I was having a little braai on Monday instead of cooking – because why not? The decision was made to make roosterkoek instead of the usual braai bread.
The fact that I didn’t have any baker’s yeast was not a deterrent, because I have something better – harvested homebrew yeast.
I’m experimenting with two packets of yeast that I bought in May, pushing them to see how far they will go and what they will do.
The 3rd generation ale yeast nearly spoiled my latest home brew last week when after being pampered to life, it refused to do any work. A much healthier 2nd generation witbier yeast picked up the slack in what was supposed to be an oatmeal stout.
Oh, well.
Back to the braai – so I used a basic recipe for the roosterkoek that I got from Cook Sister:
- 300g white flour
- 5ml salt
- 15ml sugar
- 30ml sunflower oil
- enough water to help bring the consistency to something kneadable (less than a cup)
- Not to forget the all important yeast.
Seeing as how my witbier yeast are such hard workers, I made a small yeast starter with about 3 teaspoons of 2nd generation yeast left over from my KickAss IPA v2 (after an appropriate wait to thaw it, of course). It was laced with plenty of hops.
The sugar went into the starter and got comfortable whilst I prepared the other ingredients. Once everything was in one bowl, it was mixed to a nice consistency and kneaded for about 5 minutes, before being covered and left in the last slivers of sunlight.
It stood like that for an hour, but didn’t quite double. Mostly, I suspect, because the kitchen was too cold.
All was not lost – the ball of dough went into a pyrex bowl next to the braai while braa’ing the meat, and by the time that was done the dough ball was about twice its original size and ready for action.
Little would-be-buns went onto the braai to be toasted to perfection.
Hot off the braai with a smudge of butter and a dollop of jam added, it was delicious. What was very intriguing though was the bitter after-taste, which was distinctly hoppy, especially in the crust.
The subtle witbier yeast and, dare I say, IPA flavours that permeated the bread made it much more interesting than the simple flour and water combination that it was.
Suddenly home brewing has taken on another dimension.
Experiments. There will be more experiments.