Blueberry Sunset Wheat Bread

Ingredients
  • 1/2 cup dried blueberries 
  • 1 1/4 cups Leinenkugel's Sunset Wheat beer*
  • 2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
  • 2 Tbs honey (or blueberry honey if you want to get crazy
  • 1/2 cup walnuts, toasted
  • 5 oz (about 1 cup) whole wheat flour
  • 10 oz (about 2 cups) all purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp  instant yeast
  • 1 1/2 tsp table salt
*Sunset Wheat is the perfect beer for this.  It has a nice blueberry flavor, some of the spice and taste of a witbier, but it is bottom fermented like a lager which adds to the delicious yeasty bread flavor.  That being said you can feel free to substitute some other lager or blueberry beer at your own risk.  
Instructions
Day 1:
  • Combine the first 4 ingredients in a small bowl in the order listed (this keeps the honey from sticking to the bottom of the bowl).  Allow to sit while preparing the rest of the ingredients.
  • You can toast the walnuts in a pan or an oven (at 350 degrees F) stirring frequently until the nuts begin to color and you can smell their aroma.
  • Combine the walnuts (after cooling) with the remaining ingredients in a medium sized bowl.
  • Add the wet ingredient to the dry, stirring until a shaggy ball forms.
  • Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest at room temperature for 12-18 hrs.
Next day:
  • Remove bread from bowl and knead 10-15 times, using just enough extra flour to keep bread from sticking to your hands or the work surface.
  • Form bread into a ball and place onto an approximately 18 inch piece of parchment paper that has been sprayed with cooking spray. 
  • Spray top of bread with cooking spray and cover lightly with plastic wrap.   Place on a plate or 10 inch skillet and allow to rise at room temperature for 2 hrs.
  • 30 minutes before bread is done rising preheat a dutch oven in an oven at 425 degrees F. 
  • Before baking sprinkle top of bread with flour and slash top of bread 1/2 inch deep with a sharp knife.
  • Picking up bread by the edges of the parchment, drop into dutch oven and put on the lid.  Cook at 425 degrees F for 30 minutes.
  • Remove lid from dutch oven and continue to cook for 15-25 minutes until a deep brown crust has formed.
  • Remove bread from dutch oven and cool on a rack for at least an hour before slicing and serving.  
Delicious with honey butter or blueberry honey butter (recipe will follow).