# Spent Grain Anzac Biscuits



## phoenixdigital (20/4/13)

I have been thinking about reusing some of the grain in a bread or biscuits and as I was searching for a recipe today came across the idea of swapping out the oats in an Anzac biscuit recipe for some grain from the brew I just made. Being Anzac day next week it was even more appropriate.

I based it on this
http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/anzac-biscuits-L79.html

Note to anyone making them you definitely dont need the water as the grain is already wet. I ended up having to add more flour as it was really really wet.

Cooking in the oven now will post some pics in a bit.... and some tasting notes.


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## KingKong (20/4/13)

Looking forward to seeing and reading how this will go. My hedges are thriving from all the spent grain!


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## lukiferj (20/4/13)

Curious to see the results of this. Have thought about this a few times.


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## Moad (20/4/13)

Do you just throw them in the garden King Kong? Might make some biscuits tomorrow if they turn out alright.

Subscribing...


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## phoenixdigital (20/4/13)

Moad said:


> Do you just throw them in the garden King Kong? Might make some biscuits tomorrow if they turn out alright.
> 
> Subscribing...


WINNER!!!

Tasty and look great.





I added 1.5 times the oats they recommended in the recipe too.

The batter looks suspiciously wet but try a few test ones out and add more flour if you think it needs it. The extra flour might not be needed though as these are a little cake like.

Let us know how you go.

Keen to give some to all the girls who see us brewing and think the grain looks disgusting. Wont tell them prior to them eating them though.

Later on tonight a loaf of bread.

Edit: Also remember to flatten a bit with a fork prior to cooking. They dont mention it in the recipe.


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## KingKong (20/4/13)

Moad said:


> Do you just throw them in the garden King Kong? Might make some biscuits tomorrow if they turn out alright.
> 
> Subscribing...


Yep , empty into a bucket fill with water to cool and pour under my hedges. 



phoenixdigital said:


> WINNER!!!
> 
> Tasty and look great.
> 
> ...


So whats the recipe you recommend? Im really keen to give this a go.


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## phoenixdigital (20/4/13)

KingKong said:


> So whats the recipe you recommend? Im really keen to give this a go.


Link in the first post.


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## mmmyummybeer (20/4/13)

Good stuff. I use some of my spent grain to make into dog biscuits. I just make the mix on the fly with obviously grain a bit of flour, egg, oil, crushed garlic and a stock cube. They love them. I like the idea of anzac biscuits though and could see it working really well. I find it amazing that if you try the spent grain as it is it tends to stick to your teeth like pop corn skins, but once its cooked as in biscuits or bread they loose that stick to your teeth factor.


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## kezza (20/4/13)

i made these the other day but i found i needed a bit extra golden syrup to sweeten them back up as the grain sucks some sweetness out


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## phoenixdigital (20/4/13)

Well its been a lame Sat night in. But its been productive.

The bread sorta tastes a bit like crystal malt (Cause thats some of the grain in there). Tasty but crystal just isnt the expected flavour when you eat bread. Will have to feed to a non brewer and get their verdict.







Edit: DOH! Someone just told me I should have used beer yeast. What was I thinking not doing that?


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## KingKong (21/4/13)

Dough!


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## lukiferj (21/4/13)

Going to try making the biscuits later today. Just heating up strike water now.


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## lukiferj (21/4/13)

Turned out pretty nice. Definitely better than throwing the grain out.


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## Moad (21/4/13)

Im about to make them now although I had some wheat in my recipe, hope that doesn't affect it.

I also threw some under my hedges and have started a bit of a compost heap which I am hoping to use as soil for some hops in spring.


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## Moad (21/4/13)

Yep, brilliant!


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## digety (21/4/13)

I made a batch of these today, they taste brilliant. Thanks for the great idea!

I had some wheat in my recipe, no problems.


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## Moad (22/4/13)

Hey Phoenix what was the bread recipe? I've still got some grain left!


