Cracked Wheat Beer Bread Recipe

How to make it

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• Bring beer to a boil in small sauce pan (watch for foam over!), stir in cracked wheat, and let sit at least 20-30 minutes.
• Stir together all dry ingredients except salt and extra flour in mixer bowl or large bowl.
• Add remaining wet ingredients to beer, stir to combine. If you have a thermometer, check the temperature, it should be between 110 and 125 degrees, or feel very warm to the touch.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and stir with wooden spoon to combine.
• Knead with your hand or a dough hook for a couple of minutes, until you have a rough, sticky dough.
• Cover and let rest 20 minutes.
• After the rest, sprinkle on salt and knead on medium-low speed for about 6-7 minutes. The dough will still be very sticky, if it's not coming into a ball you can add a few extra tablespoons of flour as you knead. Don't worry if it's still sticking a lot to the bottom of the bowl--it will be fine. If doing by hand, knead for about ten minutes, but this is a pretty sticky dough, so be careful not to add too much flour.
• Remove dough and turn onto a floured surface, and knead for a minute or two by hand. Dough should still be sticking to the board, so add just a little more flour as needed.
• Roll into a ball and place into an oiled bowl, cover and place in a warm spot until dough has doubled in size, about 45 minutes to an hour.
• When risen, punch dough down, turn over onto itself several times, and shape it into a ball. Cover with a towel and let rest 10 minutes.
• To shape dough, roll into a rectangle as wide as your loaf pan is long. Roll up jelly-roll style, pinching seam and ends tightly closed. Place seam-side down in oiled loaf pan, cover with towel and let rise until doubled and 1/2 inch over sides of pan, 40-50 minutes.
• Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350. Have an old pan on the floor of the oven, and make sure there is no rack above the rack you intend to bake your bread on.
• Place pan into oven, and carefully toss a cup of ice cubes into hot pan, and shut door quickly.
• Bake 20 minutes, tent with foil, then turn pan around, and bake 20-30 more. Bread will sound hollow when done, and will read about 195 on a thermometer.
• Turn onto rack to cool, brush with butter for a soft crust, and wait 30 minutes before slicing. Makes one loaf.
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