VERY Easy Beer Bread
Believe it! This really is easy!
If you thought that bread making involved strenuous kneading and waiting for
ages while the dough rises, prepare to be amazed.
Recipe makes two crusty ciabatta-like loaves.
It's a great accompaniment to French Sussex Onion Soup or
Doctor Borde’s Beery Lamb and so quick to make
that you could prepare some while you're making the main dish.
Eaten fresh and hot like this is the nicest way to have it. Try it
with farm fresh butter and a nice pâté,
accompanied by a glass of Merry Andrew.
We don't know how long it will keep as we have always eaten it
immediately or by the next day at the latest. If you find the crust
has become leathery, freshen it up by dampening it - run it under the tap -
and give it a few minutes in a moderate oven. However you must then
eat it immediately or it will go really hard, and only be useful for
breadcrumbs or croutons.
Preparation Time: 10 minutes Cooking Time: 35-40 minutes
Ingredients:
310g/11oz Self-raising flour
Pinch salt
Pinch sugar
60ml/2fl.oz. Water
Splash of sesame oil - optional, we thought it would add an interesting flavour and we may increase the amount next time round)
1 Ropetackle Golden Ale (needs about half the bottle - enjoy the rest while the bread's cooking)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 220˚C/425˚F/Gas Mark 4. Use
the oil to thoroughly grease two one pound loaf tins.
Put the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl, and mix the dry ingredients
together. Add sesame oil, if desired, and the water. [The
recipe we based this on suggested mixing it with your hands, but it would
get very messy. We used a wooden rice paddle, which is flat unlike a
wooden spoon and cuts through the mixture well. Any flat spatula would
do equally well.] Mix well - at this stage the mixture will look
crumbly.
Now add the beer a splash at a time, mixing thoroughly, using only as much
beer as needed to get the right consistency. The aim is to get a
sloppy mixture, like thick batter, (not dry and nothing like normal
bread dough). Pour it into the tins and bake for about 35 minutes or
until golden. Don't expect it to rise like bread made with yeast - it
will probably come half-way up the loaf tin. Check with a skewer or cocktail stick that it has cooked
through - if so, the skewer will come out clean. Turn out on to
a wire tray to cool.