My previous post described a quick bread recipe using some spent grains leftover from beer brewing. Here’s a slightly more involved recipe for a slow-rise bread that also incorporates spent grains.

I’ve been doing a lot of slower rise yeast breads over the past few years. The concepts that Jim Lahey pioneered with his no-knead baking techniques are really remarkable. This recipe doesn’t slow things down that much, and I don’t bake in a closed container. It is actually a fairly traditional standard bread recipe with the yeast reduced for a slower rise to help develop flavor.

Slow Rise Spent Grain Peasant Loaf

Ingredients

• 2 cups wet spent grain
• 3.5 cups bread flour
• 1 cup water
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tsp dry yeast

Preparation

Mix all ingredients by hand until you have a fairly homogeneous dough. You may need to add a little more flour or water depending on how wet your spent grain is. This should be a fairly soft, wet dough that pulls away from the side of the bowl if you add a little more flour to the surface. Cover the dough and let it rise at room temperature for about 6 hours, until doubled in size. Punch the dough down and shape into 2 round loaves, and let rise for another 2-3 hours or until nearly doubled. Slash the tops of the loaves and bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for about 35 minutes. I pour a couple cups of boiling water into a roasting pan on the floor of the oven right after I put the bread in – this steam helps the bread rise nicely in the oven and develop a good crust.