Whole Wheat Dill Beer Bread

Pinjing — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 23:40:22 +0000

Here’s the recipe for the beer bread pictured in the previous post; this is a super easy, quick-to-put-together quick bread. I love how it only takes one bowl and a few ingredients that you probably have in your pantry. After a bake in the oven, you have yourself a crusty, savory and moist bread that you could dunk in a bowl of hot soup or eaten at breakfast with your choice of spread (maybe a sundried-tomato,fig, and caper balsamic jam, perhaps?).

As with most of my baked goods, I opted to use white whole wheat flour. Since this is a quick, not yeasted, bread, I substituted half the portion of white whole wheat with whole wheat pastry flour to avoid a heavy texture. This worked out quite well; the bread was hearty, but not gummy or dense. As for the taste, the whole wheat added a welcome nutty flavor that complimented the yeasty aroma of the beer. As for the beer that I used, I just used a can of Kirin Ichiban, as that was what I had on hand.

Whole Wheat Dill Beer Bread
Recipe adapted from Farmgirl Fare’s Beyond Easy Beer Bread.
Yields one 9″ x 5″ loaf.

What you’ll need:

180g (1 1/2 cups) whole-wheat pastry flour
180g (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose or white whole wheat flour
1 Tablespoon granulated sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons dried dill
1 cup grated cheese of your choice (I used Trader Joe’s soy cheese)
12 ounces beer
1 egg beaten with 2 teaspoons water, optional, for glaze

The procedure:

Preheat the oven to 375F. Prepare your loaf pan either by oiling/buttering it or lining with parchment paper. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients except for the beer until well combined. Pour in the beer and mix, trying not to overmix (similar to when you are making muffins, you don’t want to develop too much gluten which could result in tough bread). Mix until just combined. The batter will be thick.

Pour into the prepared loaf pan and if using the glaze, brush the top of the bread with the glaze and place in the oven. Bake for approximately 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean. The crust will be golden brown. If you feel like the crust is browning too quickly, you can place a piece of tin foil over the top as a tent.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 10 minutes before turning out on a rack to cool completely. Slice and enjoy!

This recipe is super versatile as well; you could add any number of herbs (I used dill in my case), cheeses, nuts or dried fruits. Get creative!

Enjoy!

Too Much Food » soy cheese

Whole Wheat Dill Beer Bread