Spent grain waffles

[Kent88]

I like to save spent grain, my wife and mother-in-law like to make bread with it and I like it in pizza dough. My latest spent grain creation is based on this recipe.




I reduced the sugar almost by half (extra DME would also work) and sub'd almost 2 ounces of flour for spent grain "flour". I also let it raise a lot longer than an hour, not sure that was a great idea with milk and raw egg in there.

Turned out well. Probably could have sub'd a little more flour for spent grain. Pictured here is the batter after raising for several hours and the finished product with raspberry and maple syrup.

Edit: also used about half the amount of yeast

 

[HausBrauerei_Harvey]

what's you pizza dough recipe? I still haven't done anything other than give my grains to folks with chickens.

 

[kev211]

what's you pizza dough recipe? I still haven't done anything other than give my grains to folks with chickens.

Ditto to this. Maybe you could post it in The Homemade Pizza Thread?

Also, when you make your spent grain flour, do you dry the grain in the oven first and then blend it?

 

[Kent88]

I dry my spent grain by putting it in the oven (preferably right after sparging) right around 200F for several hours. I then put it through the food processor, strain/shift out the big pieces (and I rehydrate and save the big pieces, because some people don't like spent grain "flour" anyway). This leads to a flour that works well in doughs and batters for things that don't turn out to dry.

Just so you know, I am very much an amateur with the whole cooking/baking thing. I've posted a couple times in the Homemade Pizza Thread, and I've probably included the recipe in there too. The pizza dough I make is based on this recipe. I sub the sugar for extra DME when I can, and I sub the whole wheat flour for an equal weight spent grain, but there is a little room to play around with subing one kind of flour for another. I usually let it raise in the fridge for 1-3 days when I can, and I don't use a rolling pin.

Pizza stones are great things. When I figured out how to use mine the quality of my crust improved significantly. I preheat the stone as high as the oven will go, turn the oven down to 425F, put the shaped dough on the stone (parchment paper is great for this), let it bake for about 8 minutes, take it out and top with sauce, cheese, and whatever meats I feel like (usually back bacon), and finally put it back in the oven to finish.

 

[bbohanon]

That waffle looks delicious.

 

[Kent88]

Thank you, @bbohanon they were pretty good. My wife even ate one without syrup, which I take as a good sign.

I may not have the ideal waffle maker, but the great thing about making waffles in that shape is they can be reheated in the toaster and they turn out great. I've got breakfast for a week sitting in my freezer, and I bet they're a lot better than store-bought toaster waffles.

 

[GoHokiesGo]

Oh that's an awesome idea! I saved my spent grain from last week's batch, and I was going to dry it in the food dehydrator this week (need to do that tonight).

Do you all just pulse it to breakdown in a food processor, or is it better to blend in a blender to a flour consistency? I was thinking of using the Vitamix to pulverize it. Also, is it typically just a bit sweeter than regular flour, but otherwise an easy swap in recipes?

 

[Kent88]

@GoHokiesGo I have been using my food processor, I don't know how well a blender would work. If you try it and it works well please let me know.

As for sweetness, I'm not sure. I suppose it depends on how well you sparge. I assume regular flour is all starch, whereas spent grain is going to have simpler sugars in there, which is one of the reasons I usually reduce the amount of sugar in recipes that I add spent grain to.

Early on in my attempts to use spent grain I read that one should typically start by substituting about half the whole wheat flour in a recipe for spent grain and see how that turns out. That is a good rule to follow unless there is no WW flour in the recipe to begin with. Another thing to think about is that there is a lot of husk material in there and if you make something really dry with spent grain flour it can be pretty uncomfortable to swallow. Pizza works because of all the sauce, and waffles work because of all the syrup. Things like homemade pretzels haven't worked so well for me, but if you serve it with something like beer cheese it might be good.