We’re into whole wheat lately. You know, “The whiter the bread, the sooner you’ll be….” ah, never mind.

We fell in love with whole wheat not out of fear of a sooner death but because of pure pleasure. I have a whole wheat cheese and ham quiche that I’ve been wanting to share… It’s been sitting on the back burner (figuratively speaking) for months now. Since then, we made these pancakes with 50-50 all-purpose flour and whole wheat. Same for these fried calamari, and, you have seen the challa bread, right?

After all these trials, the premises I had regarding whole wheat got completely shattered. I thought it will be so undelicious and yucky, cardboard-tasting and such, but to my surprise I found that whole wheat flour is the real deal.

It has depth, it has “body”—like good wine in a way. A prettier color, and more texture—sandy (in the quiche crust), toothy (in the bread), and its flavor is earthy (we especially felt that in the pancakes. The kids, on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice the change at all!). All-purpose flour, compared to it, is plain boring.

In short, whole wheat flour… It’s beautiful.

Today I tried in beer bread.

I first heard of beer bread only a few days ago after Mr. Husband very casually mentioned that his friend E. brought beer bread to work and let him try some. I love beer so, naturally, I was intrigued.

Turns out it also takes 5 minutes to make! 5 minutes! Really.

If you have a bread machine, now is the time to throw it in the back of the kitchen cabinet.

And, I trust that you know how to do this,

And you sure can do this, right?

I used Hefeweizen, one of my favorite beers. It’s amber and has hints of honey. It’s smooth and easy to drink.

A couple of minutes of beating in a mixer, you can also do this by hand,

Drop into a pan,

And 50-60 minutes later,

Conclusion: There’s no need to buy bread at the store anymore. 5 minutes!

I found the bread to be more “cakey” than “bready” in texture and flavor. It had a soft and a bit spongy crumb, unlike a typical yeasted bread. It was sweet although I used only 1/4 cup sugar compared to 1/3 or 1/2 cup in other recipes I found. But overall, it is a fantastic bread! Especially considering how easy it is to make.

However, I cannot ignore the potential it has to be turned it into a whole wheat cake. I plan to experiment with adding sugar, goodies like nuts, chocolate, some butter… It has great potential. Oh, I’ve said that already. Anyway, if you get around to playing with it, let me know?

Whole wheat beer bread

All the recipes I found online use pretty much the same ingredients and quantities with slight variations, so I guess there is pretty much a standard to what a beer bread is or should be.

Makes 1 loaf

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder (next time try to add baking soda as well)
1/4 cup sugar (next time I think I’ll use only 1-2 tablespoons)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
12 ounces beer, room temp
1-2 tablespoons melted butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter, or spray, a loaf pan and line it with parchment paper.

In a bowl of a mixer, combine all the ingredients besides the butter and mix well. Pour the batter into the buttered loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes.

Remove from the oven, brush the top of the loaf with melted butter and return to the oven to bake for another 5 minutes.

Let cool for 10 minutes and remove from the pan.

That’s it!

Categories : Breads, Recipes