My focaccia bread recipe is great but a week ago my sis sent me a bread recipe that is the 'King of Quick and Easy'. I still can't believe how flour and beer transform into something so yummy - give it a go and tell me how you find it. There are a lot of variations on the internet - just search for beer bread. This version is from Jo Seagar's website at
http://joseagar.com/recipes/category:baking-and-treats/beer-bread/
Beer Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour (sifted)
- 3 teaspoons baking powder (sifted)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 can of beer (made up to 400 mls with water)
- 1 handful of grated cheese
Method
Preheat oven to 200°C. Quickly mix all ingredients together and spoon into a greased or non-stick loaf tin and top with grated cheese. A large loaf 20 x 10cm tin will take 1 hour but smaller tins 8 x 15cm take 35 - 40 minutes.
A wonderful 'quick bread' that has the texture and taste of a farmhouse loaf - gorgeous yeasty smell and made in a jiff without all that planning for hours, bowls of dough rising in the hot water cupboard, kneading and fiddling about. You don't even have to take off your rings to make this one.
This bread can be made with a variety of flours, wholemeal, mixed grain etc. Allow 1 teaspoon baking powder per cup of flour - and of course it can be topped with other things besides cheese, e.g. sesame seeds, rosemary, flaked salt, paprika and poppy seeds etc.
A great idea is to make a stuffed bread using this basic recipe. Place 1/2 the mixture in the loaf tin. Spoon in a layer of onion marmalade (see recipe) and say a layer of chargrilled peppers, spinach leaves, pitted olives etc. Spoon in the remainder of the dough and bake as per directions.
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| My first beer bread loaf |
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| Slices nicely, toasts great - fantastic! |
My first loaf followed the recipe above and was cooked in the main oven which is fanbake only so I dropped the temperature to about 180°C and cooked it for 50 minutes. I cut back on the salt and added 2tsp mixed herb and cooked in my mini-oven at 200°C for about the same time. The bread looked and smelt yummy but the texture was different and next time I'd cut the mixed herbs back to 1tsp as it was a bit overpowering. I've bought 2 dozen beer on special this week and will experiment further with olives, salsa and some caramelised onions!
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| My second loaf - mixed herbs and cheese |
We've had some lovely winter weather - cool nights with frosty mornings and sunny days. This was the scene last Saturday at the bottom of Back Road...
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| 9.45am on Saturday 13 July |
Saturday's sunshine gave way to sleety showers on Sunday but I certainly wasn't cold as I trimmed tracks at Dancing Star. I ran into Red/Blue/Red (one of the toutouwai, Stewart Island Robins, released at the preserve earlier this year and, as I had some mealworms with me, I could feed him/her and enjoy watching this wee robin at close quarters.
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| Horseshoe Bay at low tide with sleety showers breezing through |
It was great to have this young one's company but at times he/she came so close I had to be careful where I was stepping. Click on the picture below to hear the robin trilling to me...
