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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Martha's Beer Bread


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

Monday, September 27, 2010

Hearth And Soul Hop # 16

HEARTH and SOUL HOP!
Welcome to week number 16 of the Hearth and Soul Hop (formerly Two for Tuesday). What an exciting week last week was - there were so many great link ups - I thoroughly enjoyed each and every one of them!! This week is going to be another great week - I can't wait to read your link ups and to try out as many as possible!  Read on for our mission and linky rules. Thanks for helping to make this blog hop AMAZING!!

Mission:

Food from your hearth, to feed your soul. Food that follows your intuition. Preparing food from scratch to nourish your family…body, mind AND soul! Food made with your own hands…infused with energy and passion and intent. Real food made by real people to feed real families (big and small, in blood or spirit). Ingredients from scratch, be it something grown in your garden or raised on your land…food foraged in the field or woods…food from local farms, farmers, or farmers markets…or even ingredients chosen by you from your local market that will be turned into something that feeds your soul. Tapping the food memory that each of us has stored inside; letting it guide and influence our own time in the kitchen.

We hope to embrace not only the “expected” areas of real food, but also those who want to incorporate healthier choices without sacrificing their love of food…how it tastes, the memories it conjures up, the comfort it brings. Yes, we’re trying to steer clear of packaged, processed, and boxed foods in favor of real foods….without absolutely excluding the sometimes frowned upon white sugar or flour (because the body craves what it craves…and sometimes things just don’t taste the same when you replace these). Making conscious choices and being present in the now with what your body needs…and taking steps towards exploring and enjoying healthier choices. If you take the time to listen, your body will tell you what it needs.

The warm comfort of the home hearth…stories, anecdotes, lessons, adventures, journeys, recipes, meals, beverages…we want to share the “why” of how food feeds more than just our bodies…how it also feeds our souls. After all, aren’t these the essential ingredients in defining real food? Please share links from your Hearth and Soul with us each week.

*All of the hosts will visit each link before the next linky period opens, because this is personal for us…we want you to know that we appreciate that you’ve taken the time to create a post, add a link back to the hop, and add your link! We’ll be sure to acknowledge this with a comment and a tweet on Twitter (using hashtag #hsoul).

Rules for linking:
  • One link per week, please
  • Must include a link back to one/any of the host sites (through worded link or badge) in individual post, not on sidebar…although we love having links on your page, as well (this benefits all of us). You will be sent a gentle reminder if no link is added to your post, we understand that sometimes people forget…but if it becomes a regular occurrence, (even though we don’t like to do it) your post may be removed. It’s just not fair to those who do take the time and show the grace to link back.
  • Try to link a post that you think fits into the mission of Hearth 'n Soul. You don’t have to link up every week…link up when you can. We welcome posts that are shared in other events. If you have an older, archived post that you want to add, we welcome that…as long as you go in and add a link back to the Hearth and Soul Hop.

Linky will stay open from 10 pm Monday to 11:59 pm Wednesday (Eastern time).

Your Hosts:
Hunger and Thirst
Frugality and Crunchiness with Christy 

here


This linky list is now closed.