Gluten-free beer

I've been brewing beer for a few years now. I'm usually looking for new twists to try brewing. The last beer I brewed was my first lager. It came out ok, but had a few slight off flavors. This weekend, I started my first gluten-free beer. The fermentables were:

• 6 lbs Sorghum liquid extract
• 1 lb Honey (from bees in my yard, so cool)
• 6 oz Belgium Candi (dark)

I boiled it for 60 minutes with hops thrown in at:

• 0.5 oz Chinook (11.9%) @ 45 minutes
• 1 oz Cascade (3.5%) @ 15 minutes

Also, a bit of Irish Moss thrown in near the end. I pitched last night and the yeast are starting to go, but it's still a little slow. It should be ready by the end of the month. Looking forward to tasting it then.

English Muffins (part 2)

The first batch of English Muffins were made with a batter that I poured into rings on the griddle. This worked ok but didn't seem to give the right texture or consistency. I've tried a couple of other recipes since then and this one has come the closest to the English Muffins that I'm used to.

Ingredients

* 1 cup soy milk
* 2 tsp active dry yeast
* 1 cup warm water
* 1/4 cup melted shortening
* 6 cups bread flour
* 1 teaspoon salt

I mixed all the ingredients together, then let it slowly rise for a day in the refrigerator. It nearly doubled in size. I pulled it out and rolled it into a sheet between 1/4" and 3/8" thick. Using a glass (I don't have a round cookie cutter) I cut out muffins then placed them on a cornmeal-sprinkled cookie sheet to warm and rise for an hour. They had risen to about double their height. I misted them with water before placing them on a hot griddle. They cooked for about 5-7 minutes per side.



The dough was stiffer than I would like and they didn't have quite as much flavor as I wanted, but are the closest I've made so far. For the next batch, I plan to replace the active dry yeast with sour dough starter and give it longer rise time. I think will help with both problems I had this time.

Breakfast "Snausage"

My friend Aimee sent me this recipe for vegan sausage. It took me too long to get around to making it, but we had people over for brunch this morning and I decided now was the time to try it out. None of our brunch guests were vegan, but they all enjoyed this. Once you have all the spices out, it's pretty easy to throw this together.

1/2 cup quinoa
1 cup water
2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp crushed sage
2 tsp rosemary
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp celery seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika
2 pinches cayenne
1 Tbsp milled flaxseed
1/2 cup chickpea flour
1/4 cup oat or wheat bran
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp Bragg's liquid aminos


In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine the quinoa and water, let
boil for 10 minutes. Grind nutritional yeast through flaxseed in a spice
grinder. Combine spice mix with flour and oats, add to quinoa and stir.
Combine water and liquid aminos. Add liquid mixture to quinoa mixture
and mix well. Form mixture into 2" balls and flatten slightly into
patties. Fry with a little oil until brown, about 3 minutes per side.

Whole Wheat Hearth Bread

After getting the French Country bread recipe working well, I wanted to try something new. Instead of increasing the non-white flours slowly, I just eliminated the white bread flour completely. The dough was wetter than other breads I've made recently, but I think the wetness added to the oven spring.

Mix:

503g Whole wheat flour
30g Oat flakes
126g Rye flour
14g Salt
29g Sugar
450g Water

Let stand 20 minutes. Add:

7g Yeast
310g Levain
29g Vegetable oil

I ran out of time to bake this so I put it in the refrigerator while we went to a movie, then let it sit on the counter over night. In the morning, it had risen by about 50%. It had various size bubbles in the dough and was still wetter than I'm used to working. I formed it into a boule and let it rise again in a metal bowl lined with a well floured cloth napkin. About four hours later, I baked it at 450F for 40 minutes with a cup of ice added for steam at the start.

The crumb is a little tighter than usual, but it's still airy and I think smaller bubbles are to be expected with a whole wheat bread. Overall, I think it turned out well. This bread may become a regular, especially in colder months.

Pain de Campagne (French Country loaf)

This has become my "go to" bread recipe recently. The first few loaves did not come out well. I let the bread rise for the amount of time the recipes suggested, but didn't really pay much attention to the temperature in the kitchen. As a results, the bread never rose enough. Once I started letting the dough rise for a longer period, the results were much improved. This improvement came as an accident (we went to a friend's house and stayed longer than expected), but has now become a regular part of the 36 hour cycle of making this bread. Yes, 36 hours is a long time to make a loaf of bread, but very little of that time are you actually doing anything.

Bring starter out of refrigerator and make levain by adding:
135g Flour
175g Water

Let stand for 8-12 hours. Then mix:

250g water (room temp or slightly warmer)
440g Bread flour
30g Whole wheat flour
30g Rye flour

Let stand 20 minute to hydrate the flour. Then add:

310g Levain (sour dough starter)
2g Yeast (optional; not needed but speeds up the process)
10g salt

Knead for about 10 minutes. Let stand until it double in size (between
3 and 12 hours depending on room temp). Divide and form 2 or 3 loaves.
Let rise until it grows to about 1.5 to 2 times it's size (1-8 hours).
Dock tops of loaves with a razor or other sharp knife. Bake at 450 F
for 15 minutes then reduce heat to 400 and bake for another 15-ish
minutes. When putting the loaves in the oven, throw 1/2-1 cup of ice
into the bottom of the oven (preferably into cast iron fry pan or
skillet)