The Easiest, Most Delicious Beer Bread You'll Ever Bake

• Why This Recipe is Worth Making
• The Ingredients List
• Ingredient Notes:
• Step-by-Step Recipe
• Step 1: Set Up Your Oven and Pan
• Step 2: Mix the Dry Ingredients
• Step 4: Pour the Batter into the Pan and Coat with Butter
• Step 5: Bake Until Golden Brown
• Step 6. Cool Before Cutting
• Tips for Superb Results
• Storing Leftovers
• Conclusion

The secret lies in a few simple ingredients, which require no kneading or proofing and from which you will get a hot, crusty, delicious loaf of bread. With this one recipe in your pocket, impressing guests becomes easy, rounding off a mid-week dinner is perfect, and reward is found in a loaf of beautiful bread with soft, cake-like crumb nicely laced throughout which smells uniquely of beer and is encased beneath butterscotchy crust. It's the kind of kitchen project that's hard to argue with.

Why This Recipe is Worth Making

So why should you make this beer bread? It has an unbeatable blend of simplicity and fabulous taste. Unlike traditional yeast breads, that which needs several hours to rise and careful handling, this recipe takes advantage of the carbonation in beer plus baking powder to make all of that work for you. You can go from "wanting bread!" to fresh homemade bread in an hour. It's almost foolproof, making it an entre into home baking for just about anyone.

The flavors are another point in the recipe's favor. The beer you use decides the taste of your loaf. This is a massive advantage. A light lager gives a mild, recognizable bread taste; a dark stout imparts rich and malt and borderline chocolaty flavors. It's already obvious how many mixtures you can come up with just from your choice of ingredients. Whether you are using this bread to accompany a stew on a dusty road or to serve as part of your cheese board, or you just want to cut yourself a big thick slice and butter.

The Ingredients List

What I like about this recipe is its brevity--and simplicity too. You will have most of these items in your kitchen already.

• 3 cups all-purpose flour (360 g), spooned and leveled
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¼ cup granulated sugar (50 g)
• 1 (12-ounce) can or bottle of beer, room temperature
• ¼ cup unsalted butter (4 tablespoons or 57 g), melted

Ingredient Notes:

Flour: You may substitute 1 cup all-purpose flour with 1 cup whole wheat for a more robust loaf.

Sugar: Use brown sugar or honey for a slightly different flavor.

Beer: The choice is yours! A lager, pilsner, or ale makes a lighter bread; a stout, porter, or dark ale makes a heavier, darker loaf--the choice is yours.

Step-by-Step Recipe

The process is so simple, that with a little imagination you could have baked high-quality bread in your own kitchen. Let's get started on the details right here.

Step 1: Set Up Your Oven and Pan

First things first. Set your kitchen up for baking. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Position a rack in the center of the oven so your bread bakes up evenly.

Then prepare your loaf pan. An ordinary 9x5 inch loaf pan is just right for this recipe. Grease the bottom with butter or a nonstick cooking spray and all four sides of the pan thoroughly. This is a step you cannot skimp on, otherwise the bread--especially those buttery, sugary bits where crust has been formed--will stick. A well greased pan means you will be able to turn out your beautiful loaf easily after baking.

Step 2: Mix the Dry Ingredients

Combine all the dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl. 3 cups all-purpose flour. 3 teaspoons baking powder. 1 teaspoon salt. ¼ cup granulated sugar. Take a whisk or a fork and stir them together for about 30 seconds. This may seem like the only step, but it is essential because the leavening agent and salt have to spread evenly throughout all the flour. With everything well mixed, your bread will rise smoothly without any denseness or large air pockets. Once the ingredients are combined, the entire mass should have even, fine granules. Step 3: Add Beer, Stir the Batter

Now for ten minutes of fun! Slowly empty the entire 12-ounce can or bottle of beer that has been allowed to reach room temperature into your big bowl of dry ingredients. As you pour it in, you will hear a wonderful fizzing noise, and see the mixture start to froth and bubble. This is the carbonation at work, and what will make your bread light and airy.

Fold the wet and dry ingredients together gently, using a spatula or wooden spoon. The important thing here is to mix until just combined. The finished batter will be thick, lumpy and clumped together-this is exactly what you want. Be careful not to overmix. Mixing too much can develop the gluten in the flour to make your loaf hard and dense instead of light and tender. As soon as you no longer see any streaks of dry flour, stop mixing.

Step 4: Pour the Batter into the Pan and Coat with Butter

Spoon the thich dough from the side of the bowl into the prepared loaf pan. With your spatula spread it level, pressing it into all corners. The surface doesn't have to be perfectly smooth either, it will even itself out a bit as it bakes.

