Alton Brown's Cheddar Beer Bread

I caught a new episode of Good Eats last night where Alton was talking about cooking with wine and beer. Unfortunately he only spent about 5 minutes talking about beer. Below is the recipe (and link) for the beer bread he made. It says to use an ale or stout but he specifically said pale ale in the show. He also said you need 3-12oz bottles, one for the bread and two to drink while making the bread

Looked pretty durn good so I might give it a try.

Ingredients

* Nonstick spray
* 8 ounces all-purpose flour
* 4 ounces whole-wheat flour
* 1 tablespoon baking powder
* 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
* 1 teaspoon sugar
* 1 teaspoon chopped fresh dill
* 4 1/2 ounces sharp Cheddar, grated
* 12 ounces cold beer, ale or stout
* 1 to 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds, optional

Directions

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat the inside of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan with the nonstick spray and set aside.

Whisk together the all-purpose flour, wheat flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and dill in a large mixing bowl. Add in the cheese and stir in the beer just to combine. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Sprinkle with the sunflower seeds, if using.

Bake on the middle rack of the oven until the bread reaches an internal temperature of 210 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, about 45 to 55 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Transfer the loaf to a cooling rack for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing and serving.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/beer-bread-recipe/index.html

Sounds interesting. It'll probably be pretty good.....most of his things are. In fact he's the only tv-chef I can watch or tried the recipes of.....

Sounds good. I'd probably have more than 2 beers while making it though.

When I saw it I immediately thought: Skip the sunflower seeds and sprinkle some more cheddar right on top.

It looked really good, 'specially when it was sliced.

Anyone make this yet? I just watched it and think I might do it next weekend.



Oh and did anyone else notice the brew buckets and even starsan in the beginning?

dataz722 said:

Anyone make this yet? I just watched it and think I might do it next weekend.



Oh and did anyone else notice the brew buckets and even starsan in the beginning?

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Maybe I'll make this today. The buckets and such were from his "controversial" brewing episodes entitled amber waves.

Hmm, maybe I'll try this today. I'll add in some spent grains too

Just put a double batch in my oven. I didn't have a bread tin, so I'm trying it in this unit. I will be keeping a watchful eye on it.

Joe C said:

Maybe I'll make this today. The buckets and such were from his "controversial" brewing episodes entitled amber waves.

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Yeah i know but one of the most controversial things was sanitation and now he had some star-san there.

I noticed that as well. I honestly didn't find the episode bad at all, which is why i put it in quotes.

Also, the pan I was originally using was too small. Good thing I was watching.

yum! Very Tasty.

That looks more like a brownie but still looks good.

it would definitely benefit from a real bread pan, but I'm happy with it. It tastes great!

I made one as well, though changed it up a little:

• 12 ounces all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon chopped fresh cilantro
• 4 1/2 ounces Cheddar/Monterey Jack, grated
• 12 ounces beer
• 2 oz spent grain (weighed damp)

Followed the same method for mixing, just added in the spent grain to the initial mix. I sprinkled a little spent grain on top along with some grated parmesean cheese. Haven't tried it yet, but it looks/smells delicious.

Myrdhyn said:

When I saw it I immediately thought: Skip the sunflower seeds and sprinkle some more cheddar right on top.

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If you added it before baking, it would be black. If you added it right after baking, it would probably work.

I saw the episode and I am going to make this soon. I will post pics. :rockin:

Eric

Just Put some in the oven...I'll let you know how it tastes!! Smells Awesome!

So my first attempt at the bread didn't work out so well. First, we didnt have any all purpose flour (wha?!) so I used bread flour. Then, I put the sunflower seeds in the batter instead of on top. So I took it out at 45 minutes and wasn't even to 200 so i put it in for 5 more min, took it out and it was at 200 put it back in and finally called it quits at 205. After resting it flattened out and was real spongy and didnt taste good at all. I might try it again if someone else says they had good results...

SOB said:

So my first attempt at the bread didn't work out so well. First, we didnt have any all purpose flour (wha?!) so I used bread flour. Then, I put the sunflower seeds in the batter instead of on top. So I took it out at 45 minutes and wasn't even to 200 so i put it in for 5 more min, took it out and it was at 200 put it back in and finally called it quits at 205. After resting it flattened out and was real spongy and didnt taste good at all. I might try it again if someone else says they had good results...

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The bread flour probably has too much protein for this recipe and it won't rise well. Try it again with AP flour.

If you have cake flour you could just use a combo of the two and get pretty close to AP. I forget the ration though but I think it is 60 bread 40 cake.

I'm thinking jalapenos.

EricCSU said:

The bread flour probably has too much protein for this recipe and it won't rise well. Try it again with AP flour.

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I figured it was something like that...I was a bit surprised we didnt have any AP flour since we JUST F-IN GOT BACK FROM SHOPPING and SWMBO didnt have it on the list!!! But I was in the mood to try it anyways...

I'll give 'er another chance...both SWMBO and the bread.

SOB said:

I figured it was something like that...I was a bit surprised we didnt have any AP flour since we JUST F-IN GOT BACK FROM SHOPPING and SWMBO didnt have it on the list!!! But I was in the mood to try it anyways...

I'll give 'er another chance...both SWMBO and the bread.

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We've all been there man. AP flour is a kitchen staple, you should always have some on hand. That doesn't mean that I haven't starting making banana bread and then had an oh **** moment and ran to the neighbor for some flour!

Eric

I'll probably knock this one out tonight...

So...It came out alright. I used Flying Dog pale ale. I left out the dill and sunfower seeds. The bread was super moist, nice and spongy a little too salty and had a huge beer taste!. I would definately reduce the amount of salt used maybe add a little more sugar.

I also left out the dill. Used my pure soul porter. Roastiness of beer really came through, could have used a touch more cheese. Would use an IPA next time. vsanchez, did you use Kosher salt?

i didnt remember that i used the last of the salt last time i baked. so i substituted canning and pickling salt(had everything else already measured in bowl). not a good idea!!!! finer salt=very, very salty bread. looked good but not edible.

Um, not sure how I stumbled upon this today at work, but I just got home and threw a batch in the oven. Best part, I used my Caramel Cream Ale I made, that was bottled on last Weds -- and it hissed when I opened and got nice and foamy when dumped onto the flour mixture!

First beer I've made and I didnt really geto to enjoy it (took a quick sip)