Thoughts:

I played around a bit and came up with this great, simple recipe for bread with spent grain. As with most recipes, it’s a starting point. Feel free to innovate and add other seeds, grains, flours, oats, sugars, etc. to make it your own. Just be sure to share your results! I certainly plan to keep trying new variations on it, and post some of the best recipes as I go.

The resulting bread from this recipe is hearty in the extreme. The spent grains give each bite a little crunch, which is wonderful. It makes for a great toast, and even small sandwiches. I was partial to the very un-Westerosi PB&J, myself.

Recipe for Spent Grain Bread

Ingredients:

• 3 cups of flour, plus more for kneading (I mixed in a little wheat)
• 1 cup spent grain (dried)
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1 Tbs. yeast
• 1 Tbs. honey
• 1 1/4 cups of warm water (or beer!)

In a medium sized bowl, combine the water with the yeast, honey, and a cup of the flour. Mix thoroughly. Add the salt and another cup of flour, mixing it all in. At this point, you should have a pretty gooey dough. Add the spent grain, followed by the remaining flour, plus any extra needed to keep it from being too sticky to knead.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. Knead until it bounces back when poked, about 5 minutes. Place in a clean, greased bowl to rise until doubled in size. This usually takes at least an hour, so go do some errands and come back.

Divide the dough into two pieces, forming each into an oblong loaf shape by pulling the ends around and tucking them under the bottom.

Sprinkle a baking sheet with extra flour, and place the loaves on top. Allow to rise for at least 30 minutes more, then slash the tops with a very sharp knife. Bake for around 30-40 minutes at 450F, and if you like, place another pan underneath, filled with water: the steam will help crisp the crust of your bread.

Remove from the oven when it’s a dark golden brown, and sounds a bit hollow when tapped. Let cool slightly before digging in. Enjoy!