Barley Water Bread

September 01, 2015


My granny loved all kinds of good housewife's recipes. She would have liked this Barley Water Bread too because it helps me to use up two leftover ingredients. Nothing gets wasted in this house!

Barley water is one of our most loved summer drinks. Usually it's served with ice cubes and lemon slices to beat the summer heat. But, a batch of Barley water means some leftover barley. And, if you've ever made cheese, no doubt you know how much whey there is afterwards. No wonder I often have some leftover whey too. This bread comes to my rescue.

If you don't want to make Barley water, just boil 4 tbsp pearl barley and 5 dl water. Place the pearl barley and water in a pan. Bring the water to the boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Pour mixture through a sieve to separate the barley grains from the water. (You can do this the day before.) 
If you don't have whey, replace it with water.

Barley water

2 L 

4 tbsp pearl barley 
1,5 L water 
juice of 3 lemons 
3 tbsp honey 
7 dl mineral water 
ice cubes 
lemon slices 

Place the pearl barley and water in a pan. Bring the water to the boil and then simmer for 30 minutes. Pour mixture through a sieve to separate the barley grains from the Barley water. 

Add the lemon juice and honey. Stir and leave to cool. 

Add the mineral water. 

Garnish with lemon slices and ice cubes, and serve. 

Barley Water Bread

2 breads

5 dl (500 g) whey (or water)
25 g fresh yeast
the leftover pearl barley
1,5 tsp salt
2 dl (100 g) fine, light rye flour (bolted rye flour)
about (850 g) 13 dl fine, dark wheat flour (yeast bread wheat flour)
2 tbsp cooking oil 

Stir the yeast, leftover barley, salt and rye flour into the cold whey. Mix in the wheat flour. Knead the dough for 5 minutes. Add the cooking oil (and flour if necessary) and keep kneading another 5 minutes or until the dough is smooth and feels bouncy and elastic.

Cover and leave to rise at room temperature for 2 hours.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it gently. Divide it in half. Shape each half into a long loaf and twist. Put the breads on a parchment paper. Cover and leave to rise at room temperature for 30 minutes. 

Preheat it the oven to 250°C. Bake for 10 minutes. Turn the temperature down to 200°C and bake for a further 20 minutes.

Let cool on a wire rack. 

These breads will keep well at room temperature, but you can also freeze them.

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2 kommenttia

  1. I would really like to now what is dark wheat flour, and yeast bread wheat flour. As for the leftover barley, how much is sufficient? Sorry, I was quite confused with this recipe.

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    Replies
    1. Dark wheat flour, also known as yeast bread wheat flour is similar to whole wheat flour, the coarse dark wheat flour contains 75 % of the wheat kernel, including part of the bran layer. It is darker in colour and contains more vitamins and minerals than regular white wheat flour. The protein content of Finnish dark/yeast bread wheat flour is about 14 %.

      As for the leftover barley, I'm using all what comes from the Barley Water (4 tbsp pearl barley).

      I hope this helps to clarify the recipe.

      Happy baking! :-)

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