Beer Bread: The Best Bread I Have Ever Made

The title of this post is no exaggeration. This recipe for Beer Bread turned out to be the best loaf of bread I have ever made - both times I made it. I am not quite sure what accounted for this amazingness. It may been the beer selection. It may have been that I used one bottle for the bread and drank the other five while baking. But either way, when I tasted this loaf, I thought it was by far the best loaf of bread I have made to date. It was a perfect combination of a crunchy, hard crust and soft, doughy crumb. Also, the aroma and flavor were a bit nutty and sweet. It turned out so much better than I anticipated. All beer breads I have had in the past have usually been a little too doughy and heavy for my liking. This recipe, which is a conglomeration of a few that I was able to find online and in a few books, turned out to be quite the satisfactory loaf. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

• 3 cups sifted all purpose flour
• 3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 12oz. beer

Recipe:

1. Most recipes that I found called for sifted flour, which I think it a way to avoid that heaviness that I have always experienced with beer bread before. So I highly suggest sifting the flour first since it seems to have worked out well with this loaf.
2. Combine all dry ingredients in your mixing bowl. Some recipes mentioned that you could use self-rising flour instead of the using baking powder as the leavening agent. I prefer to use the baking powder.
   
3. Pour in your bottle of beer. Open the others to start drinking.
4. Mix for about 2 minutes with a dough hook or by hand until a really wet dough forms.
5. Use either a greased spatula or floured hands to transfer your dough to an oiled loaf pan. No need to let it rise or knead the dough. Just pop it in your preheated oven.
   
6. Bake at 375 degrees for about 65 to 75 minutes.
7. Let cool for a few minutes in the loaf pan and then for about 45 minutes more on a wire rack or countertop before cutting into it.

I'm not sure how much using different beers will affect the bread. I used a pretty great Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. I think you will probably get best results from using a pretty decent beer. If you use something cheap - like say that case of Nati Light that you have sitting around from your last frat party - then you will probably get some crappy bread. Give it a try and see what you get.