Cakes & Bakes: Sourdough beer loaf

Home-made sourdough beer loaf | H is for Home #sourdough #realbread #recipe

I’m continuing with Sourdough September this week and making a sourdough beer loaf using a dark, delicious porter from Acorn Brewery in Barnsley.

Sourdough beer loaf autolyse | H is for Home

I’ve been baking with sourdough – on and off – for a few years now and it can be hit & miss with the temperature of our house. This recipe that I’ve used talks about room temperature being 22ºC; we have a thermometer in our kitchen that never gets past 15ºC at the peak of summer! I’ve picked up a couple of tricks to improve the ambient environment for bread baking. In the winter, I simply put the proofing bowl/banneton near the wood-burner. In the summer I boil a mug of water in the microwave, remove it, put the bowl/banneton in and close the door. It usually works quite well.

Home-made sourdough beer loaf with bottle of Old Moor porter | H is for Home #sourdough #realbread #recipe

The web page where I found this recipe has lots of photos of the finished loaf uploaded by all the people that tried it. Lots of lovely, round boules and shapely batards. As you can tell from my photos, mine was a bit of a ‘nailed it’ attempt! It wasn’t the temperature but the consistency of my dough that was to blame.

Sliced, home-made sourdough beer loaf | H is for Home #sourdough #realbread #recipe

Starter hydration is described as a percentage – e.g. 100% hydration or 75% hydration. I wasn’t at school on the day percentages were taught and I’ve still not mastered them… maths was always my worst subject too! My starter is kept at the former percentage i.e. equal weight (not volume) of flour & water at each feeding. I don’t know where it went wrong to be honest. I should have gone with my instinct and added more flour – I could tell that I would have to pour my dough out of the banneton, almost as if it was a batter. Even so, it still managed something of a rise and tastes great! I will revisit this sourdough beer loaf recipe very soon and post the results below.

Click here to save the recipe to Pinterest for later!

Sourdough beer loaf
Yields 1
Cook Time
50 min
Cook Time
50 min
Ingredients
  1. 400g/14oz strong white flour
  2. 100g/3½oz wholemeal flour
  3. 345g/12oz bottle of beer (I used most of a 500ml bottle of Old Moor porter brewed by Acorn Brewery of Barnsley here in Yorkshire)
  4. 75g/2⅔oz water
  5. 80g/2¾oz sourdough starter
  6. 12g/½oz saltHome-made sourdough beer loaf ingredients
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Instructions
  1. Pour 345g/12oz of room temperature beer into a bowl and mix thoroughly to release the carbonation
  2. Add the 500g/17⅔oz flour mixture to the beer and mix until thoroughly incorporated into a shaggy mass
  3. Cover and set aside (autolyse) at room temperature (22ºC/72ºF) for 2-3 hours
  4. Combine the salt, water and starter and mix thoroughly before adding to the dough
  5. Fold repeatedly until everything is thoroughly mixed together and the dough begins to feel smooth
  6. Cover the mixing bowl and allow to sit for about an hour
  7. Fold the dough 8 times (8 single folds)
  8. Re-cover the mixing bowl and allow to sit for about 12 hours at room temperature (22ºC/72ºF) or until the volume of dough doubles (optionally stretch and fold periodically)
  9. Turn out the fermented dough on a lightly-floured work surface and shape into your preferred loaf (boule, batard, etc.) and then place dough into a well-floured (rice flour is preferred) proofing basket/banneton; cover and allow to sit at room temperature (22ºC/72ºF) for about an hour
  10. After 30 minutes or so, place your preferred baking vessel, stone or tray (I used my pizza steel) in the oven and preheat to 260ºC/500ºF (or your vessel's maximum safe temperature).
  11. With the dough fully risen and oven pre-heated, gently transfer the dough from the proofing basket to the baking vessel, score the top of the loaf, and then bake at 260ºC/500ºF with top on (if using) for 20 minutes
  12. Turn the oven temperature down to 230ºC/450ºF and bake for another 10 minutes
  13. Remove the top of the baking vessel (if using) and bake for 20 minutes or until the colour of the crust is as desired and the internal loaf temperature is at least 90ºC/200ºF
  14. Remove the loaf from the oven and place it on a wire rack and allow it to cool for at least an hour before slicing
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Adapted from Breadtopia
Adapted from Breadtopia
H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Mushroom pasty

Home-made mushroom pasty made with sourdough pastry | H is for Home

I’ve been wondering for ages what I’d choose for this week’s Cakes & Bakes recipe. You see, it’s Sourdough September and I wanted to make something more than a just a plain sourdough loaf. I’ve come up with a mushroom pasty recipe using sourdough pastry.

