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Irish Ale Bread with Caraway and Herbs
This quick and easy beer bread is perfumed with caraway, dill, chives, black pepper and... a full bottle or can of Irish ale, which lends the loaf yeasty, subtly sweet notes. An electric spice grinder is the best way to coarsely grind the caraway; pulse the seeds a few times, but don’t pulverize them to a fine powder. The butter for brushing the just-baked loaf will likely solidify upon standing; simply re-melt it a few minutes before removing the bread from the oven. Serve slices with corned beef and cabbage or slathered with softened butter.
1
9-inch loaf
Don’t whisk vigorously after adding the beer. Gentle mixing prevents excessive foaming as well as gluten development that toughens the bread. Don’t slice the bread while it’s warm. Like all quick breads, this loaf slices more easily and cleanly at room temperature. Use a serrated knife and a sawing motion.
1 hour
20 minutes active, plus cooling
Ingredients
-
260
grams (2 cups) all-purpose flour
-
60
grams (½ cup) cake flour
Directions
-
01Heat the oven to 375°F with a rack in the middle position. Mist a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. In a large bowl, whisk both flours, the baking powder, baking soda, caraway, salt and pepper. Add the dill and chives, then toss well. Drizzle in the honey and 4 tablespoons of melted butter, then add the beer and whisk gently just until evenly moistened; do not overmix. The batter will be thick.
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GET DIGITAL & PRINTI’d love to incorporate some stone ground whole wheat flour, ground oats or other whole grains, any thoughts on how to do that?
Hi Catherine -
Whole grain flour has more protein in it so it soaks up more liquid than all-purpose flour. If you use too much without altering the other ingredients in the recipe, it can become dry and dense. Therefore, when substituting a whole grain flour, we always recommend starting with substituting only 50% whole wheat for the all-purpose flour to ensure the texture of the bread isn't compromised.
Best,
The Milk Street Team
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