Root Beer Breakfast Bread

Here is a recipe I made up today while I wasn't reading about sustainable agriculture (get excited!).
The ingredients are in bold.

Soda? For Breakfast?!?!? Root Beer Breakfast Bread

1. In a microwave, warm up ½ cup of natural root beer (mine was all natural from Whole Foods so I'd say, aim for something like that).
2. In a small bowl combine & stir 2 packets of rapid rise yeast (4 ½ tsp) and the warm root beer.
3. After giving it a couple minutes to bubble up, add 2/3 cups of flour to the root beer –yeast mix well again.
4. Give with a towel and let rise in a warm area for one hour.
5. Plump 1/3 cup raisins (or more!) in water for 30 minutes
6. Coarsely chop 1/3 cup of walnuts
7. In a large bowl combine about 2.5 cups of flour (more can be added later), and 1.5 teaspoons of salt. Make a well in the center.
8. After an hour, pour the root beer sponge into the flour mixture and start stirring.
9. Add the raisins and walnuts into the dough
10. Have on deck a mixture of 1/4c root beer, a sprinkle (1 tsp ish of brown sugar), and ¼ c of water. Use this mixture if the dough is too dry.
11. Add more flour and the rootbeer/water mixture until the proper bread dough consistency is achieved.
12. Knead for 2-4 minutes.
13. Put the ball of dough underneath a bowl (like turn the bowl upside down over the ball) for 15 minutes
14. Knead for another 2-4 minutes.
15. Shape dough into a baguette and cut shallow slits in the top.
16. Put the uncooked baguette on parchment paper on a baking sheet and let rise in a warm place for two hours with a damp towel over it. My dough rose about 2.5 times in size.
17. Preheat oven to 400 degrees fahrenheit with a oven proof pan on the lowest rack. You’ll cook the bread on the middle rack
18. Put the baguette in the oven and throw in 4-5 ice cubes* in the pan below. Cook the bread for 35-45 minutes.


*I must credit Anissa Helou's book Savory Baking from the Mediterranean for this tip as well as the yeast-to fluid ratio in the first two steps!!!