I have an old recipe book I bought years ago at a garage sale - The New Cookbook for Poor Poets by Ann Rogers. It is a great book with lots of interesting and frugal-ish recipes.
One that has always intrigued me is called Beer Bread and it only has 3 - yes 3 ingredients. One of them is self-rising flour, something I don't usually (or ever have on hand). But the other day I sent my almost 18 year old daughter to the store for flour and she came home with self-rising. So, I decided to give it a try.
I used a bottle of my husbands Dark Beck's Beer - note to self - don't use such a dark beer again - too strong. BUT it turned out and is fairly tasty. I can't wait to try other flavors of beer!
I know my friend girlichef has a wonderful yeasted beer bread recipe that involves some kneading and rising - and looks amazing. I know it is worth the extra effort!
If you have bread issues - you know, you wake up at night in sweat thinking about making bread, or every loaf you have made is now a door stop -then this recipe is for you!
My recipe has no kneading, no rising, and goes together in like 5 minutes.
Martha's Beer Bread
(I don't know who Martha is but want her to get her credit!)
3 cups self rising flour
3 TBS sugar
1 - 12oz bottle of warm beer
Combine the flour and sugar and stir in the beer. Spoon dough into a well-buttered loaf pan. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.
She suggests for variations to add to the dry ingredients a 1/4 cup of wheat germ or a 1/2 cup of raisins.
This bread is really easy and fabulously delicious.
Oh, and while I haven't tried it - if you don't have self rising flour you can just add together 1 tsp of salt and
1 TBS of baking powder.
Additional variations are really endless -
I would imagine that adding up to a 1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan cheese would be delicious along with some Italian seasonings.
I was thinking that on my next loaf I would make a garlic and herb loaf - adding 1 tsp dried: rosemary, oregano, thyme and garlic.
If you wanted it a little healthier you could substitute 2 cups whole wheat flour for 2 cups of the white - you would need to add the salt and baking powder.
Christmas Gift Alert - This would be a great Christmas gift and super simple. Put together the dry ingredients in a pretty glass jar, attach the "directions" and a bottle of beer if you want - voila' an impressive gift. Just don't share how easy the mix is ;o)
I am linking this to the following blog parties:
WhoIsLaura.com's Tasty Tuesday
Life as Mom's Frugal Friday
Ann Kroeker's Food on Friday
Brenda's Canadian Kitchen's Cookbook Sunday
12 Days of Bloggie-mas - The Eleventh Day - Bread @ A Moderate Life
