Successful Spent Grain Granola

Months ago, I attempted to make Spent Grain Granola and basically failed. And maybe, just maybe gave up a little.

But a few months later, with entirely too many bags of spent grains taking up my freezer space, it became clear that I was going to have to give it a go.

And, while I still have a lot to learn to make perfect Spent Grain Granola, this batch far exceeded the first!

Ingredients/Directions:

Adapted from Healthy with Heather

Squeeze out excess moisture from 4 cups of Spent Grains. Preheat oven to 350 F (177 C) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or tin foil. In a large bowl, mix together the grains, 2 Tbsp. Sesame Seeds, 2 Tbsp. Flax-seeds, 1/2 cup Brown Rice Syrup (or honey, or maple syrup) and 1/4 cup Vegetable Oil (or 2 Tbsp. Coconut Oil). Separately, mix together 1/3 cup Wheat Flour, 1/4 tsp. Salt and any seasonings you may like such as cinnamon etc. (not too much, the recipe I referenced originally, called for 3 Tbsp of Cinnamon which I'm finding to be overwhelming). Mix the dry ingredients with the wet and spread out onto a baking sheet. Bake 40-60 minutes stirring every 20 minutes, you want it to stay golden and beautiful, so if it looks like it's getting to dark, stop at the 40 minute mark otherwise keep going! Reduce heat to 275 F (135 C) and bake an additional 20-30 minutes, this is when you want it to dry out, but not really cook any more, stir every 20 minutes. Remove from oven and cool completely before storing in an airtight container in the refrigerator. At the reduced temperature time or after completely baking the granola you can add some craisins or other dried fruit and some nuts if it suits your fancy. However, I added craisins at the beginning of this recipe and ended up with crispy, dark dried cranberries, better to wait it out!

Anyway, that's the most basic spent grain granola and it pairs quite nicely with home-made yogurt if I do say so myself ^^

Pumpkin and Banana Spent Grain Dog Treats

I care about my dog and her health, a lot really.

I also have a husband who brews beer.

A husband who recently purchased and set up a kegerator.

Spurring a flurry of brewing.

And an abundance of spent grains.

So, I took my basic recipe for Spent Grain Dog Treats and made a couple of adaptations to get these Pumpkin and Banana Spent Grain Dog Treats - which the Lady is devouring.

In a large bowl mix 4 cups of spent grain, 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of pumpkin, 1 mashed banana and 2 eggs - you might need some additional flour to account for the moisture in the pumpkin and banana - the dough should be quite thick and require some muscle to stir. 

Next, cut into shapes or just press into a cookie sheet.  If you press into cookie sheet, use a butter knife to separate the biscuits into bit-size/treat-size pieces for your dog and cook at 350 for 30-45 minutes. Remove from oven and break apart the biscuits (unless you already cut them into shapes). 

Return to oven, reduce heat to 250 and bake for a couple of hours until they are completely dried out. 

Serve up to your pup and watch them enjoy!

No Bake Oats and Spent Grain Bars

I saw these No Bake Granola Bars on Pinterest recently and was confident I needed to give them a shot using up some spent grains. As is common with spent grains, they add a lot of moisture. I didn't perfect this, and should have actually prepared the Granola Bars without making so many substitutes so I could get a better feel for their texture/consistency and would have a better idea on how to adjust the recipe upon adding spent grains. However, I think were I to try again, I'd just add a bit more oatmeal - probably actually what the original recipe calls for and just add spent grains as if they were flaxseed, so a couple tablespoons or so - rather than trying to make a primarily spent grain bar - but then again, who knows, spent grains are more common in our household than oats.

Ingredients/Directions: (this is how I plan to try it the next time!)

In a large bowl, stir together 2 cups of oats, 1 cup of popped rice (or rice crispies other puffy cereal) and 2-4 Tbsp. Spent Grains. In a small pot, melt 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup Honey and 1/3 cup Brown Sugar over medium heat until it begins to bubble. Reduce heat and cook an additional 2 minutes. Remove from heat and add 1/2 tsp. Vanilla. Pour this mixture over oats, grains and cereal, mix well. Pour into jelly roll pan and pack it in TIGHT! Cool at room temperature 2 hours, wrap in plastic and continue to store at room temperature - the refrigerator will supposedly make them hard as a rock, no good.

