BEER BREAD!

Every time we have people over there are always half empty (full!) bottles of beer left over - I have a few recipes in my arsenal to use them up.  Now before you report me to the germ police, these are bottles of beer that have been poured into glasses - and I don't use any of the half full (empty!) beer glasses - I promise!!

One of these recipes is for beer bread - and it is a conglomeration of about four different recipes, and it works well for us.  There is a nice savoury taste which works well with cheese, ham, tomatoes etc.  I didn't use any seeds in this loaf, but they work well in it - if you have some handy.  The bread has quite a light texture (for a wholemeal yeast free bread) I wonder if it's the bubbles in the beer!

                                                                    

      Note the baby's bottle in the background - I find them great for measuring, and they take  up much less space in the dishwasher then my measuring  jugs!!      

                                                   Beer Bread

Makes one loaf

2            cups wholemeal flour*
1            cup granary flour*
1/2 tsp    salt
1 tsp       sugar (heaped)
400ml     beer
2 tsp       baking powder (rounded)
water to bring to the correct texture

Preheat oven to 180 C
Prepare 1 loaf tin (1lb/900g) with parchment paper or butter.

Mix your dry ingredients. 
Add most of the beer and mix, it should have a texture like thick porridge.
Add more beer and/or water to get to the correct consistency.
Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 1 hour.
Tap the bottom to ensure the bread is baked - if it sounds hollow it's ready.
Leave on a wire rack to cool.


*Feel free to play around with the types of flour (I'm having a bit of a granary thing at the moment!!) All wholemeal might be a bit too much though.


Enjoy!