Angry Hanks - Anger Management with Cranberries Bread

December 8, 2024

Drawing by Vince Long © 2025

Angry Hanks Microbrewery is a big supporter of the Thanksgiving Day Run Turkey Run presented by the Yellowstone Rim Runners.  It's a 5K and 1-mile race that takes place in downtown Billing early in the day.    At the finish we have awards, snacks, and beverages.  The beverages include a beer garden and, yes, people will drink beer that early in the morning.

A few years ago I started taking a bit of the leftover Anger Management beer, a Belgian wheat beer, and making a bread with it, gifting some to Tim, the owner of the brewery.   I tweaked the recipe a bit over the years, with nuts or without nuts, with fresh cranberries or dried ones and this season I came up with this recipe below as the standard.  It's slightly sweet due to the honey and the beer itself which has none of the bitterness found in other ales and that sweetness is balanced by the fresh cranberries.  Here's the makings for two loaves:

Angry Hanks Anger Management
with Cranberries Bread

2-1/2 cups (556 g) Anger Management beer at room temperature

8-1/4 cups (1,260 g) Wheat Montana bread flour

2 tsp (11 g) kosher salt

2 tsp instant yeast

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp coriander (optional)

1-1/2 tsp honey

5-1/2 cups (152 g) fresh cranberries chopped into quarters

The Process

Place the beer and honey in the mixing bowl and combine.  Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, except for 3 cups of the flour.  Add this the flour, yeast, salt, and spices mixture to the wet solution and stir well to combine.  Continue to add flour to achieve a good bread dough texture.  Let stand for 15-20 minutes and then proceed with the kneading process.  When kneading is almost done, begin adding the cranberries until they distributed evenly.  After kneading, cover, set aside, and let it ferment for about 90 minutes.

After it has doubled, divide the dough, and  form into the desired shapes. Mist with oil and cover, letting them rise until doubled, about 45 minutes.

Bake at 350°F for about 40 minutes,  

Illustrations

During the kneading process in a stand mixer.

Placed in a bowl for the start of the fermentation.

Fermentation complete as the dough has doubled in size.

One half of the dough shaped into a round and placed on parchment.

The other half placed in a loaf pan for proofing.

Before baking, the round gets its top slashed.

The round is placed into the preheated Dutch oven.  Both loaves are placed in the oven together for baking.  The lid of the Dutch oven is removed halfway through the bake.

The baked loaves.

The crumb of one of the loaves.