Friday, September 30, 2011

Beer Bread with Cheese in Cast Iron


At the beginning of September, I was starting to panic - I hadn't cooked very much and I was running out of completed recipes for the blog. At the same time, things were just plain busy - and beans on toast was for dinner.

That afternoon, before starting dinner, I saw a recipe that inspired me to make a change to dinner plans - and bake... sort of. Food Floozie had just wrote about a buttery beer bread covered in cheese. Not wanting to completely duplicate her efforts, I switched things around a bit. I used olive oil instead of butter, and not nearly as much cheese (read: I ran out of cheese).

By the time I got the bread into the oven, neighbours dropped by to invite us to supper - so the bread ended up being a yummy pre-dinner snack (and part of my lunch for the following day!).

The final result was great - warm, dense, soft, and it still had a cheese and onion-y goodness to it. I imagine it wasn't as rich or tasty as the Food Floozie's, tho.

Beer Bread with Cheese in Cast Iron

3 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups white flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 12-ounce bottle of beer
4 oz Cheddar cheese, shredded
  1. Preheat oven to 350-degrees.
  2. Heat oil in a 9-inch cast-iron pan and add the onion, garlic, salt, and red pepper flakes, Fry until the onions are translucent.
  3. Whisk together the flours and baking powder in a large bowl and stir in the onion and garlic mixture.
  4. Continue to mix while slowly stirring in the beer.
  5. stir in the cheese and transfer the mixture back into the pan.
  6. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until a tester inserted into the centre of the bread comes out clean. Let rest for at least 15 minutes before slicing.
Mostly based on Food Floozie's Beer 'n Cheese Bread

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8 comments:

  1. wow, very new kind of bread for me. I mean I know you add alcohol in cakes, but never knew about bread, but then again I am totally new to baking.

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  2. That sounds very creative and a good appetizer snack. Did you cook that right in the cast iron skillet?

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  3. @priya: I think it's actually the fact that it's beer in particular that makes the difference in this bread, since beer is made with yeast.

    That being said, I might use self-rising flour next time, or at least let the dough rise a bit before baking it next time. It barely rose at all.

    @suzi: yes, I baked it right in the pan.

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  4. Very new to this recipe! Yes there are times when we face the "bloggers block" dont we?

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  5. Cheese + beer always sounds like a winner to me!

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  6. what nice bread look delicious! gloria from http://canelakitchen.blogspot.com

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  7. always looking for a beer bread since DH is a homebrewer. Thanks for linking up!

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