Cheddar beer bread

Aren’t they the three best words to see together? I mean, of course there’s “I love you” and “Dinner is ready!” but…cheddar beer bread.

It’s been a bit of a month for bread around here, as I spend my weekends scouting out local bakeries and other produce and, well, it’d be rude not to take some home for the week, right?

But I’ll leave the complicated styles to the pros. This bread – the type that doesn’t require rising time or kneading – takes about an hour from start to finish, so it’s a great easy accompaniment to a hearty autumn stew or chilli. (The ease is a relief when you’ve spent the first half of your evening chopping, stirring, and lifting absurdly heavy pans in an effort to batch-cook something excellent.)

I feel like the base recipe also has plenty of scope for adaptions – herbs? Heavier beers and cocoa? More cheeses?

But we’ll start with this. Cheddar beer bread, I love you (dinner is ready!).

Adapted from Gimme Some Oven

Ingredients

350g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
330ml beer (I used King Goblin, which apparently pairs well with chilli)
100g mature cheddar, grated
Butter, to grease loaf tin

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 180C and grease a loaf tin with butter.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt.
  3. Slowly pour the beer into the flour mixture, and stir until combined.
  4. Add in the cheese and stir to distribute evenly throughout the dough.
  5. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until the top of the bread is golden brown and a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. Serve immediately or allow to cool and keep in an airtight container for a couple of days.