EXCLUSIVE - POSSIBLY A WORLD FIRST - DOUBLE MAXIM BREAD

Do you remember Graham Kerr, the Galloping Gourmet ? He was a TV chef active in the 70's and one of his trademarks was drinking wine while cooking. Well I've just had a similar experience, except with beer.

There was an article in a Sunday newspaper magazine recently looking at beer flavoured bread recipes. Now I occasionally bake bread, nothing complicated , just from a bread mix. So I thought, why not have a go using beer instead of water. After all beer is 97% water.

Now this is not as daft as you think. It is believed the earliest brewing technique , in the Middle East and Egypt, involved soaking bread in water, then letting the wild yeast ferment the liquid into beer. There is already on the market a Banana Bread Beer brewed by Wells and Young

So, which beer then ? Well why not try  Double Maxim?

The instructions require 350ml of water, and as a bottle of the beer is 500ml , that leaves 150ml to do my Galloping Gourmet impersonation. 

1. Mix bread mix, olive oil and beer for 5 mins then leave to stand.
2. Finish drinking what's left of the beer.
3. Realise more baking left to do so open another bottle.

4. After allowing the dough to rise in a warm place, time for another slurp. 
5. Next, place bread in oven to rise for half an hour.
6. Have a few more sips.
7. When ready , remove bread from the oven. 

8. Finish beer off.

Now , given that Double Maxim is a brown ale, there was a definite brown colouring to the loaf - (no it wasn't burnt !) . And the taste ; well, all I can say is move over Nigella ! Went well with soup for our tea.

  

May try something darker like Old Peculier or a Stout next time.