Beer Bread 'The Bread Bible' Alpha Bakers

Hmm, I need more experience "building a burger" but the home-baked beer bread buns make up for it! 

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Today is the monthly post for 'The Bread Bible' by Rose Levy Beranbaum and it's 'Beer Bread'. Porter or Stout give this bread a wonderful rounded flavour, a slight bitterness in the after taste and a somewhat more pronounced beer flavour around the crust. Yet, it's never over powering and will appeal to beer drinkers and non beer drinkers alike.  

It's an adult bread and oh my it must be the best bread to serve for your BBQ entertaining. Delicious served with equally strong flavours, think well seasoned barbecued burgers, flat spiced mushrooms, bitey cheese, roasted capsicum dip and the like.  

Sheeesh, you don't need a McDonalds build your own burger now, black beer burger buns all round!!! 

I got a touch "tired" this week so a few less photos, but I've included the a YouTube video of Rose actually making the beer bread (6 minute 40 second mark) plus a few photos/serving suggestions of mine below. 

This was a quick loaf to make with no starter required and about 2 -2/12 hours rising time. Yeast, malt, sugar, most of the bread flour and some wholemeal flour were combined, black beer was added then salt.

I used a beer another alpha baker recommended, 'Coopers best extra stout' from an Australian brewery...., thanks Catherine from the blog plylliscaroline the stout was perfect. 

I was using my stand mixer so 7 minutes of kneading and there it was, just as Rose described "putty-coloured dough". 

The dough came easily from the mixers dough hook.

The dough went away (well actually I put it away) to rise. After rising the dough was shaped, I divided my dough in half, made one half sized boule and four buns. Off it goes for another rise. You can slash the tops now with your favourite design, Rose has several with instructions in 'The Bread Bible'. Then off to bake. 

Easy to shape this dough, ready for it's second rise. 

Awww, the robust flavour of the beer bread reminds me of mum, bless her heart she loved a high tea on one hand but always partook in the opportunity to share a ploughman's lunch. I think she found it amusing that the traditional ploughman's lunch offended my sensibilities (no cutlery, rip apart bread and cheese and suck down a pickled onion!! wash it down with beer) and Mum did love a pickled onion! 

Ploughman's lunch, perfect for casual get together. The pronounced flavouring of the beer bread pairs perfectly with aged bitey cheddar, apple and pickled onions of course. 

You could skip a few steps, serve ploughmans cheese with your beer bread and a slice of apple. See how I used the word "slice". Ploughman's lunch is not an ancient British tradition, but rather a measure from the cheese board in the UK post rationing to promote the sale of cheese. So "forks", "knives" and perhaps even "little napkins" were around!!! 

I prefer the vegan way with organically torn fresh beer bread topped with hummus and spiced marinated pine nuts.  

Would I bake again? Yes, loved it.

Would I change anything? No

How it works... now I've joined the fabulous existing alpha bakers, once a month I will post about what I have baked from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Bread Bible'. This won't include the recipe due to copyright and publisher restrictions however, I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods.

The Bread Bible  available from Amazon and all discerning book retailers. 

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Marks BBQ Beer Butt Chook

                                     beer can bbq chicken

Back to cupcakes tomorrow, but my husband Mark is so proud of his barbequed beer butt *chook I thought I should share it with you.

I must admit I was dubious the first time Mark wanted to barbeque a beer can chicken, I thought it was just a "gimmick". I was wrong and it actually makes perfect sense; the chicken is being steamed from the inside resulting in moist chicken meat and the exterior heat gives you a crisp skin finish. With the combined heat cutting down the cooking time, bbq beer butt chicken becomes week night doable... plus no kitchen clean up!

It doesn't have to be beer... though Mark would disagree. It could be coca cola, rum & coke, lemonade etc... it just has to be a half full can.

Or you can skip the can altogether and buy a non-stick beer can chicken roaster like this one from Hark.

Hark non-stick beer can chicken roaster

Lets cook a chook...

Pour out half the contents of your can, you can use the beer to soak wood chips (chips need to be soaked overnight), save it to make sauce or just drink it. Now you're going to add flavour by adding straight to the can, it can be any combo you like; lemon or orange zest, squashed garlic cloves, fresh ginger, lemon grass, fresh or dried herbs, chilli and don't forget to add a bit of your chicken rub mix too. Punch a few extra holes in the top of your can using an old fashioned triangle bottle opener... or Marks method of stabbing a screwdriver or nail to form the holes.

If you are using a beer can roaster, add the flavouring combinations to water, wine or juice. 

Rub the skin of your room temperature raw chicken (Mark used a free range 1.8 kilo/4 pound chicken) with your favourite BBQ rub. This chicken used a basic mix of equal parts smoked paprika, brown sugar and coarse sea salt... rubbed into the cavity of the chicken first then rubbed into the skin of a lightly oiled chicken. Sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper. 

Other flavour profiles include, Chinese five spice, cumin, italian seasoning mix, coriander powder, chilli, mustard powder, pre mix rubs, garlic salt, onion powder, etc.

add flavour to your can

The half full can is inserted into the chicken creating a tripod, resulting in this rather undignified position!  

The chicken is cooked by the indirect heat method so in our case we have a hooded 4 burner gas BBQ (sorry BBQ purists); add wood chips to your smoking box or use foil sachets then the BBQ is preheated on high with all burners turned on. Once preheated turn 2 of the burners off, lets say the right hand side. Turn the other two burners on the left hand side down to medium. You should have a temperature of 180 cel or 360 F. 

Position your chicken (drip tray in place) on the right hand side where the burners are turned off. Close the hood. For this sized chicken it took one hour and 20 minutes, this is included turning the chicken once as our heat is a little uneven. Use a meat thermometer if you are unsure about doneness. 

That's it all done. You can go with the drama of serving it on the can, I prefer to remove the can (be careful it's hot, use tongs or heat proof gloves) then rest the chicken before carving. 

Resulting chicken is super succulent

It's summer here at the moment so we served the chicken with simple salads. 

* 'Chook' colloquial term used in Australia and New Zealand for chickens. 

Happy BBQing :) 

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