Overnight Oats with Spent Grains

If you spend any time at all on Pinterest, sure as anything, you have seen Overnight Oats in adorable Mason Jars being posted all-over the place, and for good reason!

In an attempt to keep up with eating hearty, healthy, filling breakfasts, I decided to jump on the train and am incredibly thankful I did because this is quite possibly one of the easiest breakfasts I've made yet.

Ingredients/Directions:

In a jar or small tuperware bowl, mix together 1/2 cup Rolled Oats, 2 Tbsp. Spent Grains, Sprinkle of Flaxseed, 1/2 cup Plain Yogurt and 2/3 cups milk. Let set overnight (or I've read a minimum of 30 minutes). In the morning serve with your choice of fruits, jams, spices, honey, peanut butter, etc. Make additional jars/bowls per mouth to feed. (Spent grains and flaxseed not required, most basic oats can be made with jut oats, yogurt and milk!)

Nutella Chocolate Chip Spent Grain Cookies

First inspired to use Spent Grains in cookies with the success of Choco-Chip Spent Grain Pumpkin Cookies, I quickly moved onto Peanut Butter Spent Grain Cookies. But these, my friends...these are the end all, be all of Spent Grain cookies and I don't know if another Pumpkin or Peanut Butter cookie will find it's place in our 'cookie jar.' Nutella is just too magical. And chocolate chips are always a plus.

Ingredients/Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit (177 Celsius) Combine 2 sticks butter, 1 cup brown sugar and 3/4 cups white sugar until fluffy. Add 3/4 - 1 cup Nutella depending on flavor preference, 2 eggs and 1 tsp. vanilla and beat until combined. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, and 1 tsp baking powder. Stir in 3 cups of Spent Grains (drained of moisture to the best of your ability). If the dough is too wet and sticky at this point (because generally spent grains hold a bit of moisture) add some flour and mix until you acquire a dough that can hold it's shape and isn't too wet, I usually add an additional 1-2 cups of flour. Next stir in at least 1 cup of chocolate chips and plop dough onto a greased cookie sheet and bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown and beautiful. This always makes a huge batch of dough, so it's also nice to simply freeze pre-made balls of dough so you can enjoy warm, chocolaty cookies any night of the week.

Spent Grain Pancakes

Spent grains are becoming increasingly conquerable and perfect for any and every bread-like, breakfast dish. Pancakes were no exception.

As is common in 519 kitchen, measurements were not to acurately kept but rather, I based everything on consistency of the pancake batter which I like to be thin enough to spread but thick enough to hold enough shape that my pancakes cook up to be thick and hearty.

For this batch specifically, I used Bisquick - following the directions on the back of the box, adding a cup of damp spent grains and adjusting consistency with milk, eggs, or additional Bisquick/flour depending on how things look.  From here, consider a tsp. of Vanilla, a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg or allspice, some chopped walnuts or almonds or a mashed banana or two.

Griddle the dough up til golden brown and serve with your favorite pancake toppings.

Peanut Butter Spent Grain Cookies

When I made these chocolate-chip and pumpkin spent grain cookies, I considered that I would soon experiment with making them into an all peanut butter cookie using only spent grain rather than a mix of spent grain and oatmeal. 

Well dear readers, I have made a Spent Grain Peanut Butter Cookie and it was fantastic! (If not entirely overloaded with fiber ^.~)

As should be expected, I'm loving these grains and the way they are motivating me to continue creating and experimenting in the kitchen, especially in the baking department. There is something entirely satisfying about creating your own cookie recipe, empowering really, but maybe that's just me...

Ingredients/Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit (177 Celsius) Combine 2 sticks butter, 1 cup brown sugar and 3/4 cups white sugar until fluffy.  Add 3/4 - 1 cup peanut butter depending on flavor preference, 2 eggs and 1 tsp. vanilla and beat until combined. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder, shake of cinnamon, and a dash of nutmeg (if you so desire). Stir in 3 cups of Spent Grains (drained of moisture to the best of your ability. Also note, I used 4 cups because that's the amount I have frozen per bag, that just requires me to use more flour to gain the consistency necessary). If the dough is too wet and sticky at this point (because generally spent grains hold a bit of moisture) add some flour and mix until you acquire a dough that can hold it's shape and isn't too wet. If you wish, you can stir in some chocolate chips or nuts or whatever your heart desires and finally plop dough onto a greased cookie sheet and bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown and beautiful.

