Thursday, November 15, 2012

Beer Bread

It's pretty rare for me to have beer just sitting around. Rare because I usually go straight for the Vodka aisle, and rare because when I drink all my vodka, I go straight for the beer in my fridge.

But lately I've seen a few of those "beer bread mix" holiday gift boxes at the local Voldemart, and wondered if this was a "thing" I've been missing.

Oh man. Was I missing it.

I saw a recipe online the other day, and saved it. And since I'm a comfort eater, and a comfort baker, and I had a rather bad day yesterday, and I slept like crud, and it was cold and not very nice out today.....Beer Bread. Really, though, I don't feel anyone should actually need a REASON for beer bread.


Check out the sweet tupperware cannisters! Vintage?
They are as old as I am, I stole them from my pops when he moved. 


Seriously, those are all the ingredients. One twist was that the recipe called for "self rising flour". Uh, I have AP flour, and I have Bread flour. So I looked up self rising flour and found this handy dandy, nifty web site where you plug in how much self rising flour the recipe calls for, and they give you the formula. It's simply AP flour, some baking powder, and salt.

There is no rise time. There is no kneading. There was no bread machine. There was only one mixing bowl, and melting some butter in the microwave.

Mmmmmm, butter!

The butter is not mixed into the dough, it's poured half into the bottom of the pan, and half on top. As you can see, I used my BEST breadpan (sarcasm).

The dough was a VERY wet and sticky bread dough, but thicker than a batter. It wasn't exactly what I expected. And with the honey added, and on top of that I used Honey Weiss beer, I was really expecting a sweet bread. Normally I'm not all that into sweet breads, but hey, I'll try anything once. Maybe twice. I don't care what rumors you've heard. I really AM that kind of girl.

About 30 seconds after this picture was taken, I could hold back no longer. 


I take really shitty photos with my shitty phone cam. But really, it was a thing of beauty. Trust me. And thank god that I took that pic before I tried to take it out of the pan, cuz once again, it stuck. I think it's me, especially in light of the fact that I dumped melted butter into the bottom of the pan before the dough.

Didn't matter, I ate all the bits that broke off. OMG. So good. And then I cut two hunks off while it was still warm, even though I told myself I'd leave it alone til it cooled more. The only place you taste the honey is on the crunchy outside, and the whole outside is crunchy. Thanks, butter. The only place you get a hint of beer is the moist lovely inside. I was worried that the beer would overwhelm everything, but it doesn't. If you really really hate beer, though, you probably wouldn't like this. If you are just not overly fond of beer, you'd probably cave and eat a whole lot of it. Also, if you are Paula Dean you'd like it, cuz.....butter.

Anyway, thought I'd share. If anyone else has made beer bread, or has recipes for beer bread, or recipes you'd like to see me try, or just wanna tell me to go fuck myself or something, PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT. Cuz I know ya'll are out there.

3 comments:

  1. for loaf baking you should invest in silicone bakeware...you don't even need to grease the pan and it won't stick, bakes evenly & a dream to clean.

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    Replies
    1. some day. *sigh*

      When i worked at kitchenaid, they'd have little work contests and give those pieces away. I ended up with some good knives and a few rubber scrapers and a mini chopper and a really sweet gravy wisk. Never got the silicone hook up. :(

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  2. Seriously put it on your santa list, I have a loaf shape one and it is fantastic for breads, meat loaf etc

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