Sourdough September logo #SourdoughSeptember

I only feed my sourdough starter in the summer months – our old, stone house just isn’t conducive to developing the warmth-loving wild yeasts for much of the year. When the temperature drops and the wood-burning stove needs to be sparked up, I store a small batch of starter in the freezer to revive again the following year.

Sourdough starter | H is for Home Sourdough starter | H is for Home

This sourdough pastry recipe is very similar to plain shortcrust pastry but the taste is so much better – and it’s more buttery and flakier too.

Sourdough pastry ingredients | H is for Home Sourdough pastry ingredients | H is for Home

I’m sure some Cornish people and other pasty aficionados will be up in arms with my mushroom pasty recipe. However, I’m vegetarian and a meat pasty isn’t tempting. I used Rustica mushrooms. However, you can use any kind – button, woodland, chestnut, wild… add a handful of garden peas if it takes your fancy. I used Maris Piper potatoes, but as with the mushrooms, it’s down to personal preference or what’s to hand. Also, a bit of onion, garlic and fresh thyme.

Cooked mushrooms and potato | H is for Home Cooked mushroom and potato mixture | H is for Home

We have some 20cm/8-inch starter plates that are the perfect diameter for a pasty pastry cutter. Just roll out the pastry, place a plate on the top and cut around it with the tip of a sharp, pointy knife.

Circle of sourdough pastry | H is for Home Filling a circle of sourdough pastry | H is for Home

I picked up a(nother!) tip from Nadiya Hussain for making pasties. Use the tip of the self-same knife – this time, the un-sharp side of the blade – to just gently push the pastry inwards at 1cm intervals to crimp.

Uncooked mushroom pasty | H is for Home

The recipe made 6 pasties; I cooked off half of them for immediate consumption – and put the other three into the freezer for a later date. They were truly delicious. Justin and I agree that this pastry is one of the best – if not THE best I’ve ever made – and the simple combination of flavours in the filling worked brilliantly too. 

Two freshly-cooked mushroom pasties on parchment paper | H is for Home

Click here to save this mushroom pasty recipe to Pinterest for later.

Mushroom pasty
Yields 6
Made with a delicious, buttery sourdough pastry!
Cook Time
30 min
Cook Time
30 min
For the pastry
  1. 185g/6½oz plain flour
  2. 1tsp salt
  3. 225g/8oz very cold butter, cubed
  4. 225g/8oz cold sourdough starter
  5. a little beaten egg to glaze
For the filling
  1. 250g/9oz potatoes, cubed
  2. 30g/1oz butter
  3. 2 medium onions, finely chopped
  4. 1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped
  5. 250g/9oz mushrooms, sliced
  6. sprig of thyme
  7. salt & ground black pepper to tasteHome-made mushroom pasty ingredients
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For the pastry
  1. Sieve the flour and salt into the bowl of a food processor
  2. Scatter the cold, cubed butter over the top of the flour mixture and pulse a few times until the butter breaks up into small chunks
  3. Spread the sourdough starter over the top of the flour/butter mixture
  4. Pulse again until the mixture just starts to clump together a bit, but is still crumbly. The dough should feel like it will stay together if you pinch it with your fingers
  5. Lay out two strips of cling film at right angles to each other and empty the pastry mixture into the middle
  6. Bring the mixture together using the lengths of cling until it just about comes together into a ball. Quickly flatten the ball into a round, wrap and chill for an hour in the fridge
For the filling
  1. In a medium-sized saucepan, just cover the potatoes with cold, salted water and bring to the boil for 5 minutes
  2. Using a colander, strain the water away
  3. In a large saucepan, melt the butter over a low heat
  4. Add the onions and garlic and sweat until they're soft but not browned
  5. Add the mushrooms, thyme and salt & pepper and continue to sweat until the mushrooms have softened
  6. Strain any liquid away (or you can reserve this to make a mushroom sauce using a dash of cream)
  7. Mix the potatoes into the mushrooms until well combined
  8. Set the mixture aside to cool
To finish
  1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/Gas mark 4
  2. Divide the pastry into 6 equal pieces. Put five back into the fridge to keep cool while you make the first pasty
  3. Form the pastry piece into a round and roll out on a floured work surface
  4. Place a side plate on to the pastry and cut out a circle
  5. Spoon some of the cooled mushroom filling into the centre of the pastry
  6. Brush around the edge of the circle with water, carefully fold the pastry over into a semi-circle - keeping the filling away from the edge
  7. Gently press the edges of pastry together before crimping
  8. Repeat this process until you have used all the pastry and filling
  9. Put the pasties on to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brush the tops with a little beaten egg
  10. Bake for 30 minutes until the tops are golden brown
  11. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 10 minutes before eating
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H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/