Real Ale

When the lovely folks over at Abel & Cole sent me a fabulous selection of drinks to review, there was hidden amongst them a bottle of Prospect Sussex Pale Ale. Prospect is a traditional 4.5% Ale brewed by Hepworth& Co. a brewery based in Horsham, West Sussex (who also produce the Blonde Lager I reviewed a few days back). Hepworth & Co. produce beers and lagers in cask, keg and bottle, using locally sourced ingredients as much as possible.  Their commitment to local barley and hop growers has led to participation in the Warranty of Origin, a code of practice guaranteeing the source of ingredients and they are fully licensed by the Soil Association for the production and packaging of organic beers.

Pale ales are not normally my kind of drink; generally I find them either too gassy or too malty; gosh aren’t I hard to please; so I began to think of alternative ways I could review this ale. I’ve had a notion to bake some beer bread for a while now, so this seemed as good a time as any to get my kitchen floury. Of course I also had to partake in a small glass of the beer, how could I not? I did find it a little too fizzy for me but it had light earthy malt notes and some slightly tangy hits of flavour too; it was softly bitter and overall well balanced in flavour. Once I’d let the glass sit for a while (to reduce the gas) I actually really enjoyed the ales depth of flavour.

Beer bread can be simply made with flour, beer, and sugar. However, it will be fairly dense and heavy unless an additional leavening agent, e.g. baking soda or yeast and sugar, is added. I decided to stick with a basic yeast bread recipe, one that I’ve used many times and as such would allow me to give an honest review of how the beer flavour came through and its effect on the loafs texture. Following Dan Stevens advice (River Cottage Handbook No.3: Bread) I used a volume of 50% pale ale and 50% water – but in future I will experiment with different ratios.

It is worth noting that there are endless flavour variations of beer/ale bread possible; simply add whatever you desire to the basic dry mix. Try experimenting with different beers and ales – a darker beer will give you a deeper flavour and somewhat denser bread than a pale ale or larger.

I used malthouse flour from Shipton Mill to provide the backbone of the bread dough; it is one of my favourite and most used flours right now. It encompasses white wheat flour which is blended with three malts – whole crisp golden malted wheat flakes provide a delicious texture; a malted barley gives a soft rich malty flavour; and the dark malted rye gives a nutty flavour and relatively dark colour.

The pale ale gave a sweet flavour to the loaf with a hint of nutty malt flavour too.

I like to give my dough three or four rises as it really does help to improve not only the flavour and texture of the finished loaf but the keeping qualities too.

Another great idea is to spritz the oven with water when you put the dough in as it helps recreate a traditional bakers steam oven, I use a cheep plant mister I picked up from a local garden centre, nothing more fancy is required.

I chose to serve the bread with some lovely cheddar cheese (thank you Beth as it was an item in the fabulous Food Blogger Connect goodie bag) and some home made spiced tomato relish.

Tomato relish can be used as a spread on crusty bread or sandwiches, as a nice topping on grilled dishes and a perfect accompaniment to just about anything on you like – it is stunningly good on turkey.

I like mine fairly strongly flavoured but if you want a milder taste feel free to reduce the amount of chilli and garlic used.

Pale Ale Bread:

• 500g malthouse flour
• 20g malt flakes (soaked in warm water for 30 minutes) – optional
• 1 sachet fast action yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 150ml warm water
• 150ml pale ale
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon sunflower oil
• 1 handful of khorosan flour for dusting

1. First, mix the dough. Put the flour into a large mixing bowl, add the malt flakes, honey, oil, salt and yeast. Add the liquids, and mix (either by hand or in a free standing mixer) to a rough dough. Adjust the consistency if you need to with a little more flour or water to make a soft, kneadable, sticky dough. Turn the dough out on to a work surface and clean your hands. Knead the dough until it is as smooth and satiny as you can make it – this will take about 10 minutes.
2. Shape the kneaded dough into a round. Then oil or flour the surface and put the dough into the wiped-out mixing bowl.
3. Cover the bowl with a damp tea towel and leave to ferment and rise until doubled in size. This could be anywhere between 45 min and 1 1/2 hours – or longer still, if the dough is cold.
4. Deflate the dough by tipping it on to the work surface and pressing all over with your fingertips. Then form it into a round.
5. Repeat stage 4, three more times.
6. Now switch the oven to 250C (or the equivalent) and put your baking tray in position. Get your water spray bottle ready if you have one, your serrated knife if using, and an oven cloth.
7. Shape the dough and place into a floured proving basket (or on to a floured baking tray), cover with a damp tea towel. Leave to prove, checking often by giving gentle squeezes, until the loaf has almost doubled in size.
8. Gently tip the dough out of the proving basket (if using) onto a baking tray, the easiest way is to put the baking tray over the top of the proving basket like a lid and quickly invert the basket.
9. Put the tray in the oven, spritz some water into the oven and close the door as quickly as you can. Turn the heat down after about 10 minutes to: 200C if the crust still looks very pale; 180C if it is noticeably browning; 170C if it seems to be browning quickly. Bake until the loaf is well browned and crusty, and feel hollow when you tap it: around another 20-30 minutes. If in doubt, bake for a few minutes longer.

Spiced Tomato Relish:

• 500g tomatoes, roughly cut (I don’t bother to peel mine)
• 100g light brown sugar
• Pinch dried chilli flakes
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic granules
• 1 tablespoon dried kibbled onions
• 150ml red wine
• 100ml red wine vinegar

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan, then simmer over medium to low heat. Stir occasionally.
2. Simmer about an hour or until the mixture thickens to a slightly runny jam-like consistency and the tomatoes have broken down.
3. Put relish into sterilized jars. For longer storage, can in a water bath (cover with water about 2.5cm above the jars & simmer for about 15 min.) or just store in the fridge to keep for a couple weeks.