Parmesan cheese bread

http://www.recipezaar.com/Italian-Parmesan-Bread-for-Bread-Machine-155369


Here's how I made this recipe:

Mix water, yeast and a tsp of sugar, and let sit until foamy.

Add salt, cheese, dried basil and oregano, garlic powder, onion powder, and stir.

Add flour, then adjust with flour or water to make a good dough.

Knead, let sit 1 hour, punch down, fold, form loaf, let sit another hour.

Bake in a dutch oven with the lid on at 425*F for 30 minutes

Remove lid, then bake another 15 minutes.

The cheese flavor was pretty subtle. Perhaps it might be better to put the cheese on top.

Beer bread

100th post!

http://www.recipezaar.com/Beer-Bread-73440


I used 1/4c butter, and that was plenty. Next time, I will use a little less. Also, I used salted butter, and the bread was just a little too salty, so I will cut down on the full teaspoon of salt next time.

Cheddar, thyme and beer bread

I forget where this recipe came from. I recently made it for a block party, and it turned out really well -- the entire loaf was eaten in a few minutes!

200 ml (scant cup) beer
100 ml (1/3 cup) water
20 g (1.5 Tbsp) fresh yeast
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
50 ml (3 Tbsp) melted butter or canola oil
400 ml (1 ¾ cups) wholemeal spelt flour (use all-purpose if spelt is not available)
200-300 ml (1 cup) all-purpose flour
~200 ml (scant 1 cup) oat bran (don't omit this)

filling
a handful of finely grated cheddar cheese
3 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme (I usually use dried thyme, and only a teaspoon or two)

topping
beer
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.

Roll the dough into a rectangle of about 16x10 inches. Sprinkle with thyme and grated cheese. Roll up into a tight log.

Transfer the bread 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.

Mike's American Amber Ale

I am not sure who Mike is, but this partial mash recipe came from "More Beer!", formerly known as Fermentation Frenzy:

1 lb Crystal 40L
4 oz chocolate

8lbs ultralight malt extract
4 oz maltodextrin


.5 oz Northern Brewer hops (60 min)
1 oz Northern Brewer hops (15 min)
1 oz Cascade (10 min)
1 oz Cascade (10-14 days dry-hopped in secondary)


This is the first time that I have tried "dry hopping", which is the process of putting hops into the secondary fermentation stage. I think that, normally, a fine mesh bag is used to contain the hops while they soak, but I didn't have one so I just dumped the pellets right into the beer. Almost all of the hops settled to the bottom after 12 days, but I racked the beer through a crude filter, which very effectively removed the remaining floating bits of hops.

Overall, I think the dry hopping process preserves more hop aroma than would be possible with even just 5 minutes of boiling. 12 days should be the maximum length of time for dry hopping. This recipe is supposed to be an amber, but it tastes much more like a pale ale. It's quite good, and I have very few complaints about it. I would have liked a little more malt flavor and a little less hop, but it's still very tasty, and will be especially good on hot days.

I would make this recipe again and probably shorten the secondary time to 7 days.