Internet Test Kitchen: Beer Bread
Sep. 21st, 2013 10:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mark_asphodelThere are many different kinds and classes of beer. Craft beer, lawnmower beer, "fucking close to water" beer, dark velvety stouts, golden Belgian ales, and overhopped American IPAs. And then there's Shock Top.
See, I like Blue Moon, or at least I did. But Blue Moon, while quite drinkable and just the thing to enjoy with a slice of orange and a slice of pizza out in the patio at the Green Mill in Albert Lea, MN... has a nasty underbelly. It's MillerCoors pretending to be a craft beer (OK) and then there's all the other bad stuff that goes along with being MillerCoors. But Shock Top, Anheuser-Busch's answer to Blue Moon, manages to be even worse-- a vulgar imitation as a rival. If it were an FE character it'd be, like, Samto. It's also simply not that good. The Belgian White isn't poison, but the first bottle of Raspberry Wheat I tasted got poured down the sink to sweeten the drain.
But thanks to a relative with lousy taste in beer we were gifted a pile of various Shock Tops. The only reason they didn't all go down the drain so we could get the recycling money was that I figured this stuff might be good for beer bread. After sitting on the stockpile for a year, I finally put this recipe-- the numero uno beer bread recipe via Google-- to the test. I made the first loaf with the last bottle of Belgian White and the second with Raspberry Wheat, which has such an artificial and vile scent I feared it might ruin the bread.
Fear not. This is a damn good recipe and withstood the power of bad beer. My only recommendations are to sift the flour twice and to reduce the butter to 1/4 cup, which is plenty. The first loaf came out more biscuity than bready when I sifted the flour once (prior to measuring), but when I sifted, measured out three cups, added the other dry ingredients, and sifted the full dry-ingredient mass again, I got a proper loaf of dense, yeasty bread. I also recommend that you do not overmix-- a few streaks of flour in the dough will not harm the loaf. Quite the reverse.
Anyway, with those tips in mind this recipe is a phenomenal way to use up unwanted beer, though I doubt it would work with Bud Light or some other "fucking close to water" beer. For a beer with pretensions to craft, gone wrong, this recipe is perfect.
See, I like Blue Moon, or at least I did. But Blue Moon, while quite drinkable and just the thing to enjoy with a slice of orange and a slice of pizza out in the patio at the Green Mill in Albert Lea, MN... has a nasty underbelly. It's MillerCoors pretending to be a craft beer (OK) and then there's all the other bad stuff that goes along with being MillerCoors. But Shock Top, Anheuser-Busch's answer to Blue Moon, manages to be even worse-- a vulgar imitation as a rival. If it were an FE character it'd be, like, Samto. It's also simply not that good. The Belgian White isn't poison, but the first bottle of Raspberry Wheat I tasted got poured down the sink to sweeten the drain.
But thanks to a relative with lousy taste in beer we were gifted a pile of various Shock Tops. The only reason they didn't all go down the drain so we could get the recycling money was that I figured this stuff might be good for beer bread. After sitting on the stockpile for a year, I finally put this recipe-- the numero uno beer bread recipe via Google-- to the test. I made the first loaf with the last bottle of Belgian White and the second with Raspberry Wheat, which has such an artificial and vile scent I feared it might ruin the bread.
Fear not. This is a damn good recipe and withstood the power of bad beer. My only recommendations are to sift the flour twice and to reduce the butter to 1/4 cup, which is plenty. The first loaf came out more biscuity than bready when I sifted the flour once (prior to measuring), but when I sifted, measured out three cups, added the other dry ingredients, and sifted the full dry-ingredient mass again, I got a proper loaf of dense, yeasty bread. I also recommend that you do not overmix-- a few streaks of flour in the dough will not harm the loaf. Quite the reverse.
Anyway, with those tips in mind this recipe is a phenomenal way to use up unwanted beer, though I doubt it would work with Bud Light or some other "fucking close to water" beer. For a beer with pretensions to craft, gone wrong, this recipe is perfect.
no subject
Date: 2013-09-22 02:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-22 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-22 01:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-09-23 01:19 pm (UTC)I think I'm only half-joking.no subject
Date: 2013-09-24 02:14 am (UTC)My major bent at present is for Belgian ale. There's a good brewery out of Quebec that makes some great stuff like Fin du Monde and Trois Pistoles.