Fresh from the oven - Beer Bread Bowls.

October's Fresh from the oven challenge was hosted by Corry. She recommended a fantastic recipe inspired by from Richard Bertinet’s fabulous book Dough – Simple Contemporary Bread

I tried this particular recipe last year, but keen to adapt recipe and in keeping with my sudden preoccupation of baking with beer, I wanted to try this recipe to make beer bread bowls, specifically to be served with scouse.

I use quite a bit of Sam Smiths beers in baking as their fruit beers give great taste to the likes of ice cream & brownies and their other beers have a strong defined taste that is perfect for stews and bread. The oatmeal stout I decided to use has a definite oaty aroma and I thought it would be perfect for bread.

This time the dough seemed to work better than my first attempt last year and they worked well. I now have ideas to make these bowls as a fruit bread then filling them with custard..mmmm..

Beer Bread Bowls
makes 6 16cm bowls

500g strong bread flour
20g course semolina
15g fresh yeast (or 5g fast action yeast)
10g salt
50g olive oil
320g beer
chilli or spice (optional for added flavour)

1) Preheat the oven to 250˚C (500˚F). Mix together the flour and semolina and rub in the yeast as if you were making a crumble (Richard Bertinet’s method – see below for video link). If using a mixer, switch it on to the slowest speed, add salt, olive oil and beer and mix for 2 minutes, then turn the speed up to the next lowest speed and mix for 6 to 7 minutes until the dough becomes smooth and elastic.

2) If you are kneading by hand, knead for approximately 10 to 12 minutes or until you have a nice smooth elastic ball of dough. Richard Bertinet has a unique kneading technique referred to as the French fold that can take approximately 5 to 10 minutes depending on practice. You can view his method in a online video at the Gourmet Webpage. In this video, he is actually doing sweet dough but the same technique can be used for most bread dough.

3) Place the dough into a bowl that has been floured, cover with a tea towel and leave in a draught free place for approximately 1 hour or until doubled in volume.

4) Lightly oil or spray with non-stick spray, the outside of 6 ovenproof bows (I used pyrex bowls). Turn the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and divide into 6 to 8 pieces (depending on the size of your baking bowls). Taking one piece of dough at a time and using a rolling pin, roll each piece into a circle (similar to making pizza). Shake off excess flour and shape each piece over an upturned bowl, patting into shape and pressing gently to remove air bubbles from between the dough and the bowl. Rest the dough for 10 minutes. Place the upturned bowls, two at a time, on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, then into the preheated oven. Turn the oven down to 200˚C (400˚F) and bake for 20 - 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for a few minutes. Using a fine-bladed knife, gently loosen the bread from the bowls and ease off. Cool on a wire rack.

It is probably safer to serve the bowls on a plate, as they do become soggy after a while and the soup may leak through.

Black Sheep Bread

This bread is in honour of the Yorkshire 3-Peaks Challenge Hubby & I completed last weekend. Thanks to everyone who sponsored us. We stayed at Pinecroft and it was somewhere I would highly recommend. We're thinking of returning with friends later on in the year.

It was a great experience and provided great memories from the bog jumping, being knee deep in mud, weird tasting watermelon jelly sweets, a sneaky pub stop and sunset at the top of Ingleborough. During the walk I gained the nicknames of Speedy Gonzales. Once I got going, there was no stopping me. This may have been due to a heady mix of ibuprofen, Lucozade, Jelly Babies & adrenaline. I'm really proud of myself & Hubby for completing it minus any injury, blister ache or pain (ooh get me!) and the training I did over the summer really paid off. Although it took us far longer than expected to complete due to an incident involving the Mountain Rescue Team 1 mile from the end (let's just say thank goodness for the training I did as part of my DofE Gold Expedition), some of us are planning to return next year to do it in around 10 hours. Others however have been put up hill walking for life! In a slightly crazy way I got a serious kick from the challenge and found it easier than I was expecting. Even after 25miles I could have continued, as someone has pointed out there is room for a female Eddie Izzard!



The reason for this bread being a tribute to our walk is that one member of the team (not me I hasten to add)sneaked in a cheeky half-pint at the Old Hill Inn - a fab pub between Whernside & Ingleborough belonging to the famous Black Sheep Brewery. Apparently this cheeky half-pint was one of the best drinks he has ever had and it provided some comedy moments for the rest of the team as it went straight to his head, he started to talk about how pretty all the trees were and I swear at one point he began to skip up Ingleborough. I've never baked bread with beer in it before, but have declared this bread to be a resounding success. It produces a beautiful fluffy bread with a slightly golden crumb. You can certainly taste a hint of ale in the bread. It's given me some ideas for some other bread that I've going to keep under wraps for now. This is also the first time I've used my new brotform and grignette and am really pleased how well they have worked.



Now, the after effect of endurance exercise is that it does 2 things to your appetite. Either you can't eat enough or your appetite is zapped. Now you would think when burning 9000 calories in 16 hours we would both have raging hunger...nope. Our appetite was completely killed and a week on it's only just getting back on track, hence why it has been so long since I've blogged. Normal service will now resume on my blog with both Hubby & I having lots of great foodie projects up our sleeves. So here's to carbs, the great outdoors and friends. Cheers!

