The Cupcake Bloke has done it again with this perfectly baked bread, ideal for sandwiches.
I wanted to create a bread that goes very well with cooked ham and charcuterie. My father was a butcher, so it’s only natural that he was the inspiration for this recipe. He loves a pint of Smithwick and with a surname like Herterich I had to look to Germany for inspiration.
I used rye flour and lots of seeds, like so many good Germans breads. I love this bread served with ham cooked in honey and mustard with a good salted butter, pickles and mustard.
Pass the Kölsch – prost!
Recipe for rye bread, beer and honey
Makes 1 loaf of 900 g (2 lb)
Ingredients:
– melted butter, to grease the mold
– 300g dark rye flour
– 150 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting the mold
– 100g pumpkin seeds, plus extra to sprinkle on top
– 1 teaspoon of soda bread
– 1 teaspoon of salt
– 250 ml buttermilk
– 250ml of beer
– 75g of honey
– 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C rotating heat. Prepare a 900 g cake tin by brushing it lightly with melted butter and dusting it with a little flour.
Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix gently.
In a separate pitcher, whisk together all the wet ingredients with a fork, then combine with the dry ingredients.
Pour batter into prepared pan and sprinkle oatmeal on top.
Bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour, then remove the bread from the pan and return it to the oven, directly on the oven rack, for another 5 minutes.
To check for doneness, tap the bottom of the bread – it should sound hollow when fully cooked.
Remove from oven and wrap in a clean kitchen towel while it cools to prevent the crust from getting too tough.
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“Bake: traditional Irish pastry with modern twistsby Graham Herterich, published by Nine Bean Rows, is available from all good bookstores and many independent retailers across Ireland as well as online at ninebeanrowsbooks.com.
Graham Herterich.
Graham Herterich learned to cook from an early age alongside his grandmother and developed his love affair with baking. He continued his Culinary Arts training at the Waterford Institute of Technology and his studies included stays at well-known restaurants and hotels such as Kilkee Castle, Marlfield House, Mount Juliet, Chapter One, Peacock Alley and The Commons. Graham briefly left the industry to spend two years in the Carmelite community before returning at the age of 21, eventually founding The Cupcake Bloke in 2012 and opening his first retail store, The Bakery in Rialto, Dublin, 2018. Graham is passionate about flavor and quality while bringing an element of fun to his food. “Bake: Traditional Irish Baking with Modern Twists” is his first book.
