Dark Beer Bread with Spelt Flakes

All the breads I made so far that contain beer were big successes. So I picked one that has beer in it as the first recipe I made from a new recipe book I got. The dark beer is actually used to prepare the sourdough as well as to soak spelt flakes.

I made a few modifications on the recipe. First and foremost: The recipe was for 4 breads, I reduced all amounts to make only one. I also changed some of the preparation to avoid moving the dough as much. And I left out the cheese used in the recipe as well, which was already a suggested modification.

Sourdough

• 100g (3 1/2oz) all purpose wheat flour
• 80ml (1/3 cup) water
• 10g (3/8oz) wheat sourdough starter
• 65g (2 3/8oz) all purpose wheat flour
• 65ml (2 1/4oz) dark beer (I used Guiness)

Combine 100g flour, 80ml water and the sourdough starter in a mixing bowl and stir well. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 12 hours. Since there is another 12 hour resting period, it would be better to make this batch of "regular" sourdough in advance and store it in the fridge for a few days or so. Then just use 190g sourdough for the following step (that's what I did).

Add beer and remaining flour to the sourdough and stir well. Cover and let rest at room temperature for 12 hours.

Soaker

• 80g (2 3/4oz) spelt flakes
• 190ml  (6 1/4oz) dark beer (I used Guiness)

Combine ingredients in a glass bowl and give it a good stir. Cover and let soak for at around 30 minutes.

Main Dough

• Sourdough
• Soaker
• 250g (8 3/4oz) light rye flour
• 250g (8 3/4oz) medium wheat flour or bread flour
• 32g (1 1/8oz) fresh wet yeast or 4 1/2 tsp Active Dry Yeast, 2 1/4 tsp of sugar and 115ml (3 3/4oz) of water, mixed and let stand for about 10 minutes
• 225ml (7 1/2oz) lukewarm water
• 25g (3 1/2 tsp) salt

Dissolve yeast in the water and mix with the sourdough. Add flour, salt and the soaker and incorporate well. Mix with the dough hook for 3 minutes on low speed and for 2 minutes on higher speed (2 on my Kitchen Aid mixer). Sprinkle some rye flour on top, cover with a lid or plastic wrap and let rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.

Place dough on well floured surface and use a dough scraper to fold the edges into the center. Go around the dough a few times always folding a part of the edge in.

Flour round banneton well and sprinkle spelt flakes in. Transfer dough into banneton, sprinkle flour on top, cover with plastic wrap and let prove at room temperature for about one hour.

The original recipe suggests to first dust the dough with flour, cover with a cloth and let it rest on the surface for 45 minutes. Then transfer to banneton (floured and spelt flakes sprinkled in) and let rest for another 15 minutes. Considering my dough got stuck in the banneton a little bit in the next step, that may work slightly better. However, the dough is pretty runny and sticky, so it may still get stuck. If that happens, fold the edges in with the dough scraper again to form a round bread just before you put it into the oven..

Preheat oven to 260°C (500°F) and place a deep metal dish on the lowest rack.

Place parchment paper on a baking sheet and turn dough onto it (possibly fix as described above). Place sheet on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 3 minutes. Then pour water into the metal dish, reduce the temperature to 210 °C (410°F) and bake for another 40-45 minutes.

Let cool on cooling rack.

Original recipe by Bernd Kütscher, in "Deutschlands bester Bäcker" published by  Johann Lafer for Gräfe & Unzer.