Rye bread with Guinness and pastis

Do you like beer?

I don't; but our two little partners in crime do.

It's as if they just know it when there's a bottle almost empty.



You don't have to like beer, or more specific Guinness, for making this delicious bread. The recipe came from the book Dough by Richard Bertinet. The ryeflour came from Denmark and looks like a mixture of ryeflakes, course rye and the flour itself. The only thing added was some broken rye soaked in water.

Another good reason to make the trip to Denmark more often.


Ryebread with Guinness and aniseed (R. Bertinet)

Soaker
4 tbsp. broken rye
3 tbsp. hot water

13 gr. fresh yeast
350 ml Guinness, roomtemperature
125 gr. dark rye flour
375 gr. white bread flour
10 gr. salt
1/2 tbsp. pastis (Pernod)

Make the soaker at least 8 hours before you make the bread dough.
Take a large bowl, pour the Guinness in it and whisk the yeast in it till it's completely dissolved.
Add the ryeflour and 250 gr. of the white bread flour and whisk till there's a thick batter. Cover the bowl and leave it for two hours.

Add all the other ingredients to the batter and knead app. 5 minutes till you get a souple and elastic dough that's not sticky anymore.
Form the dough into a ball and leave it one hour covered in the oiled bowl or container.

Take the dough out of the bowl and give it a double businessletter turn and put it back in the bowl again. Repeat this after another hour.
Put the dough back in the bowl for another 45 minutes.

Take the dough out of the bowl and lay it on an oiled working surface. Form it onto a tight ball and lay this (seamside up) in a floured banneton till almost doubled in size.
In the meantime: preaheat the oven to 480 dgr. F. (250 dgr. C.). Turn the banneton onto a bakingsheet and slide the sheet onto a hot bakingtray in the oven. Reduce the heat after 10 minutes to 425 dgr. F. (220 dgr. C.) and bake the bread for another 18 - 20 minutes till it sounds hollow when you tapp on the base.

Let the bread cool down on a iron baking tray. This bread tasted delicious with the fresh new herring but it will also combine with cheese, salmon and even jelly.