Monday, January 24, 2022

Daily Bread

It's been grey and cold this week, with sleet, snow, and rain. Weather like that always makes me feel like baking, and I've been thinking about bread since I made turkey soup for my BiL. I took it over to him after he had arthroscopic knee surgery last week, and when you have soup, you need bread to go with it. I didn't want to make something complicated, and since I have a case of Michelob that somebody gave us (but nobody here drinks it), I decided to make beer bread. 


I've made regular beer bread for quite a few years. It's perfect when you want a quick bread to serve with dinner, but don't have time for a yeast-risen loaf. It's especially good to use up beer that nobody likes to drink. My kids used to think they were getting away with something when I "let" them have beer bread.


As good and easy as beer bread is, the variations are also great. I made a loaf of
cheddar beer bread to serve with some beef barley soup I made for us. If you happen to have swiss cheese on hand, swiss beer bread is also favorite of mine.  


For something a little sweet, I started with this recipe for cinnamon raisin beer bread and tweaked it a little bit, increasing the cinnamon to I Tbsp, increasing the raisins to 1 cup, and soaking them in beer for a while before adding them to the batter. Plump and juicy raisins are so much better than dry, shriveled ones.


I did have to try a small slice of both of these, just in case they didn't turn out. They both tasted just fine so I won't have to worry about serving sub-par bread to my family. The cheese was evenly distributed, but Paul Hollywood would probably have something to say about the distribution of the raisins. (Good thing he's not invited.)

I haven't tried any of these variations yet, but they all sound good to me, so I'm sure I'll be making them soon.

I hope your week is a delicious one!

13 comments:

  1. My mouth is watering over here! I intend to make some been bread this week (we have a couple of bottles sitting in the basement that no one is drinking). It's supposed to get up to 40 tomorrow, so Fletch is planning to grill steaks - maybe I'll whip up some beer bread to go with those!

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  2. Oh, YUM. Those look so tasty, Bonny. I am definitely going to check out the recipes. I actually love kneading bread (it makes me feel like such a baker!), but I think I need to try some no-knead varieties to make bread-with-dinner a more doable option.

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  3. Yum! I haven't made beer bread in years, but I made a bunch of it a number of years ago when someone brought over beer that I didn't care to drink for a party and I didn't want the few bottles left to go to waste.

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  4. If you can possibly believe this... we have no beer in the house! I think I need to remedy that to bake some of these breads! They all look so delicious, Bonny!!

    (however, I do have 2 skeins of Feather Hat Yarn that arrived on Saturday! And yes, I ordered the 3rd color on Friday after I talked to Kym! LOL)

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  5. OK, now I am very hungry, Bonny. I haven't made beer bread in forever, but I don't have any beer in the house, so I guess it will have to wait until I get to the grocery again. Those look delicious, and I bet either of them would make a great breakfast.

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  6. I have made "your" raisin beer bread several times (often with craisins) but didn't know about the "regular" one. Will put into rotation!

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  7. wow you are really good at baking bread, they look super delicious!! I haven't had home made bread in a long long time...

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  8. This is a great idea for using up the beer that no one likes! That's few and far between at our house since Dale is a BIG fan of beer, though!

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  9. Oh yummy!! Thank goodness it's lunchtime soon!!

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  10. Oh, does that bread look good and I have some beer in the fridge!

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    1. It sounds like a perfect opportunity to make some delicious bread!

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  11. I've never made beer bread. It sure looks delicious. I am thinking about soup and bread for dinner tomorrow. It's going to be another bitter cold day.

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  12. They look amazing! I love cinnamon raisin bread!

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