I’ve made these many times so there’s no need to write out the recipe again since you can find it here.   But I wanted to let you know that the quality of the beer you use most certainly matters!  In my previous batches I’ve used flavorful microbrews with great results.  Last night I used some of the nasty Miller Lite in our fridge since neither my roommate nor I wanted to drink it.

Wow – it gave nearly no taste to the beer rolls!  The rolls still taste delicious but if I didn’t tell you they were seedy BEER rolls you may not even notice.  They really just taste like seedy whole wheat rolls.  Not bad, just not what I was after.

Lesson learned.

Last night I decided it was time to make more beer bread rolls.  They are very forgiving in the making process, taste delicious and freeze well.  I have made beer bread rolls two previous times before.  The first was a seedy roll with gobs of pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, and flax seeds.  The second was a fruity grainy mix of dried cranberries and millet.  Last nights concoction included some spent grain from my brother, the BrewMaster.

“Spent grains are a byproduct of beer brewing consisting of the residue of malt and grain which remains in the mash-kettle after the mashing and lautering process. It consists primarily of grain husks, pericarp, and fragments of endosperm.”
I ended up combining a beer bread recipe and a spent grain bread recipe.  The final product was soft and chewy and grainy….but for whatever reason, the beer flavor didn’t shine through like before.  I’m thinking the spent grains either absorb more of the beer or mask the taste.  Next time I’m going to increase the amount of beer and cut down a bit on the orange juice.

Still…these rolls turned out great.  So great I ate three for dinner last night.  :$

(Alright, so I cheated and used a picture of my first seedy beer bread rolls.  I can tell I’m not quite back to my food blogging ways since I forgot to take a picture last night!  Imagine these darker (from the dark spent grains) and without the seeds.  I will try to remember to take a picture tonight and update this post!)

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Spent Grain Beer Bread Rolls

Ingredients -

• 3/4 cup beer at room temperature (Use your favorite light/amber micro-brew as a lot of flavor comes through.  I used a nice micro with hints of vanilla, clove, and banana and it tasted great in the bread.)
• 1/4 cup orange juice, at room temperature (I used the juice from one medium-sized orange since I never have bottled orange juice in the house.)
• 4 tablespoons brown rice syrup (you can use honey if you’re not vegan)
• 1/4 cup oil
• 2 teaspoons dry active yeast
• 1 cup spent grains
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• soymilk (or 1 egg if you are not vegan)

Directions –

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the beer, orange juice, brown rice syrup, and canola oil.  Add the yeast, and whisk until it is completely dissolved in the liquids.

2. Add the flours, spent grains and salt.  Stir with a wooden spoon until a dough forms and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.  Use your hands to knead the dough until smooth and elastic on a floured surface – about 5 minutes.  (I usually just need it inside of the bowl to save on making a mess.)

3. Shape the dough into a ball and transfer to a lightly greased bowl.  Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in size (about 2 hours).  Gently punch down the dough, and shape it into one loaf or 8-10 rolls. If you make a loaf, place it in a lightly greased bread pan. If you are making rolls, place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Cover and let rise for an additional hour.

4. Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Use a pastry brush to brush the rolls (or loaf) with the soymilk.  (You can also beat one egg and use the egg wash for this.) Bake uncovered 30-35 minutes for a loaf and 15-20 minutes for rolls.  The bread is done when the internal temperature is 190°F.

The potato farls were Uh.Mazing.  Just what I remembered….(see my previous post for a discussion on what potato farls are and where they come from!)  I will try to update this post with my own picture tonight, but for now, here’s the recipe for them! (Note: I made them vegan with oil and also upped the total production. I wanted leftovers to keep in my freezer. You can look at the original recipe for smaller batch sizes.)

Potato Farls

adapted from EuropeanCuisines.com

Ingredients -

• 1.5 lbs of potatoes (2-3 potatoes)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2.5 tablespoons oil (olive or grapeseed)
• 1.5 cup all purpose flour (plus more for rolling)

Directions –

1. Peel and cut potatoes into large chunks (so they will cook faster).  Place in a pot of boiling water and cook until they are soft.

2. Drain and the rice or mash the potatoes very well until there are no lumps.

3. In a bowl, mix the potatoes well with the salt and oil. Add the flour, and stir or work in with your hands until you have a nice dough.

5. Heat a dry griddle or large frying pan until medium-hot. You can fry them in a bit of oil if you like, but a dry non-stick pan works just fine.  Then fry the farl triangles until golden brown on each side. Usually this takes about 2-4 minutes on each side.

I ate mine last night with some fresh blackberries and a bit of real maple syrup.  These are traditionally served as part of an Ulster Fry breakfast and are pretty much the best thing ever dunked into a runny yolk….

Farls freeze very well and can easily be re-heated in a frying pan or in the toaster!

The beautiful beer bread rolls over at My Kitchen Addiction inspired me to whip up some of my own last weekend and they were so good I plan on making another batch this weekend.  They turned out dense and chewy, yet still soft.  I threw mine in the freezer and took one out to bring to work everyday and they defrosted perfectly.  Play around with the seeds as you see fit and make sure you use a beer you like as the taste really shines through in these rolls.

Seedelicious Beer Bread Rolls

(Adapted  from My Kitchen Addiction who adapted it from King Arthur FlourWhole Grain Baking Cookbook)

Ingredients –

• 3/4 cup beer at room temperature (Use your favorite light/amber micro-brew as a lot of flavor comes through.  I used a nice micro with hints of vanilla, clove, and banana and it tasted great in the bread.)
• 1/4 cup orange juice, at room temperature (I used the juice from one medium-sized orange since I never have bottled orange juice in the house.)
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 1/4 cup olive oil (I think almost any oil would work here)
• 2 teaspoons dry active yeast
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup unbleached bread flour
• 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 sunflower seeds
• 1/2 cup milled golden flax
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg

Directions –

1. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the beer, orange juice, honey, and canola oil.  Add the yeast, and whisk until it is completely dissolved in the liquids.

2. Add the flours, flax, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds and salt.  Stir with a wooden spoon until a dough forms and begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.  Use your hands to knead the dough until smooth on a floured surface.

3. Shape the dough into a ball and transfer to a lightly greased bowl.  Cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap, and let rise until doubled in size (about 2 hours for me).  Gently punch down the dough, and shape it into one loaf or eight rolls. If you make a loaf, place it in a lightly greased bread pan. If you are making rolls, place them on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Cover and let rise for an additional hour.

4. Preheat the oven to 350°F.  Beat or whisk the egg and use a pastry brush to brush the rolls (or loaf) with the egg wash.  Bake uncovered 30-35 minutes for a loaf and 15-20 minutes for rolls.  The bread is done when the internal temperature is 190°F.