Happy Earth Day! One our favorite local dining spots is both a microbrewery and a leader in using local vendors to source their ingredients. They have a great beer bread appetizer, served with blue cheese butter and cheddar-chive butter. We order it almost every time we go there, and I finally decided that I wanted to recreate it at home. Surprisingly, it was a lot easier than I thought it would be, with almost identical results. If you are looking for an incredibly simple quick bread that uses ingredients you are almost certain to have on hand, this is your recipe. I also easily duplicated the cheddar-chive butter, as well.
Easy Beer Bread
1 12oz can or bottle of beer (any type will do, but you can experiment with different styles)
2 cups all-purpose flour
3 T sugar
1 T unsalted butter, melted (optional)
Mix all ingredients together until well combined. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350° for approximately 25 minutes. After 25 minutes, pour butter over loaf. Bake five more minutes. Remove from oven, let cool, and slice. Serve with cheddar-chive butter.
Cheddar-Chive Butter
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 c shredded sharp cheddar cheese
2 T chopped chives
Combine all ingredients. Serve with beer bread. Store covered in refrigerator for up to two weeks.
Kelli Best-Oliver
A former high school teacher, I'm currently a part-time writer/full-time doctoral student at the University of St. Thomas in the Twin Cities, studying leadership in education from a critical pedagogy perspective along with public policy. On the green side, I'm interested in local food and agriculture (Iowa girl, born and raised), sustainability education, DIY projects, and grassroots activism. I'm slowly turning my South City, St Louis home into an urban farmstead. On the hoping-to-be-greener side, I love reading, yoga, soccer, music, backpacking, knitting, pop culture and trivia, my Tuesday Night Dinner Club, traveling, Guitar Hero, dive bars, and sitting on front porches with my husband and a cold beer. I came to Green Options via a post on Sustainablog,working the St Louis angle to get Jeff to let me in. I have a personal blog chronicling (what else?) life in South St. Louis. Follow me on Twitter!
3 Responses to Easy Beer Bread Recipe
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Tried the bread recipe above and it was very good. I added the 3 tsp baking power and 1 tsp salt as in Valerie’s comment above and it worked perfectly. Thanks!
I believe you meant to list self-rising flour. If you use plain flour, there’s not enough leaveners to lift this bread from brick to bread. If not using self-rising, add 3 teaspoons baking powder and 1 teaspoon salt.
Valerie
Schlafly’s one of our favorite eating spots, too… and they’re my beer of choice (had the Pilsner the other night… great stuff, though I prefer ambers)… much better than that “other” local brewery…;-)