Simple Beer Bread

You know how some people say that beer is liquid bread? I tend to agree. It has much of the same nutrients and actually kind of similar ingredients. So, why not use liquid bread to make solid bread? Only makes sense, right? 

Required ingredients are shown above and the amounts are detailed below:

3 cups of flour (either sifted, or lightly spooned into the measuring cup)

3 teaspoons of baking powder

1 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of ground malt (each variety will add some different characteristics to the beer) 

1 bottle of beer at room temperature (again, different beers will create different breads)

1/4 cup of butter (melted)

The recipe is very easy. First, you have to preheat the oven to 375 F. As it is preheating, mix together all of the dry ingredients in a medium/large bowl. Only put 1/2 cup of the ground malt into the mixture here. The rest of the malt will be used later. I also can't understate the importance of sifting the flour. If the flour is compacted, then the result will be a very dense bread. If you actually do sift the flour, the bread will be able to stay lighter. 

 After all of the dry ingredients are mixed, pour in the bottle of beer. It will certainly foam up a lot as a result of being at room temp, but as long as you don't let it overflow, you have nothing to worry about. I chose to use one of my home brews, a black saison. Not that it is a bad beer (I actually do like to drink it), but it is not my favorite of my home brews. This makes it great for cooking, because it adds a distinctive beer taste, but the flavors are made subtle by the inclusion in the bread. Note: If you make a batch of  home brew that doesn't carbonate properly, don't throw it out! Use it for cooking! That's what I do. 

Once you have mixed the dough thoroughly, it is time to put it into a loaf pan. I didn't have one, so I wound up using a small pot that I had. Grease the pan and sprinkle about half of the remaining malt on the bottom of the pan before you pour in the dough. Once the dough is in the pan, sprinkle the rest of the malt on top and pour the butter over the dough. 

The cooking time is about an hour, but depending on how crisp you want the crust, you will have to adjust the time. The result is a really interesting bread with a thick, buttery crust. The malt adds a little bit of sweetness to the bread, but a very mild sweetness. Give it a shot. Use different malts. Use different beers. Let me know how everything goes!