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## felten (22/4/13)

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Treberbrot

This is the bread recipe I use, but usually without the whole wheat flour. And it IS great with schmaltz. :icon_drool2:


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## phoenixdigital (22/4/13)

Moad said:


> Hey Phoenix what was the bread recipe? I've still got some grain left!


I bought a 10kg bag of this from woolies the other week for $18
http://laucke.com.au/our-products/home-baker-products/bread-mixes/crusty-white/

From what I have read you need bread (strong) flour which has more gluten than plain flour.



> Reason for strong flour - http://au.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081207215258AApTzcZ
> 
> What they are referring to as it's on flour is a high gluten in the flour which is bread flour. Gluten is the elastic and bread stretches so it holds the CO2 gas pockets that is manufactured by the yeast.


My I made this with

400g of Laucake Crusty White bread
1.4 tsp of dry yeast (use beer yeast once you mastered with normal yeast)
248g of water
2 loosely packed cups of spent grain.

I kneaded with a kenwood chef and a dough hook. If using one of these add the water very very slowly until it is kneading well. If you add too much the dough just sits on the dough hook and goes for a ride and never gets kneaded. I went through 3 test loaves when I first got this unit getting this right.

If you dont have one of these do it the old fashioned way by hand. Heaps of videos on youtube.

Let it rise in a warm place until double. Then bash/knock it down to let all the air out. Supposedly not doing this makes your bread taste really yeasty cause of all the yeast farts in it.

Then form and put in a bread tin or into whatever shape you are making. Let it rise again for 10-20 mins and cook at 220 deg C for 20-30 mins until it sounds hollow or looks nice and golden. Probably less time needed if your making smaller dinner rolls or differently shaped bread.


I bought one of these on ebay which supposedly makes bread a bit better.
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/8-x-4-3-x-4inch-Sandwich-Loaf-Pullman-Bread-Tin-Pan-Box-/120672123855?pt=AU_Cookware_Bakeware&hash=item1c189e7bcf

I think it serves two purposes.

Stops the bread rising above the top of the tin and gives you a nice square loaf
Keeps the steam inside the tin and gives a better result.

Dont give up if your first one is crap it took me many test loaves to master the basic techniques and not get brick like loaves of bread. Same as brewing really.

I am still not sold on this loaf as the brew I used the grain from had a lot of specialty grains. The loaf is very very flavoursome with crystal. Maybe I could just use less grain in the bread?

Let us know the results


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## brewbienewbie (22/4/13)

Thanks for these! I'll definitely give the bread a go. I've been looking for something to do with spent grain, it seems such a waste to throw it out. I tried putting it on the compost heap once but the rats went NUTS. Tore hell out of the compost bin and kicked up all kinds of a racket under the house. I figured they must've been getting drunk off the fermenting grains? In any case the missus was not happy.


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## phoenixdigital (22/4/13)

brewbienewbie said:


> Thanks for these! I'll definitely give the bread a go. I've been looking for something to do with spent grain, it seems such a waste to throw it out. I tried putting it on the compost heap once but the rats went NUTS. Tore hell out of the compost bin and kicked up all kinds of a racket under the house. I figured they must've been getting drunk off the fermenting grains? In any case the missus was not happy.


While its a good use for spent grain. I discovered while making both that you end up using stuff all grain for both. I reckon I used less than 1% of my entire grain bill making one loaf of bread and 32 anzac biscuits.

A heap is still going to end up in the bin. But at least some will be put to good use.


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## Moad (22/4/13)

Yeah I made two lots of the Anzac biscuits, I used 1.5 to 2 cups in each batch and it was still a VERY small portion of the grain.

I might try and make dog biscuits to use up more of it, I threw it in the green bin once and the maggots went crazy through it.

Probably the second most wasteful part of brewing to Water. Is there anyone than needs (not kneads) this stuff do you think?


