This is one of the easiest breads you can make. It is as fitting and delicious for breakfast with some jam as for dinner with chili or soup, but you have to have a bottle or can of beer in the house.
That can be a challenge for me. Even though I am German, I am not a big beer fan. That said, I love it fresh off the tab in a Beer Garden or with a little sprite on my mom’s balcony, not that I’m choosy or anything 😉
Years ago a friend of mine had made beer bread – a box mix – and it was delicious. We don’t usually have beer in the house, but had some left over after a dinner party, so I set off to find a from scratch recipe for beer bread (I am not a box mix kind a gal). I found several ones and mixed them to this simple recipe that I have stuck with for several years now. It is also SO simple, I can’t fathom why beer bread should be made from a box, but that’s just me. I’ll get off my high horse now and get on with it …
One of the best parts about this bread is that it is started in a cold oven. Our girls like it so much that I have mixed it and left it in the oven overnight to bake on time-bake in the morning on more than one occasion. There is no better way than to wake up to the scent of fresh baked bread!
I have also been known to pack the simple ingredients when going on vacation. It makes for an easy side item, and it is just as easy to bring it back. I just did that last Easter and made myself the official beer bread maker of the family.
One thing I have to warn about, though. The beer has to have some taste, so no dishwashing water, please!
Another warning … it is a bit addictive … thus no picture of the beautiful, golden crumb …
Beer Bread
Ingredients
3 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. turbinado sugar
1 bottle or can of beer
1/4 cup butter, cut into small pieces
Directions
Whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium size bowl. Add beer and stir until all flour has been absorbed. Spray or butter a 1.5 to 2 quart loaf pan. Spread dough into pan and top with butter pieces.
Place pan into cold oven and set to 375°F. Bake for 1 hour. Let it cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes.
Miss Crimson and I 