Homemade Beer Bread

Lately I have heard a lot of talk about "beer bread" mixes you can buy in the store. All you do is add a bottle of beer, mix, and bake. I received a mix for Christmas and the bread turned out pretty good. "How easy is it to make from scratch?", I thought.

The answer is: incredibly. I stumbled upon an amazing blog, written by a farm girl in MO. She gives a template for a beer bread recipe that goes like this:

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder (crucial ingredient)
• 12 oz beer of your choice

All you need to do is mix together the ingredients, spread in a bread loaf pan(grease first if you do not have a non-stick pan), bake at 375F for 45 minutes and you're done! You can make many variations of this recipe by adding various herbs, spices, and cheeses. Here is the recipe I concocted with help from the farm girl:

• 3 cups un-bleached organic all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon organic brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon clover honey
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 12 oz home brewed juniper porter
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp thyme
• 2 tsp minced garlic

The bread turned out very good! Much better than the pre-made mixed I used the other week. I took it to a hombrew club meeting and there was none left by the end! An added benefit of making this bread is that your house/apartment/domicile will smell amazing!