Beer Bread

Beer Bread is one of the absolute easiest things ever. You only need five ingredients to make it, plus any extras you want to add in. You don't need to have special baking stuff, or even yeast, just the pan to bake it in.

The other super cool thing about Beer Bread is the flavor variations are endless. Beer breads are denser than more traditional breads. You can add anything you want into this hearty bread and it will work. Cheese? Yup. Herbs, spices, even raisins or fruits? Yes, yes, yes! The last and best part of fun with this is the beer you use will also influence the flavor. So it's neat to pair different types of beer with other add-ins to play around and create some unique creations.

The basics. All you need for basic Beer Bread is:

• 3 cups of flour (you can do all white flour, or if you are like me, you can do half all purpose white/half whole wheat.)

• 1 Tbs. granulated white sugar

• 1 tsp. salt

• 1 Tbs. baking powder (make sure it is fresh!)

• 12 oz. of beer

• 1/4 cup water

The method:

1. Pre heat the oven to 375

2. Combine all dry ingredients in a bow,l and mix together

3. Slowly pour and mix in your choice of beer and the water. Mix it all until well combined. You will have a thick dough like batter. Don't knead it! Just mix well enough to combine.

4. Put your dough into a lightly greased, 8 inch bread loaf pan and bake it for 45 minutes, or until it passes the toothpick test.

How quick and simple is that? Now here are some things you can add in to give you ideas.

*Herbs like rosemary, thyme, oregano, dill, or anything at all.

*Cheese. Half a cup of grated cheese is a good amount.

*Freshly minced garlic

*Sundried tomatoes

*Dried fruit

*Nuts

And if you want a sweeter bread, a bit of brown sugar or honey.

Here is a Holiday Sweet Bread inspired by a seasonal by Sam Adams.

Their Cherry Chocolate Bock just sounded like a fun thing to play with. I added about 1.5 Tbs of light brown sugar to the basic recipe for some sweetness, and then a heaping half cup of dried cherries, and lightly sprinkled some granulated sugar across the top of the loaf before putting it in the oven.

I wasn't sure how this would come out, but experimentation is half the fun ;) It was fantastic! Slightly sweet, but not too much, and the cherries worked really well with flavor imparted by the beer.

There are so many combinations you can come up with!

Enjoy!