Beer Bread

Things are finally getting back to normal after Hurricane/Superstorm Sandy. No more police at the gas stations, ridiculously long gas lines, power is slowly being restored and most of the trees that were downed are removed from the roads. The recovery is going to take a while but clearly as the following photo will show at least to a certain extent, our household was prepared for our two week blackout...

Hurricane Supplies... sort of. 

Bear in mind, these were only the supplies I was instructed to pick up before the storm hit, everyone else brought reinforcements. As the blackout continued the boys kept restocking and once the fridge started working again, we still had a whole cooler filled with "supplies." 

This recipe is incredibly easy to do. You should keep in mind that whichever beer you chose to use for your bread is going to really impact the flavor. I realized that I like there to be a bit of bite in this recipe so I used the Brooklyn Brewery's Oktoberfest.  

Brooklyn Brewery 

What you'll need: 

• 3 cups of all purpose flour 
• 3 tbsp. of sugar
• 1 tbsp. of baking powder
• 1 tsp. of salt
• 2 tbsp. of honey
• 1 bottle of 12 oz. beer (your choice) 
• 4 tbsp of melted butter (approximately half a stick)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 

Mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder and salt) together in a bowl. Then, in a separate smaller bowl put the honey in the microwave for 3-5 seconds and mix with a small amount of the beer. This makes it easier to not only mix the honey in, mix into the dry mixture thoroughly along with the rest of your beer. 

Grease and flour a loaf pan. 

Now take half the butter and pour it into the bottom of the loaf pan. Add your batter, and top with the rest of your melted butter. It looks a little funky but it makes the top nice and crispy. 

Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, allow it to cool for 15 minutes and enjoy!

You could also add cheddar (1 cup) and jalapeños (1/4 cup) and serve with a bowl of chili, and a nice cold beer. 

If I was going to add the cheddar and jalapeños, I would omit the honey and use the following ingredients/proportions;

• 3 cups of all purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder 
• 1 teaspoon of salt 
• 1/4 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of cheddar (shredded) 
• 1/4 cup of jalapeños
• 1 bottle of 12 oz. beer
• 1/4 cup of butter

Add the cheddar and the jalapeños last after the rest of the batter has been prepared.