For me, these cookies were incredibly delecate and remained soft the entire week or two we had them within our reach. 

Spent Grain Crackers

Having mastered the Spent Grain Dog Treat, toyed with Spent Grain Granola (still need to perfect that one) and learned to incorporate the grains into Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, it was time to seek out yet again a way to use these lovely little leftovers from Mike's brewing adventures...and this time, we get crackers! Crackers that taste insanely like wheat thins!

I found a number of recipes but ended up using the one posted at Acute Cuisine

In a food processor pulse one cup of wet spent grain for 30 seconds or until finely chopped. Mix together with 1 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour, 1/2 cup Water, 2 Tbsp Sugar or Honey, 2 Tbsp Vegetable Oil and 1/2 tsp. Salt.
Turn out onto floured surface and knead until dough is smooth and shiny, not sticky. Add water or flour as needed. Let rest at room temperature for at least 30minutes and as long as overnight.
Roll out dough to desired thickness (I go around 1/8 inch) and cut into crackers. Bake for 20-25m at 300 degrees until golden brown and crisp. Leave on cookie sheet to cool- crackers will continue to crisp up there.
If you want toppings on your crackers, you can egg-wash them before baking and top with sesame seeds, whole spent grain or other seeds. For toppings like salt, pepper, cinnamon sugar, spray the crackers with a quick shot of oil (Pam will work) right out of the oven and sprinkle.
Makes ~3dozen

We served ours with some Mild Cheddar and enjoyed opening Christmas gifts with the family!

Spent Grain Lady Treats (a.k.a. Dog Treats)

With Mike's brewing continuing in full force, 519 Kitchen has been blessed with an abundance of spent grain (that's the grain such as pilsner, wheat, caramunich, etc. that's used to give beers their unique flavors and characters).  This grain is generally thrown out by brewers or used for composting projects, but of course, in the Harrington household there is greater joy to be found in discovering ways to use it up.  You may have seen that I failed at making granola with this first batch of spent grain, luckily, my second experiment: dog treats, was a huge success (as evidenced by Lady's eagerness to chow down on these morsels). Best thing about this recipe...it's so easy.

In a large bowl mix 4 cups of spent grain, 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of peanut butter and 2 eggs - it's one heck of a thick dough, but use your muscles and you'll get through it.

Next, cut into shapes or just press into a cookie sheet.  If you press into cookie sheet, use a butter knife to separate the biscuits into bit-size/treat-size pieces for your dog and cook at 350 for 30-45 minutes. Remove from oven and break apart the biscuits (unless you already cut them into shapes).

Return to oven, reduce heat to 250 and bake for a couple of hours until they are completely dried out.

If you're feeling spunky, go ahead and test out a biscuit prior to completely drying it out - not to bad for a dog treat!

She's one lucky Lady!

Choco-Chip Spent Grain Pumpkin Cookies

Pumpkin during fall and especially as Thanksgiving approaches is homey and perfect, especially when you're feeling a little too distant from the friends and family you love.

I was of course inspired by a Pinterest find and was so thrilled with the way these turned out, as were my co-workers and friends whom I 'reluctantly' shared them with.  The original recipe at Petite Kitchenesse doesn't involve spent grain, rather it just calls for oatmeal.  However, I used some spent grain in these, which worked out brilliantly and I'm quite confident I could use even more and still have a delicious cookie. I'm hoping to play around with the recipe soon, maybe foregoing pumpkin and throwing in some peanut butter or bananas or Nutella - anything really to use up all these spent grains (leftover grains from my husband's brewing process) we've been producing.

Ingredients/Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 Fahrenheit (177 Celsius) Combine 2 sticks butter, 1 cup brown sugar and 3/4 cups white sugar until fluffy (or combined if you accidentally melt the butter, not that I would know from experience). Add 3/4 cups pumpkin puree (or a full cup if that's what you thawed from the freezer), 2 eggs and 1 tsp. vanilla and beat until combined. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tsp salt, 1 tsp baking powder, 2 tsp cinnamon, 2 tsp ginger, 1 tsp cloves and a dash of nutmeg.  Stir in 2 cups of oats and 1 cup of spent grain. If the dough is too wet and sticky at this point (because generally spent grains hold a bit of moisture) add some flour and mix until you acquire a dough that can hold it's shape and isn't too wet. Finally add 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips, plop dough onto a greased cookie sheet and bake 12-15 minutes until golden brown and beautiful.