It’s cold here! Very cold. Colder than it used to be. You see I’ve lost some weight so I don’t have as much body fat as I used to.
So, while I may be dieting, I’m still going to eat soup, stews and bread.
Beer bread, to be exact.
Now, here’s a little confession. I don’t like beer. Not even a little. (Sorry, Dad!)
I know I know. Some of you are saying “That’s just because you haven’t had the right beer yet.” But, I promise, dear readers, as a genuine food-and-restaurant-aholic I’ve tried a lot of beers. Lots. I guess it’s just not my thing. Sort of like broccoli. Or… fish.
Yeah. I would put beer, broccoli and fish all in the same food group: “The Yucky Stuff Food Group.” That one is right below the fats on the food pyramid, I think.
It makes sense, then, that when I decided to make this beer bread I figured it would turn out all right, but not be anything particularly special. I honestly didn’t even plan to blog about it and after I made it the first time I actually had to go back and re-make it so that I could have some pictures for you. Which, you know, was honestly a tragedy. TWO loaves of beer bread? Yeah, that’s very sad. For my hips, I mean.
Anyhow, this stuff is unbelievable. I cannot stress this to you enough. UN BE LIEVE ABLE. It’s easy to make, smells divine, it’s tasty, crispy on the outside, dense and chewy on the inside, slightly sweet and . . . oh. Words are escaping me at this point.
Just make some. O.k.? I’ve taken to making it so much that the people at my local party store think I have a serious drinking problem. I show up each week day at 8:14 in the morning, promptly after dropping off Babs at the nearby elementary school, to buy my beer.
Oh, and up here in Michigan? They call convenience stores “party stores.” You can imagine my surprise 12 years ago, having just moved to Michigan, when I went in looking for hats and a pinata for my daughter’s party and realized that they were LYING. They weren’t a party store. They were just . . . just a mini-mart with over-priced half gallons of milk and stale donuts. Not that that didn’t stop me from buying a donut, but I left shaking my fist and saying “Liars!”
Not really. I didn’t do that shaking fist part. I just left and ate my donut – thinking it was really strange that it was called a party store.
Here’s how to make your own beer bread.
Beer Bread
(found on a scrap of paper at the bottom of my recipe pile)
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
12 ounces beer
1/2 cup melted butter
Preheat the oven to 375 and oil your bread pan.
Measure out the flour. If you have scales, I highly suggest weighing your flour because having a heavy hand with the flour on this recipe can result in a very heavy bread – a.k.a. a brick. I use about 360 grams of flour. If you do not have scales you can use a measuring cup, but try spooning the flour into the cup instead of scooping the flour with the measuring cup. Don’t pack it down, and you might even think about removing a tablespoon of flour after you have your three cups measured out.
You can see in this picture I put three cups of flour in the bowl and it weighs in at 375 grams. This is why you must be careful and have a light hand when you measure for this recipe.
Add the baking powder, salt and sugar and mix it in, then add the beer.
Stir gently until everything is combined. No need to beat the crud out of it, just make sure it’s all mixed.
Pour the batter into your loaf pan and then pour the melted butter over the top. I know. This is utterly sinful. Don’t snub the butter. It’s a beautiful thing. If you want, you can cut back to 1/4 cup of butter, it will turn out, but it is noticeably better with 1/2 cup.
My stoneware bread pan sure looks gross in this picture. I thought about leaving this picture out, but I’m just keepin’ it real, you know? My kids hate when I say that “Keepin’ it real.” Well, now you all know ~ Angie Pangie has a ratty looking stone bread pan that she’s baking beer bread in way too often.
Put the pan in the oven and bake for one hour. Let it cool for 10-15 minutes before you slice. Then. Hide it, because your family will steal it from you! And then you’ll be back at the party store at 8:14 sharp and the clerk will just shake her head at you in pity.
Recipe: Beer Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour (360 grams)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 12 ounces beer
- 1/2 cup melted butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 and oil your bread pan.
- Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar, then add the beer.
- Stir gently until everything is combined.
- Pour the batter into your loaf pan and then pour the melted butter over the top.
- Bake for one hour. Let it cool for 10-15 minutes before you slice.
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
OMGosh, thanks for this…the only other recipe I’ve found so far uses self-rising flour, which I do not have. I bought a six-pack of Budweiser in the summer to make beer-can chicken (I had to pour the beer out of the bottle into a rinsed Diet Coke can, but it was still beer can chicken…or maybe beer+can chicken!) and the other 5 bottles have sat in my fridge ever since. My husband doesn’t drink beer anymore and I am not a big beer drinker either, so this is the perfect way to use it up!
I live in MI as well, though towards Detroit. Was LMAO over the party store story!
girl you are too funny! gotta try this recipe though! I’m a bread-a-holic … gosh and I just bought a Jillian Michaels workout DVD. That’s like a major contradiction (or would that be a conundrum??;)!
Had to come back and tell you I made it and it turned out fab! My husband was gobbling it down like no tomorrow!
All the butter was not absorbed by the bread, though. About 2 to 3 tbsp. of butter came spilling out of the pan when I turned it out to cool. Should I have left it in the pan to cool and absorb more butter?
So. You can’t just say “beer”. I know I tend to make things more complicated than the need to be, but I open my fridge (or look under the LR coffee table) and Think which beer? Ale? Stout? IPA? Pilsner? Nut brown or Amber? Surely you don’t mean a bud or coors (a-HEM, kinda blasphemy in our house, you see). Please. What beer?
BTW, in your healthier cooking…should you ever want to replace ground beef with ground turkey….As soon as it isn’t pink, add 1/2 an amber beer and cook off to glaze the meat. Good for turkey burgers and especially taco meat. You add the rest of your beer when you add your taco seasoning. Same goes for chili. Far more depth of flavor…not the same as beef…but saturated fat and all that.
LOL, Crystal.
Try them all – each one gives it a different flavor. So far our favorite has actually been Fosters, but that’s just us.
Also, we nearly always cook with turkey or venison vs. beef. I remember you use beef in your taco meat recipe – I might have to give it a try! I know we like it in our chili beef! I bet it would be good in beans, too, since sometimes I like to use beans instead of meat in tacos.
Yeah, Sonny just make turkey tacos for dinner last night. 1lb of ground turkey, a 1/4 cup or so of finely chopped green onions, a more than healthy dusting of cayenne peper, 1/3 cup of taco seasoning (hello sodium–we buy the bulk stuff) and a pumkin beer, cause we’re out of Bell’s Amber. It’s AWESOME.
Ok. I’ll pick a random beer and make some with dinner tonight.