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## brewbienewbie (24/4/13)

Here we go then: sourdough loaf with spent grains. It's bloody good!


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## kierent (2/5/13)

One question I'm wondering, are the husks a bit tough in the cooked product? Or is it like multigrain bread, they go soft after being cooked?


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## kierent (13/5/13)

To answer my own question after doing a batch last night, yep you do get a bit of husk in your mouth but it's good for you  I did a double batch to use more grain but it was so wet i ended up just putting it in a baking tray and making an anzac slice. A bit floury and definitely a different flavour to the usual anzacs but pretty good i reckon. The kids love it!


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## NickB (13/5/13)

I've recently been advertising on Freecycle (since my chooks died) for people waning chook food. Had a heap of responses, and you usually end up with a carton of eggs or similar If you find a regular.

Otherwise, have definitely though of dog bikkies and bread. May still give it a go!

Cheers


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## wbosher (13/5/13)

One of my wife's relatives has a few chooks, I like the idea using spent grain for the feed in return for some fresh farm eggs. What do you do, do you dry it out first? Or are they quite happy eating soggy grains?


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## phoenixdigital (13/5/13)

NickB said:


> I've recently been advertising on Freecycle (since my chooks died) for people waning chook food. Had a heap of responses, and you usually end up with a carton of eggs or similar If you find a regular.
> 
> Otherwise, have definitely though of dog bikkies and bread. May still give it a go!
> 
> Cheers


That sounds like a great idea. I might do the same.

Haven't we taken out most of the "good stuff" from the grain that the chickens would use for sustenance?

Would it be like giving the chickens a low carb meal?


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## kierent (14/5/13)

That's a point. I wondered that for the anzac bikkies actually, not that you eat anzacs for nutritional reasons. But I did wonder if there's much left in the grain. Any scientists here? From what I understand, the mash converts the starches to sugar which we then extract. The fibre would be left, what else is good in grain? Is carb different to starch or are they one and the same?


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## mr_wibble (23/5/13)

phoenixdigital said:


> From what I have read you need bread (strong) flour which has more gluten than plain flour.


Yeah it's got more gluten because it has a higher protein content (gluten is a protein composite).
You can check the average protein content in the nutritional information on the pack.

In my local supermarket there isn't a whole lot of difference between plain flour and bread flours, at most usually only a couple of percent.
Sometimes the organic plain flour has the same or more protein as the strong flour too.
(You can also get soft flour, with less protein, but I've never seen it in woolies)

The gluten forms a net which traps the gas bubbles from the yeast.


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## mr_wibble (23/5/13)

phoenixdigital said:


> That sounds like a great idea. I might do the same.
> 
> Haven't we taken out most of the "good stuff" from the grain that the chickens would use for sustenance?
> 
> Would it be like giving the chickens a low carb meal?


I think chooks know what's good for them and what's not.
For example, ours only really pick at white bread iff they're really hungry.

But for spent grain, they go crazy.

I can dump 7kg (dry weight) of spent grain out on the grass, and they little buggers hoover it up like there's no tomorrow.
Even when it's all gone, barely a stain on the grass, they're back the next day scratching for any left-overs.


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## MartinOC (29/5/13)

mmmyummybeer said:


> Good stuff. I use some of my spent grain to make into dog biscuits. I just make the mix on the fly with obviously grain a bit of flour, egg, oil, crushed garlic and a stock cube. They love them. I like the idea of anzac biscuits though and could see it working really well. I find it amazing that if you try the spent grain as it is it tends to stick to your teeth like pop corn skins, but once its cooked as in biscuits or bread they loose that stick to your teeth factor.


I'd advise a bit of a re-think of the dog-biscuit recipe. Garlic/onions etc. are harmful to dogs, even in small amounts.

http://www.petalia.com.au/Templates/StoryTemplate_Process.cfm?Story_No=257#ct-4

'Just the first link I found......


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