Adventures in Baking – Beer Bread
Do you remember when I mentioned in my post last weekend that my mom, grandma, and aunt had given me an allergy-friendly baking cookbook and it had really inspired me to do some baking? Well, I wasn’t joking around!
In the last two weekends, I have made a loaf of bread, two batches of muffins (30 muffins in total), and a batch of cinnamon rolls.
I am very excited to tell you about all of them, but for today, I will focus on the bread…
This bread is incredibly easy to make. The yeast from the beer eliminates the need for any additional yeast, and there is no kneading or rising. Just mixing and baking.
Note: The alcohol cooks out of this bread, so if you are feeding it to your children, this is a good thing. If you are a college student, you may consider this alcohol abuse and prefer to save every drop for drinking.
Easy as Beer, Bread
Easy as Beer, Bread
Adapted from ‘The Allergen-Free Baker’s Handbook’ (Gluten-Free-Beer Bread)
Serves: about 6-8 people as a side, or in our case, it fed two of us for most of the day.
Ingredients:
3 cups plain flour
12 oz (approximately 350 mL) beer
2 tbsp granulated sugar
2 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp non-dairy butter spread (or butter)
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees F. (My oven was set to 170 degrees C, but it is fan-assisted, so if your oven is not, then I would suggest about 185 degrees C).
Use canola oil or butter spread to grease a loaf pan (or, since I didn’t have a loaf pan, I used a round casserole dish).
Combine the flour, beer, and sugar in a large bowl. Let this mixture rest until the oven is heated.
Once the oven is heated, add the baking powder and salt. Mix well, then transfer the dough to the loaf pan (or casserole dish). Melt the butter spread for about 1 minute in the microwave. Brush most of the mixture over the top of the loaf with a pastry brush.
Bake the bread in the center of the oven for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and brush with the remaining butter spread.
Return the bread to the oven for approximately 15 more minutes, or until the bread has a deep golden brown crust and sounds hollow when you tap it on top. Keep an eye on it – your bread may take slightly longer, as our oven seems to cook things faster than recipes suggest.
Let the bread rest in the pan for approximately 5 minutes, then turn the pan over and let the bread cool for another 15 minutes before slicing. I had to use a butter knife to gently go around the edges and coax the bread out of the pan. This may not be necessary if you have a loaf pan, but it worked okay my way too. There was no bread left behind in the pan.
Enjoy with soup, as part of a sandwich, or as a snack all on its own! This bread has such a nice flavor that I didn’t even spread any butter on top.
Last weekend I also made a batch of raspberry jam surprise muffins, based on the recipe here on Daily Garnish.
I used raspberry jam instead of strawberry jelly, but otherwise I followed the recipe exactly. I have made these muffins many times now, and they are one of my favorites. And also very easy!
A muffin recipe and pictures of the cinnamon rolls to follow shortly!
I hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend, and I hope it is warmer and less rainy wherever you are. It would not be difficult considering it is very cold and we are being warned of flash floods here today. Oh well. Luckily our flat is not on the ground floor…and this weather certainly increases my motivation to bake!
This sounds so yummy and easy! Thanks for sharing.
No problem, Amy! Hope you enjoy it!
~Emily~
this is my kind of bread…quick and easy.
Me too!!!
~Emily~
Your beer bread looks fantastic and I imagine eating it, generously ducked into some great tomato soup is pretty fantastic too. Thanks for sharing the great recipe
It is delicious dipped in tomato soup. 🙂 Hope you have enjoyed it!
Fantastic. I absolutely must try beer bread- it sounds delicious.
I hope you like it as much as I do. 🙂
The bread looks delicious. I see it says ‘Gluten-Free Beer Bread’ at the top, but you don’t mention gluten-free flour. Can I asked what you used? 🙂
Hello,
I’m sorry if this was a bit misleading (and took ages to reply!). I did not make the bread gluten-free, but I adapted it from a gluten-free recipe in a cookbook I have. I didn’t have the gluten-free ingredients in the house so I just used what I have. I can’t actually share the gluten-free version because it would be taken directly from a cookbook, but I highly recommend this cookbook, which is where I got the idea from. If you do want to make gluten-free beer bread, you obviously need to make sure to choose a gluten-free beer as well.
Sorry I couldn’t help more, but happy baking!
~Emily~
luv beer bread! so simple to do. you should check out mine! will have to try out the muffin recipe. i am curious about the gluten-free version
Hope I’m not too late saying this, but keep in mind that my recipe isn’t gluten-free. The recipe I adapted it from is, but I used normal flour.
I’ll look forward to reading more of your blog. 🙂
~Emily~