Black Sheep Bread
Makes 1 large loaf

500g strong white bread flour
10g salt
5g fast action yeast.
300ml Black Sheep Riggwelter Ale (yes I know it's sacrilegious, but it needs to be warm)

1) Mix together all the ingredients until you have a rough dough. Knead either by hand or with a mixer for 10 min until you have a beautiful, silky dough. Shape into a round and leave to rise in a covered bowl for 1-2 hours, or until it has doubled in size.

2) Knock back the dough, shape into chosen shape and place in/on tin or brotform and leave again covered in a plastic bag until it has doubled in size. If cooking on a baking sheet cover in polenta/course semolina before placing the bread on as this stops the bread sticking to the sheet.

3) Preheat the oven as hot as it will go. At the bottom of the oven place a baking tin of boiling water (this helps to develop the crust). If using a brotform turn bread out onto tray. If not using a brotform place the dough in/on chosen tin. Slash the top of the loaf (optional) then bake for 10 min.

4) Turn down the oven to 200oc and bake for a further 20-30 minutes. When the bread is ready the bottom of the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

Cherry Beer Ice Cream

I first came across Mark @ Pencil & Spoon's recipe for beer ice cream a few months back and after making a winning raspberry beer ice cream I knew I had to try some other beers to test how they worked. This batch is for my Birthday BBQ this weekend.

I admit I'm not a huge ice cream eater. I don't like Hagen Daz et al far too sweet and sickly for me. The best ice cream, in my opinion, is the delicious selection from Needwood Dairy...and of course this beer ice cream. I have another ice cream idea in the pipeline based on one of my favourite English cakes, but you'll have to wait for that because I'm still developing the recipe.

To make the ice cream was also an excuse to use my newest KitchenAid Gadget - an Ice cream bowl and beater
This is not the first time I've made ice cream in the KitchenAid. The Damson Gin sorbet didn't work (I had gone a bit mad with the gin!), blackberry & apple sorbet waiting to be tasted and the raspberry beer ice cream, well lets just say it didn't last long as it was so delicious! The only think Mark says about making this is be careful with your choice of beer. Ideally you do not want a too hoppy beer as it can make the ice cream too bitter.



The beer in it gives it more of an adult flavour. Rich and fruity with a hint of bitterness to stop to being too sweet. The cherry juice in the beer gives the ice cream a beautiful cerise hue. This ice cream would be a perfect accompaniment to a rich dark chocolate brownie. I should also point out this is possibly one of the easiest ice cream recipes known to man. 3 ingredients, no egg, no faffing.

UPDATE: We ate this at my birthday BBQ and it was unanimously decided it tastes just like a Bakewell Tart. You can certainly taste almonds in it. Now this breakthrough means my grand plan to create an ice cream based on my favourite cake (a Bakewell Tart!) has now been shelved as I seem to have achieved it without trying.


Fruit Beer Ice Cream

1 can of condensed milk
300ml double cream
250ml-300ml fruit beer (I use Samuel Smith's fruit beer range)

Gently whisk together all of the ingredients then pour into the ice cream maker. Done!

Raspberry Beer Brownies

Being married to a man who was brought up close to the UK's heart of brewing, it's not surprising that his interest in beer has rubbed off on me. I could quite happily sup on a half pint of porter, but my ultimate favourite has to be Samuel Smith's fruit beers especially the raspberry one as it tastes of summer. The taste of summer is just what we need as the snow is beginning to settle outside.

After stocking up on some of the beer at Sound Bites in Derby yesterday, I had a brainwave on the drive home. You can make brownies with Guinness, so surely you can do the same with glorious Raspberry beer. I also made them to celebrate having 100,000 hits on my blog since it started. To add some additional colour to the brownies I stirred some raspberries into the batter.

To be honest, I cook with beer just as much as I drink it and like wines different beers go with different dishes. The smell of the brownie batter as I made these was divine and once cooked they tasted like my raspberry truffles in a gooey cake form, can't be bad! Just note, if you do make these it makes quite a sloppy batter, but don't worry they will still bake well.

Raspberry Beer Brownies
Makes 16

4 eggs
140g caster sugar
300g dark chocolatr
70g unsalted butter
110g plain flour
2 tsp cocoa
290ml raspberry beer
100g raspberries
icing sugar

1) Preheat oven to 190oc and line a deep 8 inch square baking pan with baking parchment.

2) Combine eggs and sugar. On a medium heat melt chocolate and butter until smooth. Allow to cool for about 3 mins.

3) Stir chocolate mix into egg mix. Sift in flour and cocoa. Beat until well combined.

4) Whisk in beer then fold in raspberries. Pour batter into the pan pan. Bake for 25 min until a skewer comes out just about clean. It will continue to cook slightly after being taken out of oven.

5) Once cooled, drench in icing sugar and slice.