Food Friday--Beer Bread and Cinnamon Butter

When I was a child, my mother used to make beer bread fairly regularly.  I hated it.  It tasted like my dad's beer, which I also hated.

One day when I was in my early twenties, I got a weird craving for beer bread, so I decided to get my mother's recipe and make a loaf.  I was quite surprised to discover that even though I still disliked beer, the bread was surprisingly good.  It was also easy to make, which is a huge plus in my opinion.

Now I make it every once in a while, and my husband and I (neither one of us like beer, by the way) will happily devour the entire loaf of bread in a couple of days while our teenage son sits sulkily by and watches with much angst and disgust.

It's good slathered with butter and drizzled with honey, but this time I decided to make cinnamon butter to go on it.  I have been making honey butter for years and after seeing the cinnamon butter in the grocery store, I decided to take a shot at making some since I know I could do it for MUCH less than what the grocery store was charging for it.

It's tasty, too, and would probably be good on toast or a bagel or perhaps on French toast or waffles.  I hope you like it, too.

Beer Bread

What you need:

3 Cups of flour (All Purpose is fine, Bread Flour is better)
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 Teaspoon salt
1/4 Cup granulated sugar
12 Ounces of your favorite beer
1/4 Cup melted butter --I use unsalted, but you probably know that by now.  :)

What you do:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees, and spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with nonstick spray.

In a medium sized bowl, add your flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt and stir well.

Added, not yet stirred.

Pour in your beer.  It will be foamy, so watch out for that.  

This is what I had on hand, so this is what I used.

Beer foam!

Stir until everything is just combined.  It will be kind of wet and shaggy.  It's supposed to be that way.

Wet, shaggy dough.

Put your dough in your prepared loaf pan, spreading as evenly as possible, and pour your melted butter over the top.

Butter!  Yum.  

Pop this in the oven and let bake for 40-45 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.  Let cool for about 10 minutes before slicing.

It won't win any beauty contests, but it tastes good.

Cinnamon Butter:

What you need:

1 Stick of unsalted butter

1/4 Cup powdered sugar

1/4 Cup honey

1 Teaspoon to 1 Tablespoon of ground cinnamon, depending on your preference.  I used an entire tablespoon.

What you do:

In a microwave safe bowl, melt your butter, then stir in the powdered sugar, the honey and the cinnamon.  Mix it very well, then cover the bowl and put it in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to allow the butter to solidify before using.  Store this in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Mixed thoroughly and refrigerated for 45 minutes.

Spread on a chunk of beer bread.  Om nom nom.