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What is Spent Grain?
Spent grain is the leftover malted barley (plus any other malted grains used) after the mashing stage of brewing has been completed and the grains have been sparged (hot water has been ran through them to release any residual wort).
After sparging, the spent grains are scooped out of the mash tun and can either be discarded or, more commonly, used in recipes or as animal feed (animals go nuts over fresh spent grain!!).
This below is fresh spent grain, within an hour of Chris giving it to me. Do you notice the husks?
I did squeeze some liquid out by simply applying pressure with my fist, but for the most part it remained quite moist.
If you do not have fresh spent grain at your disposal you can use cooked hulled barley (whole grain barley) instead.
It will bring a similar texture to your cookie dough and it has a pleasant nutty flavor similar (even though not as robust) to that of malted barley spent grain. Either use the instructions on the package for cooking the hulled barley or follow the ones provided in the recipe card below.
The rest of the ingredients are very straightforward. I used classic Kahlua, rum and coffee flavored, but you can absolutely use a different flavor or even Bailey's if you are so inclined.
These spent grain cookies turn out amazingly fluffy, yet you will not fail to taste the grains that dot them throughout. They make their own wholesomely chewy contribution to the texture. Imagine fresh baked biscuits, but sweet and filled with chewy grain bits. And the coffee and rum flavored infusion of the Kahlua partners so very well with the faint nuttiness of the spent grain. Plus, there are the chocolate chips further sweetening the experience.
Actually, these are not overly sweet cookies. You can increase the brown sugar to boost the sweetness level, but the resulting texture will not be as fluffy/cakey.
Learn how to make Spent Grain Flour and utilize the fresh spent grain you cannot use right away.
Pairing wise, I would either go with hot coffee with a shot of Kahlua:) or a porter/stout. The cookies are fun to dunk in either of the two beverage options. In case you have respect for dunking. I love to dunk my cookies.
Recipe
Spent Grain Cookies with Chocolate Chips and Kahlua
Ingredients
- 1 stick unsalted butter melted
- 1 ½ cup spent grain *see below for substitute grain, cooked hulled barley
- ⅓ cup Kahlua original flavor or substitute with coffee porter reduced by half over medium heat, then cooled off
- ¾ cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs beaten
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- ½ cup chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a mixing bowl combine the melted butter, beaten eggs, brown sugar, Kahlua and vanilla. Mix well.
- Stir in the spent grain.
- Add the flour, salt and baking powder and stir it in using a fork.
- Fold in the chocolate chips.
- Spoon over parchment paper lined cookie sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 425°F.
Karen
Hi - I tried these cookies recently. While they are delicious, I realized I'm not a fan of fluffy cookies! What do you suggest I reduce or change within this recipe to take away the fluffiness? Less baking powder? TIA!
Milena Perrine
Hi, Karen. I would make sure all water is squeezed out of the spent grain, increase the flour by 1/4 cup and add an extra tablespoon of each butter and brown sugar. That should make a dryer dough and a crumblier cookie.
Larry
These are awesome! I didn’t have any kahlua on hand so I mixed a little bit of rum with some strong coffee. I’ve always fed my spent grain to my animals but now they’ll have to share it with me.
Jennifer Bullock
These are delicious! How do you recommend keeping them fresh? Also, I'd love to try it with coffee porter, after the reduction, do you still have 1/3 cup or is the 1/3 cup before the reduction? I do not have a lot of experience with reductions.
CraftBeering
Hi Jennifer, thank you for stopping by. You would start with double the amount of coffee porter - so 2/3 cup in this case and over medium heat simmer it until it gets down to 1/3 cup (water and alcohol will evaporate leaving you with concentrated flavor). Also, you want to add the beer to a cold sauce pan and then turn on the stove and bring it to simmer - if you add it to warm saucepan it will foam.
For this recipe you'll want to let the reduced beer cool down before you add it to the mix of ingredients because if warm it will help develop too much gluten in the all purpose flour.
We typically eat these cookies (or variations) within 48 hours, lol. Cannot help ourselves. But otherwise I would store them in an air tight container, room temperature once cooled off.
Good luck!
Susie
These are delicious! Great way to use the spent grains provided by our local Brewers!
CraftBeering
Thank you so much for stopping by with a kind word, Susie!
Christina
This recipe looks delicious! When do I incorporate the brown sugar though? I don’t see it in the instructions.
CraftBeering
Good eye, Christina:) Thank you for catching the omission, I appreciate it.The brown sugar gets added with the beaten eggs and melted butter in the very first step, I just fixed the recipe instructions.
Dan
Thumbs up!
CraftBeering
Glad you liked them!
Amber Harrop
I loved learning what spent grain is and how you can use it - thanks for sharing
CraftBeering
Thank you, Amber!
Leanna
I didn't know what spent grain was, but its wonderful that you found a delicious use for them. Kahlua in cookies..... oh my so glad you thought of it.
CraftBeering
Thank you, Leanna!
Miz Helen
Your Cookies look delicious! http://www.mizhelenscountrycottage.com/2017/12/southern-sweet-potato-pie.html
CraftBeering
Thank you so much, Miz Helen!
Marvellina | What To Cook Today
Holly Molly!! These photos are bite-inviting!!! I'm all for drunken cookies!!!
CraftBeering
Too funny! I like the name drunken cookies:)
Jess
Wow...these sound amazing!
I would love for you to share this with my Facebook Group for recipes, crafts, tips, and tricks: https://www.facebook.com/groups/pluckyrecipescraftstips/
Thanks for joining Cooking and Crafting with J & J!
Alison's Allspice
These look like delicious cookies, and a great way to use spent grain! Sharing with friends and family, Thank you!
CraftBeering
Thank you so much, Alison!
Dawn - Girl Heart Food
Love how fluffy they are! And Kahula and chocolate? Yes please! Love the idea of pairing these with a stout! YUM! Pinned!
CraftBeering
Stout and cookies:) The only thing better than that are brownies with cookies:) Thank you, Dawn!
Kelsie | the itsy-bitsy kitchen
Well I have no idea what spent grain tastes like but I know I'll love these cookies because of the chocolate and Kahlua! I'm sure I'd have no problem eating an entire batch 🙂
CraftBeering
It just tastes like sweetish boiled barley I guess... It works very well for granola bars and the like. I think you would like incorporating it in baking recipes, Kelsie!
annie@ciaochowbambina
Never met a Kahlua recipe I didn't like! This is my kinda cookie, my friend! Amazing!!
CraftBeering
Thank you, Annie, yes, Kahlua is so great to make with (among other things of course:)
Paul
I don't think I've ever tried cookies like these before. Using Baileys instead of Khalua also sounds delicious. I'm a fan of Baileys since it's such a sweet drink with cocoa and coffee flavors. Adding them to cookies it's an obviously great idea! Time to get cookie drunk.