Susan: Quick Breads -- Beer Bread

When it comes to minimum input and maximum output in the kitchen, beer bread is about as good as it gets. Five minutes of work reward you with a heavenly aroma wafting through the house and a warm, crusty loaf in under an hour. I once made beer bread for a cooking class called Cozy Breads & Soups, and even after watching me make it, several people could still hardly believe how easy it was to put together — and how good it tasted.

I'm not sure where most people taste beer bread for the first time, but I do know that there are plenty of folks looking to make their own. I wrote about beer bread on Farmgirl Fare back in November of 2005, and to this day that article gets more search hits than any other post on my blog.

Beer bread is delicious warm or at room temperature and goes well with just about anything. You can even use it to make sandwiches. A thick slice of leftover beer bread popped in the toaster and slathered with butter is a wonderful thing. It also freezes beautifully. (If you don't intend to serve your beer bread right away, keep in mind that the flavor of any herbs you add may intensify over time.)

There are endless flavor variations of beer bread possible; simply add whatever you desire to the basic dry mix. It's fun to experiment with different beers and ales, too. A darker beer will give you a deeper flavor. You can even make it with non-alcoholic beer. Since we've been brewing our own Irish pale ale for years, I never buy beer anymore, but fellow food blogger Nic at Baking Bites recently made an apricot beer bread using an apricot ale that I think just might get me to make an exception.

There are so few ingredients in beer bread that it's difficult to believe anyone would have the nerve to sell Beer Bread Mix. And yet I've seen packages of it selling for upwards of eight dollars. A batch of your own signature homemade beer bread mix makes a great gift. Just tuck a zipper bag of the dry mix into a colorful tin (or even a brown paper bag tied with a festive ribbon) and voila! — a charming, scrumptious gift suitable for practically any occasion. Include baking instructions written or printed out on a simple card. If the recipient is a dear friend, you might even consider sharing the recipe for the mix.

I've made all sorts of beer breads in the past, including a whole wheat version, but I wanted to try something different for A Year In Bread. My creativity was sparked when a Farmgirl Fare reader e-mailed me a few weeks ago saying their first batch of beer bread was in the oven and that they had a few questions, including whether I'd ever made beer bread with rye flour. I hadn't, but that got me thinking about the sourdough onion rye bread I make — all too infrequently for some people.

I decided I would cook some chopped onion and caraway seeds in olive oil as I do for the sourdough onion rye, and then substitute some rye flour for the all-purpose flour. It wasn't until I had the loaf in the oven and was halfway done cleaning up the kitchen that I realized I'd forgotten to actually add any rye flour to the batter.

The nice thing about screwing up beer bread is that it doesn't take long to whip up another batch. The un-rye loaf actually turned out quite tasty, and it was definitely the better looking of the two. It didn't really taste like it was missing a main ingredient until I bit into a slice from the second loaf and said, "Ah ha. Now that tastes like rye bread!" They aren't quite as good as a crusty loaf of my sourdough onion rye, but they didn't take hours and hours to make either.

Today for lunch I toasted up a slice of the rye version in the toaster oven and then topped it with a slather of cream cheese, a layer of thinly sliced homegrown lamb salami, and juicy slices of heirloom tomatoes from the garden. Tomorrow Joe is planning to top a couple of the un-rye slices with Swiss cheese and tomatoes and heat them in the toaster oven. Tonight we're having grilled burgers, and I'm thinking toasted slices of onion rye beer bread would probably make a very good stand-in for a bun.

These new beer breads have serious possibilities.

Susan's Beyond Easy Beer Bread
Makes one loaf

The optional egg glaze gives the top a beautiful, dark golden color. As always, I encourage you to use locally produced and organically grown ingredients whenever possible.
Basic Beer Bread Mix:
Ingredient | US volume | Metric volume | US weight | Metric weight
all-purpose flour 3 cups | 750 ml | 15 1/8 oz | 430 g
granulated sugar 1 tbsp | 15 ml | 5/8 oz | 16 g
salt 1 tsp | 5 ml | 1/4 oz | 6 g
baking powder 1 tbsp | 15 ml | 5/8 oz | 16 g

beer 1 1/2 cups | 355 ml | 12 oz | 338 g
Optional glaze 1 egg & 2 tsp (10 ml) water, beaten

Heat oven to 375F/190C degrees. Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder in a large mixing bowl. Slowly stir in beer and mix just until combined. Batter will be thick. Spread in a greased 8-inch (20cm) loaf pan, brush with egg glaze if desired, and bake until golden brown and a toothpick stuck in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes. Remove from pan and cool 10 more minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature. Will keep for 1 to 2 days stored in a plastic bag or airtight container. May be frozen.

Flavor Variations:
Onion Rye or Un-Rye: Heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil in a medium skillet. Add 1 cup finely chopped onion and 1 Tablespoon caraway seeds. Cook at medium heat, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent and beginning to brown, about 5 to 8 minutes. (This step may be done ahead of time; let onion mixture sit at room temperature up to two hours or refrigerate.)

If desired, replace the 3 cups of all-purpose flour with 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup rye flour and 1/2 cup whole wheat flour. Stir onion mixture into batter along with 2 more Tablespoons of beer or water.

Cheddar & Dill: Add 2 Tablespoons chopped fresh dill and finely grated sharp cheddar cheese to the basic mix.

Garlic & Herb: Add 1 teaspoon dried rosemary, 1 teaspoon dried oregano, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, and 2 minced garlic cloves (or 1 teaspoon garlic flakes) to the basic mix. For fresh herbs, use 1 chopped Tablespoon of each.

Dill & Chive: Add 2 Tablespoons fresh dill (or 2 teaspoons dried dill) and 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives to the basic mix.

Italian: Add 1 teaspoon each dried basil and oregano (or 1 Tablespoon each chopped fresh basil and oregano), 2 minced cloves of garlic, and 1/2 cup finely grated parmesan or romano cheese to the basic mix.

Other Additions: Any dried or fresh herbs; 1/2 cup freshly grated asiago (or other hard cheese); 1/2 cup chopped scallions; 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley, 1/2 cup oats in place of 1/2 cup of the all-purpose flour; or practically anything else you can think of — use your imagination.

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