Chocolate Beer Bread! WOW!!

I was wandering around Trader Joe's a month or so ago and I had time to leisurely walk down the aisles. I spent quite a bit of time in the beer section and ended up with a bottle of Young's Double Chocolate Stout in my cart. I thought I might use it in Cook's Illustrated's Almost No-Knead Bread that had been recently published.

We're celebrating St. Patrick's day early this year so I baked the Stout Bread yesterday. My loaf turned out not only gorgeous but the taste is too-die-for good! And although the stout is chocolate there is no sweet taste just a nice mild malt flavor.

And I am excited to enter my Stout Bread in the March 2008 Bread Baking Day event hosted by Susan of Wild Yeast.







Almost No-Knead Chocolate Stout Bread
Recipe adapted from Cooks Illustrated

3 c. unbleached AP flour, plus additional for dusting work surface
1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp table salt
3/4 c. plus 2 TBL water, at room temperature **See My Changes
1/4 c. plus 2 TBL mild-flavored lager **See My Changes
1 TBL white vinegar

My Changes:
1/2 c. water, room temperature
1/2 c. plus 4 TBL Young's Double Chocolate Stout
1 egg whipped with 1 TBL water (brush on top of bread before baking and then sprinkle
2 TBL sesame seeds

1. Whisk flour, yeast, and salt in large bowl. Add water, beer, and vinegar. Using rubber spatula, fold mixture, scraping up dry flour from bottom of bowl until shaggy ball forms. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit at room temperature for 8 to 18 hours.


2. Lay 12- by 18-inch sheet of parchment paper inside 10-inch skillet and spray with nonstick cooking spray. Transfer dough to lightly floured work surface and knead 10 to 15 times. Shape dough into ball by pulling edges into middle. Transfer dough, seam-side down, to parchment-lined skillet and spray surface of dough with nonstick cooking spray. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise at room temperature until dough has doubled in size and does not readily spring back when poked with finger, about 2 hours.


3. About 30 minutes before baking, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place 6- to 8-quart heavy-bottomed Dutch oven (with lid) on rack, and heat oven to 500 degrees. Lightly flour top of dough and, using razor blade or sharp knife, make one 6-inch-long, 1/2-inch-deep slit along top of dough. Carefully remove pot from oven and remove lid. Pick up dough by lifting parchment overhang and lower into pot (let any excess parchment hang over pot edge). Cover pot and place in oven. Reduce oven temperature to 425 degrees and bake covered for 30 minutes. Remove lid and continue to bake until loaf is deep brown and instant-read thermometer inserted into center registers 210 degrees, 20 to 30 minutes longer. Carefully remove bread from pot; transfer to wire rack and cool to room temperature, about 2 hours.



I bake my No-knead bread a bit differently, instead of the recommended Dutch Oven, I use a raw clay chicken roaster that I bought on Ebay for $5. I love it and not only is it too cute, it works beautifully for the No-Knead Bread!!


All Rights Reserved 2008 © Big Black Dog