It has been my privilege for the last week to be the stay-at-home mom for a dear, darling friend whose wonderfully wisecracking husband underwent surgery to remove a cancerous lung. My presence allowed her to be where she needed to be without worrying unduly about her children. I can’t express the delight it gave me to bake chocolate chip cookies for after school snacks again! As involved as I was in volunteer opportunities and gratifying community service way back when, my favorite time of the day was always when my daughters arrived home from school and told me about their days while munching on a couple of warm cookies, fresh out of the oven. I miss those days.
I am pleased to say that our patient is out of ICU and on the mend and I am back home again but I left behind this high protein loaf, made with quinoa and tasty mocha porter beer, and slightly sweetened with brown sugar. The semi-sweet chocolate chips are optional, but I highly recommend their addition.
Many thanks to Jenni from Pastry Chef Online for her oatmeal porter bread recipe which I adapted to create this loaf and to Mireille from Chef Mireille's East West Realm for hosting this month’s edition of Bread Bakers. And an extra thank you to my Bread Bakers co-creator, Renee from Magnolia Days for creating the initial link list. We have a great bunch of quinoa breads for you today so make sure to scroll to the bottom of my recipe to see the links.
A note about quinoa: From what I have researched, quinoa is very high in protein but for our bodies to access the protein, it has to be either cooked or ground to open the seeds. If the seeds are used whole, they will pass through us just as they went in and we miss out on the benefits of the protein contained therein. The more you know!
Ingredients
For the dough:
1/4 cup or 60ml whole milk, plus 1-2 tablespoons more for brushing on the loaf before baking
3 1/2 cups or 440g flour plus a little extra for rolling the dough out
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
1/4 cup, packed, or 50g light brown sugar
1 cup or 200g quinoa (I used black quinoa but any sort will do nicely.)
1 cup or 240ml mocha porter (Mine had a strong coffee flavor with a background of slightly sweet stout. Imagine a coffee Guinness.)
1/4 cup or 60ml canola oil plus a little extra for greasing the bowl and bread pan
1/2 teaspoon salt
7/8 cup or 145g (or more - you could put a whole cup but that's all I had) semi-sweet chocolate chips
Method
Warm your milk in a microwave or on the stovetop until it is quite warm to the touch but you can still hold your finger in it for several seconds comfortably. For those who like to use a thermometer, you are looking for between 125-130°F or 51-55°C.
Put one cup or a little less than a third of the flour into the bowl of your stand mixer, along with the sugar, and spoon the yeast into the middle.
Pour in the warm milk, right on the yeast. Give the bowl a little swish to mix in some of the flour and sugar. Allow to rest for about five minutes. The milk should activate the yeast and become frothy. If it doesn’t, start over with fresh yeast.
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| Starting to bubble up. It's a good thing. |
While the yeast is proving, grind your quinoa using a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder, if you have one.
Add the rest of the flour to the yeast bowl, along with the ground quinoa, salt and oil then pour in the porter. The extra four ounces are for the baker.
Mix well with your bread hook and keep mixing until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Scrape the dough off of the bottom of the bowl and flip it over. Continue mixing with the bread hook for another 3-5 minutes, scraping the bowl occasionally and flipping the dough over.
Scrape the dough into a ball in the bottom of your bowl and drizzle in a little oil around the ball. Turn the ball in the oil to coat lightly. Cover with a towel and put in a warm place for the first rise of about 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, grease your standard loaf pan with some oil.
Punch the dough down and turn it out onto a clean, lightly floured surface. Use your hands to pat it into a small rectangle. Sprinkle on the chocolate chips.
Roll the dough up lengthwise and put it seam-side down into the prepared loaf pan.
Cover very loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm place for about half an hour. When the half hour is almost up, preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.
When you are ready to bake, remove the plastic and brush the loaf lightly with the milk.
Put the loaf in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 350°F or 180°C.
Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Cover with foil if it is browning too quickly but isn’t cooked inside. Once again, if you are a thermometer using type, and I highly recommend you become one, you are looking for an internal temperature between 195-200°F or 90-93°C for doneness.
Allow the loaf to cool for a few minutes in the pan and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
Enjoy!
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Have you ever baked with quinoa? If not, we hope you will give it a try!
- Eggnog Cranberry and White Chocolate Quick Bread by Laura at Baking in Pyjamas
- Garlic Multigrain Bread by Kelly at Passion Kneaded
- Maple Walnut Quinoa Quick Bread by Renee at Magnolia Days
- Mocha Porter Quinoa Loaf by Stacy at Food Lust People Love
- No Knead Quinoa Bread by Karen at Karen's Kitchen Stories
- Pan de Quinoa y Miel by Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla
- Quinoa and Millet Bread by Anshie at Spiceroots
- Quinoa Poolish Baguettes by Adam at Bakers and Best
- Quinoa Oatmeal Bread by Cindy at Cindy's Recipes and Writings
- Quinoa Pumpkin Muffins by Kathya at Basic N Delicious
- Red Quinoa Sourdough Bread by Sophie at Sweet Cinnamon & Honey
#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.
If you are a food blogger and would like to join us, just send an email with your blog URL to foodlustpeoplelove@gmail.com.
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