Rastons

Beer Bread

Original:

Take fine floure, and white of eyren, and a litul of the yolkes; And then take warme barm, and put at thes togidre, and bete hem togidre with thi honed so longe till hit be short and thik ynough.  And caste sugur ynowe thereto; and then lete rest a while; and then cast hit in a faire place in an oven, and lete bake ynoug;  And then kut hit with a knife rownde aboue in maner of a crowne, and kepe the crust that thou kuttest, and pile all the crèmes within togidre; and pike hem small with thi knife, and saue the sides and al the cruste hole withoute; And then cast thi clarified butter, and medle the crème and the buttur togidre, And couer hit ayen with the cruste that thou kuttest awey;  and then put hit  in the oven ayen a litull tyme, and take it oute, and serue hit for the all hote.

(Renfrow, p. 205)

Translation:

Take fine flour and white of eggs and a little of the yolks; and then tame warm barm and put at these together and beat them together with the honed so long till it be short and thick enough.  Cast sugar now and then let it rest awhile.  Then cast it in a fire place in an oven and let bake enough.  Then cut it with a knife around within together. And pick them small with the knife and save the sides and all the crust hole with out.  And then cast the clarified butter, and melt the crumbs and the butter together, and cover it again with the crust that has been cut.  Then put it in the oven again a little time, and take it out and serve it forth all hot.

Ingredients:

1 Tbs. sugar                             2 eggs                          ½ C warm ale or beer

½ cup barm                              3 ½ cups flour

Redaction:

This recipe I used as a bread recipe.  I have not used it as a stuffed bread bowl with butter and crumbs.  The bread is really tasty and I was very short on good bread recipes.

I gathered all the supplies together including beer, which was left out for several hours to reach room temperature and to go flat.

Barm is the left over yeast sediment from a brewing batch of either beer or wine.  I did not have a batch of ale going at this time so had to do a small cheat.  I used a packet of wine yeast with a Tbs of sugar and ½ C of the flat(ish) beer.

After the barm was mixed, I made a well into the flour

and added the eggs and barm mix with ½ C of the remaining beer.

Everything was then stirred till mixed.

As you can see this will foam.  Do not be alarmed.  Keep stirring then kneading as the dough forms.

Once everything was combined and formed a soft dough ball,

I placed the dough on a well floured board and kneaded for 5 minutes, adding flour to the board as needed.

Next I put the well kneaded dough ball back into the bowl that was floured on the bottom (to prevent sticking) and covered with a cloth.

The dough was then allowed to rise for an hour before turning placing onto a backing sheet and placed into an oven till done.

Once the bread was done, I let it set for roughly 15 minutes till I cut it into slices.

Once the slices had dried for a day and toasted on low, I cut off the crusts then ground them into bread crumbs.  The bread by it’s self is still very good and can stand alone if you do not need breadcrumbs!