Creative Escapes – Beer Bread

Today’s activity needed to involve feeding my bottomless boys, as the Tupperware container I promised to keep full is now empty! Last Sunday I baked White Chocolate and Cranberry cookies and they are long gone! I was going to have a go at some artisan, no-knead bread (the last time I kneaded dough my arthritic shoulders were less than amused), but the supermarkets around us are totally sold out of yeast. Great minds think alike it seems!

We also recently had a fridge incident where it decided to be overly helpful and freeze a heap of things – including a couple of stubbies of beer. So I had these partially frozen and thawed beers that shouldn’t be wasted – beer bread is the perfect solution. See what I did there? All those peeps who were about to say baking bread is a waste of perfectly good beer need not bother.

To make the bread you will need:

    • 3 and a 1/2 cups of Self Raising Flour.
    • 1 375ml stubby of beer. Lighter flavoured beers make a mildly flavoured bread, but any sort will do.
    • 2 Tablespoons of honey or castor sugar.
    • Melted butter to brush the top.
    • 1 teaspoon of salt.

Then do this:

    • Add all dry ingredients to a large bowl.
    • Pour beer over the top and mix until a ball forms.
    • Pat dough into a baking dish or tin. It won’t rise much so it doesn’t need to be over-sized.
    • Brush the top with melted butter.
    • Bake at 180 degrees Celsius for 45 minutes, or until brown on top and sounds hollow when knocked on.

I’m pleased to say it was delicious.  So much so that both boys burnt their fingers trying to pull it apart before it was cool! That’s why the only photo I have to offer is this sad half pulled apart one – not nearly as glamorous as the nestled in a basket, magazine worthy one I had in mind. Then again, pulled apart is just how we roll.

So if you are looking for a yeast free bread alternative, I encourage you to give this one a go – if you can bear to part with the beer!

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