So I was thinking about carrots. What complements carrots? Aniseed flavours work well with the sweet earthy taste of carrots. OK, what about caraway seeds, that should work. What else do caraway seeds go with? Rye bread! I thought that as carrots work in cake , then they must work in bread too. And as I alway add a bit of dark ale to my rye bread, I thought I'd use Guinness. Don't expect this bread to be light. Its meant to be dark and dense. The carrots add a lovely moist texture. Its great with cheese - which is why a third of it disappeared last night!
Ingredients
200g Rye flour
300g Wholemeal bread flour
3 medium carrots grated
4 tsps Caraway seeds
1 tbsp Black treacle (molasses)
Guinness or other dark ale (at room temperature).
9g salt
7g Instant yeast
Method
- Place the flours in a large mixing bowl and mix the grated carrots and caraway seeds through. Add the salt and yeast (no need to mix in yet).
- Dissolve the black treacle in a small amount of hot water and add to the mixing bowl (no need to mix in yet)
- Slowly pour in a small amount of beer at a time whilst using either one hand or a large spoon to bring the mixture together. The carrots will have already moistened the mixture so you need less liquid (beer in this case) than you do in a standard rye dough.
- Once the mixture holds together, turn onto a lightly oiled surface and knead until smooth (about ten minutes).
- Shape into a ball or oblong and place either on a baking sheet (or as I did, in a banneton which creates the ridges).
- Set aside in a warm place loosely covered with cling film and wait until it doubles in size. In a warm kitchen this should take about two hours.
- Heat the oven to 180 deg C. and bake for 35 to 40 minutes. There is no need to reshape and prove the bread again before baking.
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