at CookingBread.com for generously allowing us to use and print the recipe.

I'm glad that the Babes don't abide by too many rules because I did change things a bit with this recipe. For starters, literally, I used some of my sourdough starter instead of the 'night before' mixture. I also don't care for dried onion flakes, so I kneaded some caramelized onions into the dough along with the sausage and cheese. Some of the flour became whole wheat flour and a few flax seeds made it into the dough, too. I did use the full 12 oz. of beer though. Changes I made are noted in italics in the recipe.

With all those changes it is still basically the same bread flavors with a tiny twist. Excellent bread toasted and used for a BLT  since I used pork sausage for the sausage part. Pretty tasty just sliced and devoured. It was still warm from the oven when we tried that with some of it for dinner, along with a salad.

So hats off to the Canadians! Give this a try yourself, send Natashya an e-mail telling her of your experience with it and include a photo (and do this by April 29th) to be included in the round-up and to get your April Buddy badge.

Sending this over to Susan for the marvelous Yeast Spotting weekly event. Thanks for keeping it going Susan! It is a blast to check out all the great breads each week.

Last, but certainly not least, do check out the other Bread Baking Babes' sites to see their take on this savory delight. The links are to the right.

Granville Island Beer Bread

Ingredients

Night before: (I used my sourdough starter)
1¼ cups bread flour
¾ cup tepid water
¼ teaspoon instant yeast

Day of:
1 - 12 oz bottle beer (room temperature)
¼ cup olive oil
3 tablespoons dried onion flakes (skipped this)4 teaspoon instant yeast
1½ tsp salt
½ teaspoon ground pepper
¼ cup sugar
4 - 4½ cups bread flour (I used half whole wheat flour)
1½ cups farmers sausage
2 - 3 cups grated Monterey Jack cheese

Method
The night before combine 1¼ cup of bread flour, ¾ cup tepid water and ¼ teaspoon instant yeast, cover with plastic wrap and set aside till next day.(I used 1 1/2 cups of my sourdough starter.)

The next morning pour the night before mixture into a large bowl. Add in the room temp. bottle of beer, olive oil, dried onion flakes (left these out), 1 cup of bread flour, instant yeast, salt, pepper and sugar, with a wooden spoon mix all these ingredients together till well blended.

Mix in another 1½ cups of flour (used some whole wheat here). Sprinkle some more flour onto a flat surface. Pour out the wet dough onto the floured surface, place a little more flour on top. Start to knead the dough and continue to add a little flour till the dough becomes smooth (a little on the tacky side). Knead the dough for about 8 minutes, then place into a lightly oiled bowl, turn the dough over so all the sides are lightly coated. Cover with plastic and let rise for 1 hour or till it has doubled in size.

Sprinkle a little flour onto a flat surface and pour out the dough. Add the farmers sausage or any other cooked sausage you like (I also added 1 medium onion, chopped that I had cooked slowly in 1 tablespoon olive oil until caramelized to a golden brown). Add 1 cup of cheese and knead till all incorporated. Cover dough with plastic wrap and allow to rest for another 15 minutes. Afterwards cut dough in half, shape into loaves and place onto a cornmeal parchment lined cookie sheet (I used a loaf pan for one loaf - I made three because I increased the starter amount and flour amounts so I had a lotta dough!). Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rest for 1 hour. Using a sharp knife score the dough about an inch deep. Sprinkle the rest of the grated cheese on top of the loaves. Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 30-35 minutes or till a thermometer places into middle of loaf reads 180F-190F. Remove from oven and allow to cool on a wire rack.