Saturday, March 3, 2007

Beer, Thyme & Cheese Spelt Bread

95% of you probably aren't aware, but Right Now, at This Very Moment (or at least until a very few moments ago, when I started writing this), the Nordic Ski World Championships are underway in Sapporo. What this has to do with a food blog? Well, it serves, at least partway (the other part being "yours truly is INSANE"), to explain how I got to getting a start on today's bread at 2.30 AM. You see, that's when they jumped the ski jumping part of the Nordic Combined. Ahem. (No, really. In some circles, this makes sense.)

Cheese, Thyme & Beer Spelt Bread

I needed to use up a half-empty bag of spelt flour (to make room for more flours), but of course what really caught my eye was the cheese part. Who doesn't love cheese? The recipe called for gruyère, which I didn't have, so I made do with the somewhat milder cheddar.

Cheese, Thyme & Beer Spelt Bread

Like a lot of my creations, this isn't, you know, perfect look-wise. I mean, the cheddar on top kind of looks like some sort of weird fossilized slugs or something, and also the jellyroll-type construction split in the oven, so you can see its cheesy, thyme-studded innards spilling out. But, mmm... cheesy innards! It was meant to go with a soup for lunch, but the first bread kind of disappeared while we were watching the ski jumping small hill competition. In fact, I'm not sure I have any room for lunch. But if I do, there's another bread for us to gobble up with it.

Cheese, Thyme & Beer Spelt Bread


Beer, Thyme & Cheese Bread
from Glorian ruoka & viini
200 ml (6¾ fl oz) beer
100 ml (3.3 fl oz) water
20 g (¾ oz) fresh yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
50 ml (1¾ fl oz, or 3 tbsp + 1 tsp) melted butter or canola oil
400 ml (13½ fl oz) wholemeal spelt flour
200-300 ml (7-10 fl oz) all-purpose flour
~200 ml (scant 1 cup) oat bran

filling
50 g (scant 2 oz) finely grated cheese (I used cheddarn)
3 tbsp chopped fresh thyme

topping
some more beer
30 g (1 oz) finely grated cheese


Dissolve the yeast in the water and beer. Blend in sugar, salt and melted butter. Work in the flours and oat bran a bit at a time and knead until you have a springy dough.

Let rise for about an hour at room temperature or for several hours in the fridge. Tip the dough onto a floured work surface and divide in two. Knead a few times to get rid of air bubbles.

Roll each dough-half to a rectangle of 35*20 cm (14x8 inches). Sprinkle with thyme and grated cheese. Roll up to a tight log and form the log into a pretzel-like knot.

Transfer the breads to a floured baking sheet and let rise, covered, for 30 minutes. Brush the breads with beer and sprinkle on some more cheese.

Heat the oven to 250°C (480°F) and mist with cold water just before putting in the breads. Lower heat to 225°C (440°F). Bake for 25 minutes, misting with more water a few times during baking.

Cheese, Thyme & Beer Spelt Bread

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ohmygod I want some of that!!!

It looks so gooooood...

Helene said...

This is just stunning! The pictures are gorgeous, the recipe is awesome...I need some!!!

Mia said...

Tiinu, it was amazingly moreish, and not very difficult to make!

Helene, thank you! I was pretty amazed at the speed at which this disappeared. I've already been ordered to make another batch next weekend.

Cerebrum said...

"I needed to use up a half-empty bag of spelt flour (to make room for more flours)" - heh! Do I know that feeling or do I know that feeling, too?:-) Bread looks yummy!

Peabody said...

What a beautiful bread.

Alanna Kellogg said...

Lovely! I've always confined bread to bread pans but sooo need to start making free-form loaves.

Mia said...

Zarah Maria - what's worse, this was such a small batch I didn't even manage to use up all the spelt flour! Curses.

Peabody - thank you!

Alanna - I almost never use bread pans, mostly because I never got into the habit. Freeform bread often produces... interesting results for me, but I don't really mind.

Anonymous said...

That's a wonderful looking bread! This is my first time on your blog. Saw it on Rachel's "Leftover Tuesdays" round up...and as I'm attracted to anything Finnish, here I am :) Beautiful photos and yummy sounding foodstuffs...I'll definitely be back! :)

Shaun said...

Deinin - There is nothing wrong with the way your bread looks. I've always been too lazy to make bread, but yours here is tempting me into the kitchen - but not at 2:30am, darling. One can never go wrong with thyme and cheese.

Mia said...

Joey: thank you! I do try to make something traditionally Finnish every now and then... in fact I'm overdue for some Karelian pasties, I think.

Shaun: I think bread usually seems more labor-intensive than it actually is - it takes a long time, but for most of that you're not actually doing anything. And, oh, this was SO GOOD, with the cheese and the, you know, cheese.

Brilynn said...

Any bread that has cheesy innards oozing out is bound to be delicious!

Mia said...

Brilynn, it SO was! I'm going to play around with different cheeses and herbs, I think, just so it doesn't feel like I'm repeating myself.

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hello dear blogger, to put across my question, I think I never tasted this, but I'm gonna made it in a low portion because I don't want to waste food, the only mess is about the "ellyroll-type" I can't remember the sequence about it.

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