Malty Multi-Grain Bread

Oat and rye flakes soaked in dark beer give this bread great flavor. This is the third recipe I made that contains a good amount of beer and they all came out great. There is no poolish and total preparation time is relatively short. Makes two 1 1/2lb breads.

Sourdough

• 35g (1 1/4oz) all purpose wheat flour
• 35ml (1 1/4oz) water
• 7g (1/4oz) wheat sourdough starter

Combine all ingredients in a bowl (I used the mixing bowl I'll eventually make the main dough in), stir until smooth, cover with lid or plastic wrap and let rest for 14-16 hours. As usual I had enough wheat sourdough to cover the whole batch, so all I needed to do is let the sourdough warm up to room temperature on baking day (takes about 2 hours or so).

Soaker

• 100g (3 1/2oz) oat flakes
• 100g (3 1/2oz) rye flakes
• 330ml (10oz) dark beer (I used one small bottle of Guiness)

 The orginial recipe calls for a slightly different set of ingredients I didn't have or couldn't get in the store (200g/7oz mix of oat, rye, barley, spelt and wheat flakes, and malt beer). I have all the grains now so I'll probably make this again with all the different flakes at some later time.

Heat up the beer on the stove, but don't get it to a boil. Place the grains in a bowl or glass, poor over the heated up beer and cover the container with a lid. Let the grains soak for about 2 hours or until all the beer has been absorbed.

Main Dough

• Sourdough
• Soaker
• 300g (10 1/2oz) all purpose wheat flour
• 200g (7oz) whole grain rye flour
• 300ml (10oz) lukewarm water
• 20g fresh yeast or 3 tsp Active Dry Yeast, 1 1/2 tsp of sugar and 2 2/3oz of water, mixed and let stand for about 10 minutes
• 2 tsp salt

 When using fresh yeast, dissolve it in the water. Mix yeast and water into the sourdough. Then add the both types of flour and finally the salt. Stir it to mix everything in and add the soaker. Mix with the dough hook for 7 minutes (3 minutes on low, 4 minutes on slightly higher speed; I set my Kitchen Aid mixer to 1 for the first 3 minutes and to 2 for the last 4 minutes).

Place dough on a floured baking sheet and cover with a linen cloth. Let rest for 30 minutes folding it in once or twice. To do that fold the dough into the middle and press it down. Go around the dough repeating that until it has a round shape again.

Divide the dough in half and form into elongated shape that fits into a rectangular baking pan. Brush with water and roll in the oat and rye flakes. Place into 2 well greased baking pans, cover with the linen cloth again and let it rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 430°F (220°C).

Place the breads on the middle rack, spray water into the oven and bake for 40 minutes. Open the oven door after 15 minutes to let the steam out.

 Let cool on a cooling rack.
 

Original recipe by Bernd Armbrust, published by GU in the book "Brot". I actually had to adjust this recipe more than usual because I remembered incorrectly what I have at home. It's supposed to contain five different types of flakes rather than the two I used. It also calls for malt beer which I couldn't find around here so I replaced it by Guiness.