Monday, January 26, 2015

Beer Bread!

Special Recipe Collection from the Ladies of the 5th Division Commandery, 1977
 What I'm about to share will likely seem elementary to anyone who bakes with regularity (I don't), or who has even a remedial understanding of middle school science (I used to, but gin and rum and destiny play funny tricks), but the fact that I dumped a bottle of beer on top of a pile of flour and ended up with bread amazes me still.  Even Dr. Husband, who does bake with regularity, was skeptical of the technique as laid out in 1977's Special Recipe Collection from the Ladies of the 5th Division Commandery (with good cause; the book, my grandmother's, is filled with her handwritten notes indicating when an important ingredient or instruction had been left out of a recipe and not caught before going to print. Her own contribution of "Grits Soufflé" came with absolutely no cooking instructions whatsoever, only an ingredient list.)

The recipe for beer bread is so simple, even a governor of Texas could do it:

3 cups self-rising flour
4-5 tablespoons sugar
1 can beer

Mix together. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 minutes. Bake in loaf pan, cookie sheet or anything you like.

Every other recipe in the book is attributed to an individual, except for this one. Maybe making beer bread was so ubiquitous that it's something everyone in 1977 knew how to do, like disco dancing?   

I used a bottle of "Guinness Blonde Ale" in the mix. It didn't seem quite done after 35 minutes in the oven so I kept in baking in 10-minute increments - all told it probably cooked about an hour.

 Our Rating:  Zero Screaming Husbands!
(all dishes are rated from one to five Screaming Husbands. One Screaming Husband equals a happy home where all problems are solved during cocktail hour. Five Screaming Husbands signals the beginning of divorce proceedings.)

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