BEER BREAD

Home made bread is one of those things that everyone loves to eat, but most people shy away from making.  Well, have I got a bread for you:  BEER BREAD!   It’s only got 3 ingredients and – like my extremely clever title promises – no need to knead!

Who doesn’t stop in their tracks when they get a whiff of bread baking in the oven?  This is inevitably followed with an audible ‘aaaahhhhh!’  Add in the aroma of beer and people will be lining up for a slice.

This is a super fast and easy bread to make.  For those of you who like to ‘watch’ recipes rather than read them, you can click on: BEER BREAD and watch my how-to video.  (I like the way my hair turned out in that video, btw!)

One of the odd things about this bread is that even if you don’t like to drink beer, you may still enjoy eating Beer Bread.  When I started making this bread, I couldn’t stand the taste of beer (although, oddly enough, I liked the aroma), but I really liked the bread.  Over the years, I’ve grown to like drinking a pale beer now and again – especially on a hot day.

You’ll notice that the recipe calls for self-rising flour.  Make sure you don’t use anything else.  Otherwise your bread won’t rise.  This is one of those specialty flours I keep on hand, stored in the freezer.  (Did you know freezing flour prevents bugs?  I store all my flours in the freezer.)  As far as I know, the smallest size bag of self-rising flour you can buy is 5 lbs. That’s a lot of flour, especially when all you need is 3 cups.  Just suck it up and buy the bag – you’ll eventually use it up.  Once the self-rising flour is awaiting use in the freezer, you can make Beer Bread at the spur of the moment (as long as you have beer on hand….which is a given in my house).  It only takes a few minutes to get it into the oven.

BEER BREAD

• 3 cups (453g)  self-rising flour
• 3 T (30g) sugar
• 1 bottle beer, room temperature and sealed

Preheat oven to 375ºF.

With a spoon, mix the flour and sugar together in a bowl.  Open the beer and pour into the flour all at once.  Immediately begin incorporating the beer into the flour with the spoon. Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan.  Bake for 45 minutes – until golden brown on top.

Take the loaf from oven and let sit a few minutes. Then run a knife around the sides and remove the Beer Bread to a wire rack to cool.

A word of caution:  tempting as it may be to slice into the hot loaf – restrain yourself! Cutting into a hot loaf of bread causes it to fall apart.  And ladies, keep your husband away from it – the aroma of hot bread combined with beer draws them like a magnet.