NTMB: Beer bread

Flour, water, yeast, salt … and beer! it’s love. Last night I started a batch of beer bread.

Did about 2 seconds of online research. This is always my down fall. I used this recipe from Kohler Created, who in turn used a recipe from Nancy Bagget’s Kneadlessly Simple. The KS way is not one that I’ve ever used, because it’s never seemed that simple to me. So maybe I’m much more lazy than the average home baker, but I do not want to “vigorously stir” anything, nor do I want to wait for my water to be ice cold.

In any case, I was persuaded by Kohler Created’s great photos and the idea of spreading some fake butter on a slice of hoppy Blue Moon bread. I thought perhaps the sugars in the beer might also help create the perfect crust, which it did.

I used less water, maybe about 6 or 7 tablespoons, organic light brown sugar, and did not fuss too much with the second vigorous stirring. Instead, I slapped a lid loosely on my bowl, went to sleep and about 12 hours later, I deflated the dough with a spatula. During final rise, I heated my oven to 450 for 30 minutes with my pot inside, lowered heat to 425, bread went in for about 45 minutes, came out burnt.

Crumb structure is great, have some custardy air pocket things, the bread is fragrant, sweet, and just slightly hoppy. Where not burnt, crust is magnificent. Overall, I like the bread, but I won’t use this recipe again.  There are some hopeful beer bread adaptations of Jim Lahey’s No Knead bread that I hope to try out. In the mean time, maybe the pesky mockingbird outside my apartment would like some booze and carcinogens with his bread?

 

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