Sweet Beer Bread...mmmmm

I have never in my life made bread...well banana bread and stuff like that, but not "eat it with your dinner" kind of bread.  The thought of yeast and rising and all of that chemistry stuff always makes me just head to the bakery department of my local grocery store. 

This past Saturday, since I was already resigning myself to a day of kitchen slavery with the Beef Bourguignon recipe (see previous post), I thought I'd try my hand at bread.  Some friends have been raving over this recipe, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Sweet Beer Bread
3 cups self rising flour
3 TBS sugar
1 12 oz. beer at room temp.
4 TBS butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. When oven is hot, quickly mix flour and sugar together, adding warm beer and stirring just until mixed. Pour bread dough into buttered bread pan, 9 x 5 x 3. Pour melted butter over top of loaf. Bake at 375 for 40 to 50 minutes. Let bread cool about 1 hour before cutting.

It also cuts well after cooling all the way but does not taste quite as good.

This is good with white sugar or brown sugar. You can also add chives, cheese, dill, raisins, nuts, cinnamon, extra sugar...whatever you want. 

You can also use plain all purpose flour, and add 1 tablespoon baking powder, and 1 teaspoon of salt to help it rise.

I love that you only need these few ingredients.  As you can see, I used Abita Amber beer, but you can use whatever you have on hand.

I tried mixing it by hand, but found it much easier to use my KitchenAid mixer.  Then I just plopped it in the buttered pan, poured the melted butter on top, threw it in the oven and....

Voila!!  I made two loaves to go with dinner, and 6 of us ate all but about half the second loaf...oink, oink. 

The next morning, I heated it in the microwave, slathered on some butter and strawberry preserves and wolfed it down again.

Don't think of this as a "beer" tasting bread.  I don't like beer at all...I know...blasphemy...but this is delicious.  It's more a cross between bread and cornbread and couldn't be easier to make.

Give it a try..and if you have any leftovers, give me a call.