Vegan Spent Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies – homebrewing and baking!

This week I embarked (finally!) on my solo homebrewing adventures, starting a Strathcona Porter II, courtesy of goodies from Dan’s Homebrew Supply on East Hastings. As my airlock on my fermenter gurgles away happily, indicating some serious yeasty shenanigans inside, I turned my attention to what the heck to do with the spent grain – a by-product of brewing. The result? Vegan spent grain chocolate chip cookies!

Having googled a few things, I found a range of recipes, all of which called for spent grain flour. To produce said flour involves a lengthy process where the grain is carefully dried in a low temperature oven. Not wanting to wait seven hours until I could use my grain, I figured I’d experiment.

The Spent Grain

For the porter, I used two types of grain: British crystal and black patent. This grain mixture is dark brown and smells a little chocolatey, with a hint of caramel, unlike most spent grain which is lighter and smells a bit nutty. As such, I figured it might be good to use the grain to make chocolate chip cookie dough.

The Vegan Spent Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Happily, I can now report that I am apparently a genius, having baked the most delicious cookies with an incredible texture and depth of flavour. Seriously. These cookies are amazing and were super simple to make, taking just 30 minutes from having the idea to eating my first (of many) cookies.

Black patent malt was invented in England in 1817 and involves barley being kilned at around 200 degrees Celsius, resulting in carbonisation. These grains contribute to the black colour of porter and the acrid, ashiness of the flavour. British crystal malt is a high-nitrogen malt that produce a strong, sweet, toffee-type of flavour. Some of the sugars in crystal malts caramelise during the kilning process, meaning that they are no longer fermentable. This increases the sweetness of the beer and, perhaps, adds a little sweetness to baked goods made with left over grains that retain some of their sugars.

Without further ado, here’s the recipe, given with the caveat that I sort of just threw stuff in and added a little extra flour until I reached a splodgy sort of cookie batter consistency that could be safely table-spooned onto a baking tray lined with parchment without danger of dripping off the spoon.

Vegan Spent Grain Chocolate Chip Cookies – Recipe!

• 1 cup spent grain
• 1 tbsp cocoa
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup soy milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/3 cup dark choc chips.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

1. Add the spent grain to a food processor and pulse until no individual grains remain visible. Add the flour and cocoa powder and mix until combined (scraping down the sides as needed).
2. Meanwhile, mix the oil and sugar in a large mixing bowl using a fork or whisk. Mix in the milk and vanilla extract.
3. Add half of the flour mixture, along with the salt and baking soda and stir with a fork until combined. Add the remaining flour mixture and mix until mostly combined – some small lumps should be expected as the grain is probably still a bit grainy.
4. Fold in the chocolate chips and then spoon generous tablespoons of the mixture onto a baking tray, leaving about two inches between each cookie to allow for spread.
5. Bake for 12 minutes for a chewy, delicious cookie, or fifteen if you want them harder and crunchier.
6. Leave them to cool on the baking tray for 5 minutes before transferring the cookies to a cooling rack.
7. Devour cookies and marvel at your brilliance and frugal ways.

Tagged as: homebrew, recipe, recipes, wholefood, yeast-free

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