… A recipe for lovely Jane @ The Shady Baker…
After the success of our Dirty Granny loaf, I’ve taken to throwing all sorts of things into my sourdough starter. The latest was half a can of flat Guinness beer (the other half having been added to a beef stew the night before).
The resultant brew was dark and malty…
I added the starter to a high hydration dough made with Tania’s luxurious Buratto flour and threw in a large spoonful of treacle for good measure.
Here’s the formula:
Starter: feed a small portion of ripe sourdough starter with 250g Guinness beer (mine was flat, and cold from the fridge) and 150g bakers flour. Stir well and cover until ripe and bubbly.
Dough:
- 300g Guinness-fed starter
- 650g water
- 1kg Buratto or bakers flour
- 30g treacle
- 19g fine sea salt
This quantity made four small loaves, which I baked for 40 minutes (20mins at 220C with fan and the remainder of the time at 175C with fan). The crust was firm and the crumb tender. The flavour improved with resting overnight…
Folks, I bake a lot of bread, so I know this is a big call, but I think this one might be my new favourite. I adore its slightly sweet, malty taste and the chewy but tender crumb. It’s vaguely reminiscent of pumperknickel bread, and the perfect match to Manchego cheese and antipasto…
Definitely the best use for half a can of flat beer!
Edit: Have a look at Clare’s Ginger Beer and Honey loaf
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Thanks for another great recipe, Celia!
This bread looks so good I can almost taste it! And I think bread is a very good place to use beer/ale!
Heidi, my friend Maude just brought over six bottles of flat lager – not sure what to do with them yet! I’ll have to experiment! :)
Guinness and treacle sourdough? Sounds delicious!!!! Now, if only I could get treacle here!
If you can’t get treacle, I reckon molasses would work! :)
Oh, my…. this bread is calling my name real real REAL loud, and I don’t even like beer.. but enjoy using it in my cooking
I need to bake some sourdough soon, it’s been a while…
thanks for the inspiration, once more!
Sally, I’ve now made this THREE times in different permutations – today was sandwich loaves and rolls, last time was ciabatta. I adore the flavour! Can’t wait to see your next loaves, you bake the best bread!
That’s one beautiful loaf of bread. I am thinking a ham sandwich with home grown heirloom tomatoes and crunchy lettuce. I am soooo hungry just thinking about it.
Norma, thank you! Ham sandwich and some homemade mayo!! And tomatoes and cos lettuce! Darn, now I’m making myself hungry as well! :)
Another winner Celia. What do you mean by high hydration dough?
Anne, one with a very wet dough – this dough is about 78% hydration (percentage of flour to water, including the starter ingredients). By comparison, the dough in my original SD tutorial was about 66%, which made handling much easier. x
Wishing I could just grab this loaf and devour it. Winner!
Thanks Norma! Wish I could share! x
I was so expecting this loaf to be much darker Celia. Just because of the deep colour from both ingredients I suppose :) I’m glad the deeper, darker bits came out in the deeper, darker flavour instead! It definitely sounds like you’re onto a winner with this one sweetie xox
Becca, it surprised me that it wasn’t! But the flavour is gorgeous, and kind of evolves after the first day. Just love it! x
Thank you so much for sharing your bread knowledge and experiences with us Celia. We enjoy the occasional stout or guinness in the coolers months so I immediately thought this bread would be a winner when I saw your tweet.
I am going to try this on the weekend, I might even buy some decent cheese to have with it! x
Jane, I hope you like it as much as we did. Even Pete’s come around now, he was a bit hesitant at first, but it’s really grown on him now! :)
So you really can throw all sorts of things at sourdough. Although Tony wants to know why anyone would have half a can of leftover Guinness! :)
Tony, no-one drinks the stuff here, they all drink Becks and Peronis! :) I just keep it for cooking! :)
Wow. The bread looks great but the topping looks even better. I keep trying variations but the hubby just can’t get past his love of ciabatta. Xxx
Ali, the love for that ciabatta can take years to even wane a little bit – my fam are still addicted to it! :)
You truly are The Wonder Baker, Celia. Is there nothing that you’ll toss into your starter and create a wonderful loaf? The only negative in these posts is that you’re on the other side of the World. A little too far for me to pop over for a taste. :(
John, one of these days, you’ll have to come and visit. I will bake you whatever you want when you do. :)
That looks like such a yummy lunch. So simple but it would work together so well. I like the sound of this bread xx
Charlie, I’m sure it’s good for us – it has that wholesome brownness, right? Of course, it’s from beer and treacle, so it’s a bit of a furphy.. ;-)
I’m nowhere near tempting fate by adding things into bread. I need to get some starter going. Your bread always calls me. loudly
Maureen, I got over that after the first couple of years, when I finally realised that the worse thing that could happen is the loaf could end up with the chooks or the worms.. ;-)
that looooks amazing! :) do you feed your sourdough with anything interesting? (other than flour) i’ve been reading of people using fresh apple and/or sultannas!!!??!! i’ve using prunes to feed kefir.. so perhaps it’s not a huge surprise of using natural sugars for natural yeast.. also which would you suggest is the best way forward (i bake using supermarket yeast currently) starting a sourdough starter from scratch or buying a starter online? thanks!
I made my starter using Dan Lepard’s recipe; yoghurt, raisins and apple juice……it started bubbling away with breakneck speed.
Tiffany, I bought mine from Northwest Sourdough in the US (I wrote about it here: https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2013/02/11/bread-101-a-basic-sourdough-tutorial/)
…but my friend Brydie has a link on her blog for starting your own:
http://cityhippyfarmgirl.com/2011/06/15/how-to-make-a-sourdough-starter/
Oh, and my friend Joanna at Zeb Bakes has been making kefir starter loaves! They look wonderful:
http://zebbakes.com/2013/05/26/raisin-goats-milk-kefir-bread-no-3/
Mmmm slightly sweet, malty is my favourite flavour in bread :)
ED, this one really is wickedly good. I want to try it with cream cheese and smoked salmon! :)
Ooh have you tried molasses? I made a dense, dark molasses loaf which we both loved and I bet it would be great with your starter! :D
Oooh, that sounds divine. I’ll have to get some – all the molasses I have in the pantry are date, grape and other varieties, but no sugarcane! :)
The Guinness drinker is in NZ at the moment, I’ll pop out to the beer fridge and see if he’s left a can or two in there……….sushhhhhhh
Elaine, you could use the rest of the bottle to make chocolate Guinness cake – we love it!
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/11/01/chocolate-guinness-cake/
Beautiful bread!
Mimi, thank you! :)
I think we should call you “the queen of sourdough”. :)
That’s very kind, but not a fitting title, as so many of my fellow bloggers bake much better loaves! But I will gladly be “Queen of throwing all sorts of strange things into sourdough”! :)
Dang, that looks tasty! Did you make the antipasto too? Maz
No, but we have a really good source for it. Oh, and I have exciting news to tell you – will send you an email!!
Beautiful loaf of bread Celia…I yet have to try to bake sourdough bread. Thanks fort his great post and hope you are having a lovely week :)
Juliana, thank you! Hope you’re having a great week too – we have a long weekend coming up! :)
great use of left over guinness celia!
Thanks Jane – it was so much nicer than tipping it down the sink! :)
Celia that is indeed a big call! Isn’t it wonderful though when you make a bread and realise this is now your top favourite. Sourdough…I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…it really is the bees knees.
See, Brydie, I KNEW you’d understand what a big call that was. But I haven’t eaten anything else in the last week – I’ve just been happily nibbling my way through the loaves! :)