Cheese and Beer Bread

Beer breads are among the most popular and commonly shared recipes in the homebrewing world.

Mon, Jan 25 2010 at 12:25 PM EST

Cheese and Beer Bread

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour
3⁄4 cup plus 2 tablespoons whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
Scant teaspoon kosher salt
1⁄4 cup sugar
2 ounces grated sharp cheddar (about 1 cup)
2 eggs, beaten
3 tablespoons corn oil
1 tablespoon prepared spicy brown mustard
11⁄4 cups beer (any type)

Time estimates

Prep time: 10 min

Cook time: 45 min

Total time: 55 min

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350˚F.
Coat a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
Sift the dry ingredients together into a medium bowl.
Stir in the cheese.
Beat the eggs, oil and mustard together in a small bowl and add to the dry ingredients along with the beer.
Stir just until the dry ingredients are evenly moistened.
Spread evenly in the loaf pan and bake until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes.
Let cool 15 minutes in the pan, then turn out and cool on a wire rack.
Serve at room temperature.

Yield

Makes 1 loaf

Variation

Omit the mustard and add a teaspoon of curry powder to the dry ingredients. The curry flavor in the finished bread will be barely detectable, but it supports the other flavors nicely.

Good to know

Beer breads are among the most popular and commonly shared recipes in the homebrewing world. I suspect there are two main reasons for this: Baking and brewing are somewhat similar processes of following recipes and tinkering with them, and homebrewers usually have lots of beer on hand to experiment with. But you don’t have to use homemade beer; just about any bottled beer will work for this slightly sweet, muffinlike tea bread, though a really hoppy ale might be too much. In any case, expect the beer aroma to take a while to emerge as the bread cools and to peak in about 24 hours.

Which beer should I drink with this?

Whatever goes with the rest of the menu.

Also from The Microbrew Lover's Cookbook:

• From the Beer Belt

• Pizza and Beyond

• From the Spice Bazaar

• Malt and Hops, Meet Ginger and Soy

• From the Home of the Chile Pepper

• Beer in the Melting Pot

Go back to The Microbrew Lover's Cookbook index page.