spent grains Archives

I brewed a Northern English Brown ale, and as I was cleaning out my mash tun, a light bulb light popped on in my head. I went inside, grabbed a few cookie sheets, and turned on the ovens to 200 degrees. That light bulb had my brain processing what I can do with all of this spent grain. I had about 1/3 of my spent grains drying in the oven. Every so often I would stir the grains around and let the hot steam escape from underneath the almost dried top layer.

As the wheels were still turning in my head, I knew I wanted to make biscuits for breakfast in the morning. Boom! I told my wife that is what I was going to do. I got that response that I knew she was worried. Even with the skeptical wifey, I moved onward and adapted my normal buttermilk biscuit recipe.

Spent Grain Buttermilk Biscuits

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup dried spent grain
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp very cold unsalted butter
Enough buttermilk to bring mixture to a dough

Procedure

Heat your oven to 425 degrees.

I used my food processor for everything up until I added the buttermilk this go around. Feel free to do this by hand and do not be afraid to get your hands all in this. There is a feel to biscuits and this will help you achieve the best texture.

If you haven’t milled your dried spent grain yet, do so now. I just milled in the food processor. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix well.

Cut the butter into 1/4″ cubes and then cut the butter into flour mixture. If using food processor, pulse approximately 15 times. You should have a flaky powder right now.

Flaky powder as I was putting the buttermilk in

I’m sure you noticed I didn’t put an amount of buttermilk you need. Some days I need 3/4 cup some days I need 1 1/8 cups. I don’t measure. Just use enough buttermilk to form a dough. The dough should be soft and not too sticky. If you feel the dough is too sticky feel free to knead in some more flour.

Drop the dough like it’s hot onto a floured surface

After the dough has come together, drop it on a floured surface. I like my biscuits to have layers. Gently use the heel of your hands to flatten the dough- I don’t even use our rolling pin any more. Fold the dough into thirds and flip it over and turn it 180 degrees. Repeat this 2-3 more times. This is purely optional, but it creates great layers!

Now for a hard decision. How big do you want your biscuits? I think the biscuit cutter I use is two inches which yielded 12 biscuits. Ok ok as you see in the pic below, it is 11 biscuits and a baby one, this one is for testing purposes only.

Hurry up and cook! I’m hungry!

Throw them into your nicely heated 425 degree oven for 12-15 minutes depends on your oven. If your oven heats unevenly like mine, halfway through, rotate the pan so they are evenly brown.