How on Earth have I not yet written anything about how good beer bread is, and how easy it is to make, and how everyone should make more of it?
I have been making a lot of beer bread these past few months, maybe a loaf every week or two. It's really, really good bread. It's very flavorful, and you can tweak its flavor easily. It's good plain, with butter, with jam, or wth honey. I'm sure you could put lots of other things on it for great deliciousness, too.
If you have the ingredients on hand -- which are few and cheap -- then it takes about an hour and a half to go from thinking, "I want some beer bread" to eating some, which is wonderful, considering how long most breads take to make. Even better, only about five minutes of that time is work. Mostly it's waiting for it to bake and cool.
Here is the recipe:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Farenheit. Melt the butter. Mix the other ingredients just until it's all wet. Pour the dough into a 9" by 5" loaf pan and put it in the oven for 55 minutes. When it's done, put the loaf on a cooling rack for about half an hour. Eat the bread.
So far, I've made bread with:
I'll almost certainly make some Victory Hop Devil beer bread this weekend.
My favorite was the Hop Wallop, but Gloria said it was much too beery for her. Hop Wallop is one of my favorite beers. It's an 8.5% ale, and it's extremely hoppy. Hop Devil is very similar but is 5% and has a slightly less overwhelming flavor.
Today's bread was made with the Vyskovske, which I got at Tanczos for (get this) $8. That's for a case. The beer had a "best by" date of late 2005, but I figured that for $8 a case, it would be fine for bread. I had some of the beer, and it wasn't so bad. Fresh, it was probably a decent beer. As it is, it will serve me well for 22 more loaves of bread!
I cannot stress enough how very easy and delicious beer bread is. Make some soon!
I'll have to make some tomorrow night. I'll let you all know how it works out.
Re:butter?
rjbs on 2008-02-07T03:55:34
I use a butter-based spray to lube the bread pan. The melted butter is poured onto the top of the dough once it is in the pan. This makes the top get all crinkly, golden brown, and really significantly more delicious.
