Spent Grain Spice Biscuits

Lemonkerdz was once a baker by profession. Now she enjoys baking at home for family and friends.

Make Biscuits Out of Spent Grain

Do you homebrew or know someone that does?

I started homebrewing making Voodoo Ranger clone IPA from grains. The first time I used grains I had no idea how to use the spent grain. Living in an inner-city apartment I had no compost heap or chickens I could feed it to—so I did the thing many homebrewers do and threw it in the garbage. Yes I did, and I still feel bad about it now.

Many brewers and microbreweries send spent grains off to a local farm or it gets recycled into a compost heap somewhere making gardeners and their plants very happy. I knew there must be some other way of using these grains to make me just as happy as the plants, gardener and animals by transforming these spent grains into something delicious.

How to Turn Spent Grain Into Flour

First of all, you need to turn those grains into flour. This is easy but it takes time. How?

1. After brewing, squeeze as much liquid out of the spent grain, spread a layer of them onto baking sheets and put them in the oven on its lowest setting to slowly dry them out. This process will take about 4-6 hours.
2. When completely dry, blend them into flour with a Vitamix/food processor. I use the Mockmill 100 grain mill, which is so much quicker and cleaner.
3. Pass the milled grain through a fine sieve. Now you have your brew flour.

How Can I Use My Brew Flour?

I am still doing experiments with this flour to get some recipes together to share with you, but please feel free to leave a comment below if you have other uses for it.

As I have been making lots of sourdough bread, I find you can add 100g to a 400g recipe (300g bread flour plus 100g brew flour) and it gives your loaf a nice golden colouring during baking.

The best way to use brew flour is in these spent grain spice biscuits that have the texture of a luxury shortbread biscuit that goes great with a cup of coffee or tea.

Please share this recipe with any homebrewer you know, or if you have a microbrewery close by why not ask them if you could have a couple of kilos. I'm sure they would be more than pleased to help you out, and they may also be interested in what you are going to do with it.

Cook Time

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup / 2.5oz all-purpose flour, sifted
• 1/2 cup / 2.5 oz spent grain flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, ground
• 1/4 teaspoon ginger, ground
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice, ground
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves, ground
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup /113g / 4 oz soft butter
• 1/4 cup / 2 oz white sugar
• 1/8 cup / 1oz brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Cream together sugar and butter in a stand mixer bowl.
2. Add all other ingredients to the creamed butter and mix in a stand mixer to form a thick dough. Remove the dough and wrap it in plastic film or a ziplock bag and refrigerate for 45 minutes (or place in the freezer for around 25 to 30 minutes).
3. Preheat the oven to 170c before rolling the dough.
4. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thick, cut using a biscuit cutter, and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment or a silicone sheet to prevent sticking during the bake.
5. Bake in a preheated oven at 170c for 25 to 30 minutes. Tip: Once baked, turn the oven off and leave biscuits in the oven using the residual heat to crisp them up a little more. (Remember each oven is different so do keep an eye on them.)
6. Remove form the oven. The biscuits will still be very soft. Leave to cool before transferring to a cooling rack.
7. Make a cup of tea or coffee and enjoy your biscuits.

More Recipes

• Traditional Shortbread Recipe
  Shortbread has been around for a long time, but now bakers are starting to adjust the basic recipe to add different flavours. Whatever your choice, a basic, plain recipe is the best way to start.
• Crunchy Ginger Snap Cookie Recipe
  Looking for that elusive ginger biscuit/cookie recipe? Here it is, with a great hit of ginger and a wonderful crunch and snap.

© 2021 lemonkerdz