Bake up this hearty Whole Wheat Beer Bread to fill your bread basket. This beer bread recipe is delicious alongside soup, stew, or chili, and tastes great warm with butter.
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Cheddar Cheese Soup
While I am not a beer drinker, we usually have some kind of beer in the cupboard. My husband loves dark beers, particularly stouts and porters. Lucky for me those beers make the best beer bread.
I make this bread with Guinness, but you can use any beer you like. Darker beers will give you a heartier flavor. The recipe calls for 1 ½ cups or 12 ounces. If your bottle or can is something lame like 11.2 ounces, just add enough water to make it a full 12 ounces.
Beer bread is a weird thing. It doesn’t taste like beer, but it does have a unique flavor. If you typically keep self-rising flour on hand, beer bread can come together with as few as three ingredients: flour, beer, and sugar. For this recipe, I chose to use whole wheat pastry flour. I’m trying to work in whole grains as often as I can. Since I’ve never seen self-rising whole wheat flour, it made sense to up my ingredient count to five.
The bread itself mixes up in about five minutes, but it does take about an hour to bake, so plan ahead. It’s quicker than yeast breads, but still takes some effort. All good things do, dontcha know?
What do you need to make this beer bread?
- Whole wheat pastry flour – This is a whole grain flour so it’s rich in nutrients, but pastry flour is little lower in protein content than regular flour so that means it’s still soft in texture.
- Sugar – Use granulated sugar for this bread recipe to add a touch of sweetness.
- Baking powder – This is a quick bread so that means no yeast is required. Baking powder helps this bread to rise, so you get fresh homemade bread faster.
- Salt – A little salt is always needed to help bring out the flavors of this bread.
- Beer – I made this with Guinness, but you can use any type of beer you want. Darker beers will give you a heartier flavor.
How to make this whole wheat beer bread
- Prepare the pan. Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- Make the batter. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pour in the beer and fold to combine. The dough/batter will be lumpy but very moist.
- Bake the bread. Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking pan and bake for one hour or until golden and cooked through. The bread should shrink away from the sides of the pan. Remove to a rack to cool. Serve with butter.
What beer is best in beer bread?
So we used Guinness, but you can use any beer you like. If you want a more pronounced heartier flavor then be sure to use a darker beer.
Can you get drunk on beer bread?
The alcohol in the beer will bake off, so there’s no worry there. The flavor will still remain, but the alcohol won’t.
What do you eat with beer bread?
This is the ideal bread to serve with soups, chilis, and stews.
How to make this beer bread good and cheap:
Here are some of the strategies you can use to make this recipe more economical:
- Bake it yourself from scratch – Don’t buy mixes. Don’t buy pricey bakery bread. You can make your own better and cheaper at home!
- Stock up on ingredients when they are on sale. When I find regular kitchen staples on sale, I buy a lot. I’m currently using a price book to track prices and that’s saving me money. For this recipe, keeping an eye on the price of flour and beer can help keep the price down. Hint: this is a good week to stock up on Guinness. 😉
- Buying in bulk – It’s rare that I would buy one bag of flour. I usually stock up when there are good baking sales. I also have gotten into the habit of buying cases of flour from Bob’s Red Mill.
How I make this beer bread recipe easy:
This recipe really couldn’t be easier than it is, but having the right kitchen tools can really make your time in the kitchen more enjoyable. Over time, I’ve honed my collection so that they are perfect for my needs.
Here are the tools that I use for this recipe:
- stainless steel mixing bowl – I’m not sure you have too many of these.
- wire whisk – Be sure to get one with a closed barrel so dishwater doesn’t get stuck in its innards and drip into your food. Ask me how I know.
- rubber spatula – I have two of these; I love them so much.
- bread pan – I love the USA pans. No greasing needed and no burning!
Whole Wheat Beer Bread
Ingredients
- 3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 3 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoon baking powder
- ½ tablespoon salt
- 1 ½ cup beer
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan with nonstick cooking spray.
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pour in the beer and fold to combine. The dough/batter will be lumpy but very moist.
- Spoon the mixture into the prepared baking pan and bake for one hour or until golden and cooked through. The bread should shrink away from the sides of the pan. Remove to a rack to cool. Serve with butter.
Nutrition
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Shellie
Delicious bread. I used date sugar and Killian’s red beer. One hour and it came out perfect. Was so glad to see someone asked size of pan because I was about to do the same. 🙂 These vegans love this bread and we’ll be making it often. Thanks!
Carmen whynott
Can one use a can of lemon lime sod’s if you don’t have beer?
Jessica Fisher
I wouldn’t recommend it.
Pam Seymour
Hey Jessica,
Anxious to make the beer bread but what brand of wheat pastry flour do you use and where do you buy it?
Jessica Fisher
I usually use Bob’s Red Mill whole wheat pastry flour. I’ve ordered it from Amazon, Bob’s Red Mill, or Vitacost in the past. Sometimes Sprouts carries it, but it tends to be expensive. At the holidays, you may find better pricing though.
Jaci
I made this tonight and it was amazing! I baked it for 52 minutes and it was perfect. Wanted to use Guinness, but didn’t have any at home so I used a blonde ale from a local brewery (Schlafly) and it was a great taste.
Jessica Fisher
So glad you enjoyed it, Jaci. Thanks for the positive review!
Kay
Hi, 9 or 8 inch loaf pan? I own both.?
Jessica Fisher
Ironically, mine are 8.5 x 4.5.