Baked goods

Pan for the park

Submitted by Kyle Casteel

Ingredients:
3.5 cups bread flour
1.5 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 generous tablespoon butter or other fat, at room temperature.
1-1.5 tablespoons honey from Garfield Honey Company
1 cup Garfield Brewing beer of choice, brought to room temperature
1/3 cup hot water

Directions:
1) Begin with hot water in a large bowl. Water must be hot enough to melt butter. Add butter, honey,
and half of your salt, and stir or whisk vigorously until completely combined. Set aside to briefly cool.
2) When liquid has cooled, but remains warm to the touch, add .25 - .5 tsp of yeast and gently stir, then set
aside for a few minutes. This will activate yeast for a better rise.
3) Add your beer and set aside -- consider at least an additional eight ounces for your own consumption as well!
4) In a separate bowl, sift flour together with remaining salt and yeast, then add this to your liquids.
5) Give your mix a few stirs to wet the flour, then work through hands to combine into dough. Dough should be slightly wet, but cohesive, coming away from the sides of the bowl easily. Your goal is to roll the dough into a ball. If it's too wet, add more flour. If it's too dry, moisten with cool water.
6) Knead the ball for a minute or two, then replace in the bowl and gently press it down until fairly flat. Loosely cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise until doubled -- warmth and light helps here; consider a sunny porch.
7) Turn the risen dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for several minutes. Then, form into preferred shape atop a sheet of parchment, or nestle in a greased loaf pan. Allow to rise at least one hour.
8) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. If loaf is very puffy, slash the top of your loaf with a sharp knife to allow ventilation. If forgoing a loaf pan, place parchment on baking sheet or preheated baking stone.
9) Bake your beer bread 35-45 minutes, until the crust has browned and a sharp tap on the bottom produces a hollow sound. Don't be afraid to keep baking until it's done, just be careful never to let too much heat escape the oven, or to leave the loaf out of the heat for very long!
10) Leave loaf on a cooling rack until you can rest a flattened palm on the crust comfortably, then slice with a serrated knife to enjoy.

Optional:
Add local herbs to your dry ingredients at step four to complement your pick from Garfield Brewery.
Top the crust with crushed nuts, herbs, and/or additional salt before it goes in the oven. Spray with water or brush with fat to make sure it sticks.
Bake at a higher temp -- not more than 400 degrees -- and spray a few times with cool water during baking to produce a crunchier crust.
I always use bread flour, which is formulated for higher protein -- this produces a more consistent crumb, but all purpose flour works just fine.
Yeasts eat sugars. If you want a sweeter bread, you need to add more honey so there's some sugar left over for you.
For best results, allow cold beer to rise to temperature while covered to retain fizziness, and stick around 5% ABV. The beer will impart some flavor, but not as much as you'd think -- don't be afraid to experiment!.