BEER BREAD!

Have you ever heard of Beer Bread?  Do you know about this?  Have you ever had it?  Have you ever MADE it?!

If you answered yes, yes, yes and yes, and are thinking something along the lines of, "Um, duh, of COURSE..." then apparently it's ME that's been living UNDER A ROCK?

Well, if that's the case, then let's just say I am so glad to finally be seeing the LIGHT OF DAY!

Because... Beer Bread = my newest addiction!  I simply cannot get enough of it!

It all started innocuously enough.  Thumbing through the latest Penzey's catalog (which is a different post for a different time, but suffice to say that I LOVE PENZEY'S!)  and one of the recipes caught my eye. "Beer Bread?  Hmmmm... interesting. Never heard of it.  Looks good.  Well, I have flour... salt... sugar... baking powder... and a 12 oz. bottle of Dos Equis... I'll try it."

An hour later I was one happy, happy girl!

It is DELICIOUS!  Tastes like a yeast-bread, but fast and easy like a quick-bread.  (No time-consuming rolling, kneading, punching down, kneading again, punching down... oh no!  Just MIX, pour, bake!)  The batter looks like a biscuit batter, which is truthfully the taste/texture I was expecting.  I was wrong!  I pleasantly surprised with the moist, rich finished bread.  This is NO biscuit, babeeee!

(By the way, if you don't like beer, let me assure you that there is little to no "beer taste"!)

The picture at the top of this post was my first loaf of Beer Bread, and I have made it several times since.  It is consistently and deliriously delicious hot out of the ovan, warm, room temperature, or toasted. It is delicious by itself, or as a sandwich. It is delicious in a box, with a fox... in a house with a mouse... oh, never mind, I'm sure you probably get the idea!

So this was the page that changed my life:

I started looking around and soon realized that there are a LOT of beer bread recipes floating around the internet (and Pinterest)... but I'm feeling fiercely loyal to the Penzey's recipe!

Althoooooough, I will say that when I saw The Brown-Eyed Baker's "Bacon and Cheddar Beer Bread  Recipe" recently, I thought, "Now that's an idea I can get behind!"  (That was after my first thought of, "Aha! She loves Beer Bread, too!")

It is pretty much the same *basic* recipe as the Penzey's one, just a few small tweaks.  It, too, is DELICIOUS!  Here is my loaf, made just last night:

If anything could improve that basic recipe, it was bacon and cheddar. Ohmyguuuudnessohmyguuuudness!

This will be phenomenal tomorrow morning, 2 slices toasted with an egg in between.  All the elements of a breakfast sandwich in only two steps!  Very excited!

For your own beer bread baking pleasure:
The basic Penzey's recipe can be found HERE.
The bacon/cheddar variation can be found in the Brown Eyed Baker's post HERE.

Enjoy!  And please let me know when YOU become a Beer Bread fan too!