Better Later Than Never: Beer Bread

2020 is, among other things, the year everyone's inner baker came out.  It may have slowed down a bit now that the province is slowly reopening, but people have been cranking out baked goods nonstop over the past few months even with baking ingredients in short supply during the COVID-19 pandemic. I'm not much of a baker, so I have no patience or desire to get a sourdough starter going. Instead, I went with a beer bread recipe for my baking therapy. It's easy to make because it eliminates the entire process of kneading, rising, and kneading again, as the beer’s yeast content reacts with the other ingredients in the bread mix, causing the dough to rise and start to leaven. So if you can get your hands on some flour, and have some spare beer in the fridge, give this recipe a try for some easy baked goods. Hopefully, you still have some spare time...

Ingredients

410 g flour (sifted)
60 g sugar
15 g baking powder (omit if using self-rising flour)
6 g salt (omit if using self-rising flour)
120 mL melted butter
1 (355 mL) can beer (just about any will work, even non-alcoholic beer, though the taste of your bread will depend on what you use; a stout will impart a stronger flavour than an ale.
NOTE: It is highly recommended adding a packet of dry active yeast or 6 g of bread machine yeast if you use non-alcoholic beer in order to get a proper rise)

1. Preheat oven to 190 °C.
2. Sifting your flour breaks down any clumps in it and makes the flour fluffier by infusing air into it. preventing the bread from turning into something hard and inedible. If you don't have a flour sifter, measure out the flour into a bowl and mix it with either a fork or whisk. Once done, add the remaining dry ingredients and the beer and mix everything together - mix the butter into the batter if you want a more traditional bread with a soft crust.
3. Pour the mixture into a greased loaf pan. For a buttery, crunchy crust, pour the melted butter on top of the batter.
4. Bake for one hour, then remove from the pan and let cool for at least 15 minutes.