Ok, when I was a young man, I baby-sat for this family and the young man I was sitting wanted Beer Bread to go with his dinner. Beer bread was not something that was eaten around my house, neither was monkey bread which this family introduced me to. When I moved to Chico I started The Bread Project, to give me something outside myself to focus on while I get settle in ,my new home in Chico CA.
The Bread Project was inspired by watching Julie on Julia, where Julie cooks her way through Julia Child's Cookbook. My inspired version is using Beth Hensperger's The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook. This project is doing a good job of giving me something outside myself to focus on in my ongoing Psycho-Social recovery from my service connected disabilities.
There is a lot online about Beer Bread, not so much about its where originates. From what I have read Beer Bread can be traced back all the way to ancient Egypt. Long way from my baby sitting job.
Beth's book states that you can use whatever beer you want. I chose Dunkelweizen, a German Summer Wheat Beer. I thought it would be a nicely flavored, light loaf, perfect for a Bratwurst dinner I had planned. The cool thing about Beer Bread is that it is easy to make:
1.5 Pound Loaf Beer Bread
1 1/8th cups room temp beer
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoon bread machine yeast
I added all the ingredients to the machine, let it kneed for t5 minutes and then had to add about a table spoon and a half more beer to get everything to incorporate. The loaf was done late, I set it on the wire rack to cool and hit the sack. This morning I awoke, took my new car to the Pep boys to get a once over and walked home. Then I cooked up some sausage, eggs, potatoes and sliced a couple of healthy slices of the beer beer which I threw in the toaster.
The beer bread came out of the toaster perfectly. it complimented the breakfast perfectly.
I really learned something from the last few loaves of bread, which is the importance of the liquid added to the bread's overall texture and flavor profile. It is incredible how different the bread made with Yogurt was from the one with Sour Cream, from the one made with milk, from the one made with Buttermilk. I have truly come to respect the importance of the liquid used in bread making and its flavor and texture.
I also figured out that it is costing me about 75 cents a day to make a loaf of bread, 35 cents of flour, 15 cents of yeast, 5 cents of dry milk, 30 cents of whole milk, 25 cents of olive oil, about 5 cents for sugar, honey and salt.