Dark Red Wine Bread
I was tempted for a long time to make a bred with dark red wine which we produce in Slovenia. This bread is my second attempt to make this kind of bread.
Here are the instructions for those who would like to make bread with red wine:
1.) Take a recipe for the bread you think you would like to "convert" to wine bread. No changes in the procedure.
2.) Instead of adding water add wine reduction - simmer the wine for few minutes that you get rid of alcohol. This will likely change the color of the wine. Then cool the wine and use it instead of water. If you want you can replace just a part of water with wine but this will definitely result in less intensive color of the crumb..
3.) Be careful with hydration as the wine will have influence on the gluten development so I recommend that you start initially with lower hydration (65-68%).
The rest of the procedure is the same. This bread was leavened with yest water made from tomato and basil which is really very strong. My starter (mixture of 50g of yeast water and 50g of white flour) doubled in two hours.
Happy baking and enjoy experimenting.
Joze
Comments
The wine really adds a nice color to the crumb and flavor too I suppose.
The bread has a taste of the wine, but not so strong as one would imagine. Actually we had discussion that there would be possible to get even more taste by adding some spices like when you prepare mulled wine. But I have to prove this first.
In my first attempt I haven't made a wine reduction so I used a "raw" wine and the color was even better. However, the alcohol nearly killed the yeast and LAB and it took whole day that the loaf would be ready for baking.
Happy baking Pal!
Joze
that is fantastic ! Where in Slovenia ? (just wondering from another southern slav - in fact there's a town in White Carniola with my surname)
Funny, this is a wine called "gemaj" which is very old variety which is forbidden to cultivate. People usually have several wine trees around their house. So this wine comes from "Štajerska" region close to Maribor.
Happy baking, kendalm!
Joze
Thanks for this! What does it taste like?
It definitely have a taste of wine, not very strong but you can easily distinguish that taste.
Happy baking Colin2
Joze
This looks really neat. Does it change the flavor at all or is it just a color thing?
Definitely it changes the taste as well! Not so much, but enough that you taste the taste of wine!
Happy baking SourdoughRules!
Joze
My one and only red wine bread was a disaster! I didn't boil off the alcohol and it killed off the e=wee beasties and I got a bread with zero ferment and rise. This one turned out great and using YW too! Excellent crumb! Very nice indeed Joc. How did the grand kids like this one?
Happy baking
Oh, Dab, I am quite happy that I was able to help you at least once as I have learned so much from you. As I wrote in my answer to Pal (the first comment) I did the same mistake the very first time when trying to make this bread. Luckily I used just 2/3 of wine and 1/3 of water so I nearly stopped the fermentation but very slowly it recovered and within 12 hours (twice as much as normal) I got the bread with even better color. In the answer to Pal I also published the picture of that bread and the crumb was not so bad.
My grand kids did't get this one for tasting. It was just for grand parents :-)
Happy baking Dab!
Joze
My first and last attempt with raw wine. Think I'll be trying this soon.
Loaf looks fantastic! So light you might have to tie it down to the cutting board to keep it from floating away.
Perhaps a concord grape wine sounds like the ideal adult PB&J. (Peanut butter and jelly ...filled Berliner?). I can't find anything Concord grape. They are popular in Korea though. Protected from birds and sold like gold nuggets.
I got a local dry red, a Zweigelt.
Hubby says, "Oh no, don't tell me you're gonna turn good wine into bread?"
"Perhaps good wine into good bread. Just a little loaf." ...or maybe a focaccia with tiny tomatoes and fresh basil...
We produce several really dark red wines in Slovenia in the regions close to Adriatic Sea where the conditions for wine growing are almost ideal. However, this wine is from another region where mostly white wines are produced ("Štajerska" in translation Styiria which extends from Austrian Styria more to the south). This is not a typical wine for this region but has really a very strong dark red color. So that was the reason why I have chosen it.
Just try it and make a reduction of wine first what will significantly change (ease) the fermentation process.
Happy baking and experimenting Mini Oven!
Joze
I'm referring to both its openness and colour.
Red wine is seldom used in my cooking since its flavour kind of disappeared in the resulting dish. However, I love the taste of wine wine in food. Do you think I could use similar approach when subbing white wine for red wine instead?
Thanks for the useful tips!
Of course you can use white wine as well but there will be almost no color effect. You will just get the taste of wine added to the taste of bread. So the result will not have any "visual effect".
Happy baking Elsie_iu!
Joze
when reducing the wine, I lost over half my liquids. 300g wine reduced to 132g. Just a heads up to double the wine before boiling. Does that sound about right?
You don't need to simmer it for long time, just few minutes to get rid of alcohol. When it comes to boil just try to fire the steam with a match to see if there is still some alcohol in the stem. If it doesn't fire you can just stop heating it and let it cool down. It is like you would flambé some food :-). Of course you will end up with a slightly smaller amount. If not enough according to your recipe, then just add water.
Happy baking Mini oven!
Joze
I can't taste the wine. My red wine is so dark light doesn't shine through it, and that's before reduction but my crumb is not so dark as yours. I burnt (or turned into crispy critters) the first pan trying to get a darker crust. I let this second pan loaf cool over the first pan to soften the previous loaf and covered them, trapping them inside their pans together. Herbal cream chees covered the crust anyway before eating, just need a decorative way to spread the cheese. Chopped basil on top and served with the rest of the wine on this slowly cooling warm summer night.
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