Whether you're an accomplished baker, a work-from-homer between conference calls, or a 12-year-old who's soooo borrrrrrred, we've got a project for you: bake beer bread!
Apparently lots of people responded to the current quarantine situation by deciding they were going to bake bread for the first time, so along with toilet paper and ketchup, the whole yeast section of the grocery store is depleted.
But! The yeast in beer is enough to produce a professional-looking and -tasting loaf. And you can use any kind you have on hand with equally good results, and only two other common pantry items.
The basic ingredients:
12 ounces of cold beer - that's a can or bottle
Three cups of flour*
Half a cup of sweet stuff
*If your flour isn't self rising, add three teaspoons of baking powder and a teaspoon of salt.
Mix the dry ingredients, then stir in the beer, dump the batter in a greased loaf pan, brush some melted butter on top if you wish, and bake in a preheated 375-degree oven for about an hour.
We used a bottle of Cape Cod Blueberry Coffee Porter, and a quarter cup of brown sugar and a quarter cup of white for the sweet stuff. We've seen recipes that use honey, or all white sugar.
That's it! Let it cool in the pan for about 10 minutes, then on a rack for a little bit longer.