Next, you need to melt 1/4 cup of unsalted butter. You can do this by heating it on the hob in a small saucepan over low flame, or you can use a microwave-safe bowl in 20-second bursts. Pour the hot, liquid butter evenly over the top of batter in loaf pan. Try to cover as many areas as possible. This butter, once melted, is the secret to the bread's golden-brown color as well as its delicious crust. It tends to collect in places and might seem too much at first but please trust the process as it bakes. However it does, by the time the bread is ready to come out of the oven you'll have a reception second to none and an unbelievable new flavor dimension in store for you!

Step 5: Bake Until Golden Brown

Put your loaf pan on the middle shelf of the oven that you preheated. Bake anywhere from 45 to 55 minutes. The exact time will depend on how hot your oven is and what kind of beer you used (darker beers sometimes take a little longer).

At around 40 minutes, take a peek at your bread. It should be headed up nicely and get a wonderful golden-brown color. The smell in your kitchen will be heaven itself–a combination of yeasty beer and sweet butter. When it is done, the bread will have a golden top that is deeply colored. If you insert a wooden skewer or toothpick into this center, however, there should not be any wet batter clinging to it–just a few moist crumbs can stay behind, but you don't want to see any raw dough.

Step 6. Cool Before Cutting

After it is baked, remove the loaf pan from the oven carefully. Place it on a wire cooling rack. Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes. This will make it easier to remove and puts the entire structure into place.Why: The bread will be delicate upon coming out of the oven, and if you don't let it set some, could become misshapen.Success Tip: Going crazy trying to take advantage of those 10 whole minutes? Write "fresh" on paper or down somewhere as a reminder. Incorporate fresh into your speech too, so you won't forget.After 10 minutes, run a butter knife around the edges of the pan to release the loaf. Gently tip the pan to the side and release the bread onto a wire rack to cool completely at room temperature.Wait at least 30 minutes before cutting into your fresh-baked bread. This essential period is needed for the crumb to finish setting and prevents gummy bread.Bread collapses when it's hot and sliced into hot bread falls.Common Mistakes to Avoid

With a simple recipe like this, there are a few things that can go wrong. Here's a list of common problems and how to solve them(mxafe):1.Overmixing the Batter: This is the most common mistake. When flour and liquid are mixed together, gluten is formed. A little gluten gives bread structure, but too much will make it chewy and tough. For this bread that 's soft and cake-like, mix only until the ingredients are just combined. A lumpy batter is a good thing! If your bread turns out dense, then you probably overmixed it.2.Cold beer: A bottle or can directly out of the refrigerator can interfere with baking powder's chemical reaction and not mix as well with the flour. Using room temperature beer makes the blending process smoother and the bread rise properly. If you forget to take the beer out, just drop it into a bowl of hot water for a few minutes--the unopened can or bottle.

Re-sliced Bread Means Fresh, Delicious: Fresh, newly baked bread smells so hard to resist; but, patience is the key. Slicing a warm loaf, however, releases steam and forms gas pockets between the crust surface and inside dough that can give you gummy or dense product. Let it sit on a wire rack for at least 30 minutes to an hour to ensure optimum texture.

Tips for Superb Results

If you're happy with your beer bread but want to make it absolutely perfect, try these easily overlooked hints.

Add Some Mix-Ins: Raise your bread to a new level by mixing in a cup of grated cheese (sharp cheddar, really great), a few tablespoons ful of chopped herbs (rosemary, thyme and chives all work well) or chopped jalapeños if you like it hot. Add these to the dry ingredients.Mix the m.

Brush with Honey Butter: For a slightly sweet, softer crust, take your melted butter and mix in a tablespoons of honey before pouring it over the batter. The contrast between sweet and savory flavor created by this step is nothing short of wonderful.

Serve It Right: This bread is magnificent just by itself, though its flavor really does blossom when warm with loads of butter melted all over it. It also makes a perfect accompaniment for soups, stews and chilis For a great appetizer, toast thick slices and serve these with a spicy dip or cheese board.

Storing Leftovers

If you're luck enough to have some leftover, proper storage will ensure that the bread tastes fresh and delicious.

Once the loaf is completely cooled to room temperature, store it in an airtight container or zip-top bag, where it will keep for up to 3 days on the countertop. Keeping bread in the refrigerator can actually make it turn stale faster, so this is your best bet.

This is a reworded version of the source text. For longer-term storage, this loaf of bread behaves very well in the freezer as follows: you can freeze the whole loaf or cut it into size-cubes so as to get any desired portion easily whenever you want. Wrap the cooled loaf tightly in plastic wrap and place it into a freezer-safe bag. It will keep for three months in the freezer. Simply thaw on the counter or toast it directly from frozen to enjoy once more.

Conclusion

Baking bread at home doesn't get any easier or more satisfying than this. On just an hour's notice, you can have a warm, fragrant loaf that tastes as though it were just flown in from some rustic bakery. This Easy Beer Bread recipe is bound to be something you can make again and again throughout the year.

Now, it's your turn to try this recipe out and play around with different beers and add-ins. Just go ahead and let us know what you did. Post a comment below as well as tell us your most favorite beer and bread combinations