Beer Bread

Let me just start by saying, this beer bread is REALLY good!  I don't think I've actually ever made beer bread before, but we had some good beer in the house and this recipe looked so easy and quick so I decided to make it on a whim.  This is a quick bread so it uses baking powder instead of yeast, which was great because I checked my yeast in the fridge and of course it was expired.

I will say that I had my doubts when I first put it into the oven because it looked too buttery (you pour butter on top before you bake) and I wasn't sure if it would really rise up and be big and fluffy, but sure enough when the timer went off, I opened the oven and it looked perfect :)  It tasted perfect too - the flavor of the beer was subtle, and it was so moist.  You should serve it hot out of the oven because that's when it will taste the best.  I did have a little leftover the next day and it was okay, but not even close to how it tasted the night before.  I found this recipe on another fabulous blog called Erza Pound Cake.  Try this - you won't be dissapointed!

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 bottle (12 ounces) beer (I used a bottle of Goose Island Honkers Ale - use the good stuff, I don't think miller or bud would cut it in this recipe)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 cup of sharp cheddar cheese, grated (I added this to the original recipe to make it a little cheesy)

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and grease a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together all of the ingredients except for the beer and the butter.

Using a wooden spoon, stir the beer into the bowl with the dry ingredients until just mixed.

Pour half of the melted butter into a loaf pan, then spoon the batter into the pan, then pour the other half of the butter on top of the batter.  Slide a baking sheet onto a lower rack to catch any butter that might overflow (I thought about skipping this because I didn't think I would need it, but a little butter did overflow so definitely put the pan underneath).

Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden brown, and serve immediately.

Dinner Rolls - Test Run for Thanksgiving

This year, Kevin and I are hosting thanksgiving at our condo for my parents and my sister which I'm really excited for!  I want to try and make homemade dinner rolls from scratch (usually we just make the Rhode's frozen rolls) so I decided to do a test run today to see what would happen since I've never actually made rolls from scratch before.  Well, I'm glad that I did a test run because I made a few mistakes on these so I'm glad I didn't just wing it on thanksgiving. 

I found this recipe on http://www.allrecipes.com/, and with a 5 star rating and over 1,000 reviews I figured it must be pretty good.  The flavor of the rolls were really good, but the texture was a little off.  They were pretty dense instead of light and fluffy, and what do you know......I checked the expiration on my yeast and it said best by August 2009.  Soooo...glad I found that out now so that I can buy some new yeast.  Also, they weren't really browning pretty on top so I checked the recipe and realized I should have been baking them at 400 instead of 350 like I assumed.  Lesson learned - for next time I will be using fresh yeast and cooking at a higher temperature which I think will make them successful thanksgiving dinner rolls. 

Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)

1/2 cup warm milk
1 egg
1/3 cup butter, softened
1/3 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup butter, softened

Directions:

1.Place water, milk, egg, 1/3 cup butter, sugar, salt, flour and yeast in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select Dough/Knead and First Rise Cycle; press Start.

2.When cycle finishes, turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide dough into 16 balls and place in a muffin pan. Brush some melted butter over the top of each roll.  Cover with clean kitchen towel and put in a warm place, let rise 1 hour. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).

3.Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden.