The only thing better than drinking beer is cooking with it. Beer is versatile enough to be used in soup bases, marinades, glazes and, my personal favorite, baking. Today, we’re going to learn about making beer bread — from scratch.
“But Karen, you cheeky rascal,” you protest. “Baking from scratch is hard.”
Fear not, says I. There is a recipe for beer bread so simple and easy, even a journalist can do it. And it’s so tasty, you’ll never buy the boxed mix again.
Ingredients:
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
12 ounces of beer
1/4 to 1/2 cup melted butter
See that? Just six ingredients. When’s the last time you ate bread with just six ingredients in it? Seriously, read the label on your favorite store brand. Unpronounceable and scary.
Now before we move on to the instructions, there are two things you need to be aware of.
First, you want to use good beer. Not lawnmower beer. Not fishing beer. Beer with a capital B. The kind of stuff that makes your mouth pucker like a drill sergeant about to disparage your mama and your taste buds snap to attention and start doing PT. The kind of stuff you can pour over breakfast cereal and cut with a fork. The kind of stuff that has a fat, jolly-looking monk on the label with one hand on his belly and the other hefting a beer stein the size of his head. And he’s smiling because he’s got BEER! That’s the stuff you want for your bread. You don’t have to buy a six pack if you don’t have the palate to drink it. Find a liquor store that offers build-your-own-six-packs and buy a single for under two bucks. Save the Schlitz for the mini fridge in your garage.
The other thing you need to be aware of is your flour. If you’re using the self-rising kind, you need to remove a couple of ingredients from the recipe: Baking power and salt. No matter what kind of flour you use, though, make sure you don’t just scoop it out of the package with your measuring cup and level it off. You have to sift it. You want it as fluffy and full of air as possible, otherwise you will have sacrificed your good beer for a tasty brick instead of tasty bread. If you don’t have a sifter, use a spoon to scoop it out of the bag and shake it into the measuring cup. That’s what I do and it works just fine.
