Since being on materinty leave I’ve had the increasing urge to bake bread. Not sure where it’s come from or why. I quite like to cook, and make cakes reasonably often. But I’e never had the desire to do anything too complicated that might require kneading or “leaving to rise”. My one attempt at making scones was a bit of a disaster as I couldn’t get right the amount of stirring time. Too little stirring and you have lumps of flour. Too much stirring and your scones are hard rather than light and fluffy. Mine were hard as rock!
So it was quite a surprise when I started clicking on links involving bread related cooking recipes in my news feed rather than just scrolling past. Then I even started bookmarking a few. Noting down some of the basic recipe ingredients, I thought I’d better buy some yeast to keep in the cupboard just in case the urge got stronger at a time when I couldn’t make it to the shops; I’d better make sure I had the tools in hand! I even bought a bread tin for the oven.
Then one day the following link caught my eye: How to make Beer Bread
There was no way I wouldn’t click on that! And to my surprise the recipe involved no yeast, no kneading, no leaving to rise. In fact it was easier than most cakes I’ve made! (And in case you’re wondering, no I don’t work for Craftsy, no I don’t receive any money from Craftsy.) I really did have all the ingredients in the fridge. Albeit the most important ingredient, beer, was in the outdoor fridge!
What appealed to me most (well probably a close second behind how easy it looked) was that it was a great base recipe to which you could add whatever you wanted for endless variety. I decided to do it by the book for the first time to see how it would turn out. For those in Australia, to save you doing the conversions, I used the following measurements (only some are different from Craftsy page):
– 3 cups plain flour
– 2 teaspoons of baking powder
– 1/2 teaspoon of salt
– 2 tablespoons of caster sugar
– 55 grams of butter
– 1 bottle of Crown Lager (375 mls)
It worked a treat! Was a lovely flavour and perfect to eat warm with dollups of butter (and maybe jam if you’re feeling indulgent) and a cup of tea. For a week it was my afternoon treat while bubs was napping.
Then last week I tried again only this time I used the following:
– All ingredients above except 1 bottle of Peroni (330mls)
– Generous handful of bottled sliced kalamata olives (and a bit of the juice too seeing as how there was less beer)
– Generous handful or two of grated parmesan cheese
Here is the result.
Next time I’m going to try to make it sweeter, with some sultanas and perhaps some spices too. And I’m even thinking of adding some vegemite and cheese at some point. So many possibilities!
alikelylass 