Beer Bread

~3 cups of flour.
~3 teaspoons of baking powder.
~1 teaspoon of salt.
~1/4 of a cup of sugar.
~1 bottle of booze.

Bake for about 50 minutes at 375 degrees.

I really do love bread. Kerry loves it even more. Over the past few months, the above has become one of our favorite recipes. By itself, it makes a pretty decent loaf of bread...although I'd add half a stick of butter if you want it to taste normal.

If you want to experiment, though, the wonderful thing about this bread is that so far it has proven absolutely impossible to screw up. You just add the dry ingredients, pour in the beer, mix it up, and bake it right then and there. No yeast activating. No rising. No kneading. No sitting. Just bread. I've gone as far as to add 1/4 a cup of dairy (the aforementioned butter) and eggs. Does it destroy the recipe? No. You just get cake instead. :)

The number of experiments you can do with this basic structure is endless. I started with Guinness, making very malty, earthy tasting breads, sometimes adding cocoa powder for a predictable effect. I've made very spicy, hopsy breads out of Imperial Pale Ales and Russian Imperial Stouts. Not as many people like those, but I think they're awesome. One of my favorites over time has been to use J. W. Dundee's honey-brown lager and substitute the sugar in the recipe for honey. Such bread makes me feel like Winnie the Pooh.

And last night, I confirmed that ciders work just as well as beers. I used a Woodchuck Amber draft cider, added in some extra sugar, and sprinkled in some cinnamon. BAM! That's some good bread.