Beer Bread, Take II

Remember my first take on beer bread? I decided to try again. But more on that later.

Have you ever had a pomelo? Apparently, it’s supposed to taste like a grapefruit and has an extremely thick rind.

When I was grocery shopping last weekend, I saw one and decided to snatch it up. It was huge! I cut it open and revealed a pink flesh that looked suspiciously similar to a 70s “groovy” flower.

(source)

It was a beast to peel, but the combination of the light pink pith and the lime green rind was…groovy. (Sorry, I had to). I cut in quarters, and it took probably 20 minutes to eat it, it was so time consuming. It tasted like a mild grapefruit and the texture was firmer than a grapefruit. There were more little sections in it then a grapefruit. I liked it and would totally buy it again, if it weren’t so expensive!

Now back to the beer.

Last time the bread was okay, but it wasn’t stellar. This time around I wanted the texture to be more like quick bread, as opposed to a traditional, yeast-risen dough, and for it to be sweeter than regular bread. I played around with a recipe and am happy on how it turned out, but next time I think I’ll use a darker beer.

This is a cross between quick bread and yeast bread in terms of moistness and, like most good things, gets better the next day.

Whole Wheat Beer Bread

3 cups wheat flour

2 tsp baking powder

2 TBL molasses

0.25 tsp salt

12 oz beer

0.25 cup water (or extra beer, if you feel like cracking open another one)

Preheat oven to 400. Combine dry ingredients, mix in wet ingredients. Do not overmix. Scoop batter into oiled loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, remove to wire rack.

Good to the last crumb...

Buh-buh-buh-beer Bread

I woke up this morning feeling like P. Diddy with an intense craving for beer bread. Yes, beer bread. I haven’t had any for years, but I did have some beer and all the ingredients to make it, so maybe  my little brain put together the pieces while I was sleeping. I guess I had visions of beer-bread dancing in my head…

Poor Food and Beverage Cost Control didn’t even stand a chance. All through class and work I was thinking about when I could get back and make the bread. Even all the raspberry jam in the world couldn’t help.

When I was finally released from my bondage, I tore through campus like a banshee (and I probably looked like one, too, considering it was snowing and I wasn’t wearing a proper coat. Whoops.). I found this recipe after binging “beer bread recipes.” Classy, I know. It seemed like a simple recipe, and I had limited time until I had to go to Zumba, so I quickly whipped it up.

Yes, that was way too much oil to grease the pan.

What was leftover from Thanksgiving...hey, beggars can't be choosers.

Glug, glug, glug...

I'm probably the worst beer pourer in the world...

This will definitely turn out to be a craggy bread...

What a beautiful rise.

And a beautiful crumb.

The bread was quite easy to put together, but it wasn’t “beery” enough for me. There’s just a slight aftertaste. I think next time I’ll either add more beer or more sugar. This loaf could definitely pass as wheat sandwich bread.

Perhaps a little lemon spread would perk it up? My sister and I had a Canadian babysitter that made us beer pancakes. She topped them with a simple mixture of lemon juice and sugar, and this combined with the beer pancakes made an incredible explosion of flavors (I just wanted to use that phrase…).

My beer bread craving has been vanquished…for now. Who know when it will return…