Ladies of Craft Beer

Posted By: TGomes

INGREDIENTS of the basic bread:
- 15g of dry yeast for bread (or 30g of fresh yeast dissolved in 1 cup of warm- NOT hot- milk. It cannot be very hot or the yeast will die)
-1 tablespoon of salt
-1 pint of beer
-2 tablespoons of sugar
-2 eggs
-1 egg yolk to paint the bread before going to the oven.
-3 tablespoons of butter
-1kg of tableflour
-500g of malt (the grains you throw away after the lautering of the wort)

How to do it:

Mix the table flour with salt and sugar. Then, add the yeast and mix it (the yeast can’t be directly in contact with the salt, that’s why we have to mix the salt with the table flour before puting the yeast). Add the butter, eggs and beer. Mix it very well and add the grains.

Mix very well until the bread paste is elastic. Correct with more flour or beer depending on how wet or dry the paste is. Let it rest covered for 2 hours (or more, depending on how hurried you are). Then, mix again, adding anything you want (I like to add basil and slightly tainted pepperoni). Put in the pan and let it rest and grow (until it is double the volume) for more 2 hours (again, eyeball this- you may need more or less time depending on your dough. Each bread is different).

Pre heat the oven for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, paint the bread with 1 egg yolk. Put the pan into the oven in high temperature for 20 minutes (so the paste will be crispy on the outside). Then, more 40 minutes in low temperature. Total oven time: 60 minutes.

(Editors note: In Brazil, ovens are set at either low or high. Use your best judgement for translating that to actual degrees, and make sure to keep an eye on your bread as it bakes so that it does not burn.)

Come!

Originally posted 2010-08-27 13:21:01.

Posted By: TGomes

Chocolate truffles with DME (dry malt extract), by Pete Slosberg:

Dry Malt Extract

Ingedients:

200g Cream
200g bitter or half bitter chocolate
5 or 6 tablespoons of Dry Malt Extract
cocoa powder

Tatiana and Pete making Chocolate Truffles

How to do it:

Heat the cream until it almost boils (just before the boiling temperature). Meanwhile, chop the chocolate in very small parts.

When the cream is just about to boil, turn off the heat and mix in the Dry Malt Extract tablespoon by tablespoon- always making sure to mix it so it won’t create “balls”- until it’s a homogeneous, uniform cream. In a bigger bowl, melt the small pieces of chocolate into the hot DME cream.

Place this mixture in the refrigerator until it’s solidified. You want it to be a complete solid, but not so cold that it cannot be manipulated. Ttake pieces with a spoon and roll it into balls. Then roll the balls in the cocoa powder. This is done so that the truffles will not melt and stick to your fingers when you eat them.

Truffles!

Come!

Posted By: TGomes

Tatiana is a Brazilian home brewer (since 2007) from Rio de Janeiro She is also president of ACervA Carioca, Rio’s homebrewers association, as well as the founder of FemAle Carioca, a group of 6 women who meet monthly to drink good beer.

Tatiana’s home brews are labeled under the name SiniXtra, meaning “sinister”. She used an “X” to imitate the Brazillian accent from Rio de Janeiro. She earned 2nd place in the Brazillian national home brewing competition, becoming the first woman to win a prize in homebrewing, in Brazil. This is what her label looks like:

Since Tatiana’s first language is Portuguese, she will be posting in both English and Portuguese. Stay tuned for more news from the Ladies in Brazil!