How To Make A Tasty Bread From Leftover Grains

On the recent post about recycling your brewery waste – Peter from BetterBeerBlog.com mentioned spent grain bread.  Its called Treberbrot if you’re interested in reading more.

I had heard of it before, but I kind of figured it wouldn’t be very good.  If you’ve ever chewed on a bit of grain or mash, you no doubt noticed that the husk material isn’t very edible and gets stuck in your teeth.

I kind of imagined bread made from the same grain would be quite similar.  Fortunately, I was wrong!

I made a couple of loaves out of some leftover stout mash and its actually quite good.  Quite alot like a whole grain bread, if that’s your thing.

Here’s a recipe:

The Ingredients

Dry:

- 1 pound (~3 cups, sifted) All Purpose or Bread Flour

- 8 ounces (~2 cups) Spent Grain – left over after mashing or steeping

- 2 tsp Sugar

- 2 tsp Salt (Kosher)

- 1 pkg Dry Active Yeast.  Leftover beer yeast would work as well.

Wet:

- 1 cup water (or beer!)

Extras:

1 tsp Cornstarch

3 tbsp Water

1/2 tsp oiive oil, or non-stick spray

The Technique

This is easiest if you have a stand mixer, but it could be done by hand as well.  If you’re the Incredible Hulk.  Otherwise your arms might get tired.

Also, be sure to measure the flour and grain by weight. By volume can be somewhat inaccurate because of variations in how tightly packed the measuring cup is.

Part 1

The main variable here is that the grain is already wet, but we don’t know exactly how much water it contains.

If there is too much water, the dough will be sticky and won’t hold its shape.  Too little and it won’t absorb all of the flour – the mixing bowl should be wiped clean by the dough.

Start by adding all of the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl.  Turn the mixer on the slowest setting and let the moisture in the grain take up some of the flour.

When the flour stops sticking, slowly add some of the water.  You might not need all of it, so add a little and see how it goes.  Turn up the mixer speed.

If the dough sticks to your fingers its too wet.  If it can’t absorb all of the grain/flour from the bowl then its too dry.

Add more flour if the mixture is too wet and water if too dry – one spoonful at a time until its just right.

When the dough has reached the right consistency – give it a few drops of oil, turning to coat.  Cover it with a little plastic wrap placed on top of the dough (rather than over the bowl) – to keep a skin from forming.

Put it in a warm place and let rise until doubled in size – about an hour.

Part 2

After the dough has risen, take it out of the bowl and fold it over a few times.  This will knock much of the gas out and it will return to almost the original size.

Shape it into whatever form you like.  A large round loaf works for me, but you could also try smaller rolls, long french loaves, or put it in a regular sandwich bread style loaf pan.

Cover once again and (you guessed it) place back in the warm spot until doubled, again.

Part 3

Pre-heat the oven to 400ºF (205ºC).

While the oven is heating make a simple cornstarch wash in a small saucepan from 1 tsp cornstarch and 3 tbsp water.

Heat and stir until combined, but don’t boil.  Then brush the mixture onto your dough.  This will help the crush to brown a bit.

Make a few slashes in the dough with a serrated bread knife (see picture).

Bake 40 minutes for a full size loaf.  Use a meat thermometer to check if its done (yes, really).  Internal temperature should be 190-195ºF.

Place on a cooling rack (If you have one) for 15-20 minutes then eat!

Variations

There are about a million different things you can do with this recipe.  Aside from all of the different styles of bread, the flavor of the grain really comes through, so your specialty grains will have a big effect as well.

I think the next thing I’m going to try is a version of sourdough.  If you’ve ever left spent grain around, you’ve probably noticed that it goes sour within a day or 2.  It seems quite similar to the way sourdough starter is made, so it might just work.

As for toppings, the traditional German spread is called Schmalz and its basically lard with onion and bacon.  Having never actually sampled this delight myself, it doesn’t sound like somehthing I’d like to risk making.

I think I’ll stick with a  little butter  instead.  Or, if you’re feeling up to it, tear off a few chunks and toast them up under the broiler.  Then give them a shot of olive oil and a few pinches of salt. Yum!

Enjoy with your favorite homebrew!