from Women’s Adventure Magazine, March 2006
Cooking with beer has deep roots in western Europe. Because the alcohol has a much lower boiling point than water, it evaporates quickly, leaving only the characteristic tase of the beer. Malty beers add a sweet, nutty taste, whereas hop lagers can add a bitter, herbal flavor. Consider substituting beer in many of your favorite recipes: as a marinade for beef, as a substitute for water in soups and stocks, or as a cooking liquid for steaming sausages or shellfish.
Beth’s Beer Bread
3 rounded cups of self-rising flour*
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
12 ounces room-temperature beer (the darker, the better)
butter
Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. Slowly add beer. Mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon. Place in a buttered loaf pan and let rise 30 minutes.** Bake 1 hour at 350F. After 5 minutes, remove from pan and allow to cool on a rack.
You can use any kind of beer, but darker beers add more flavor. Season with your favorite herbs or spices – oregano, garlic, chili powder – just mix in with the dry ingredients. The more butter you use on the pan (and on the top of the dough before baking), the thicker the crust. Grate Parmesan cheese over the top before baking for a zesty crust.
*It’s imperative that you use self-rising flour – its leavening agent combines with that in the beer to enable the dough to rise.
**Modifications: When we baked this bread recently for our Trail Food recipes, we skipped the 30 minute rising – straight into the oven it went. We also added 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese to the dry ingredients and smeared it with chive-cream cheese when it was cool. We used Guinness as our beer. Goodness in a loaf!
