I make my own bread to avoid the plastic bags that bread usually comes in. The nasty additives contribute to this choice as well, particularly L-Cysteine, a dough conditioner made from human hair. I haven’t made beer bread in a while, so I decided to make some a couple days ago. I think beer bread tastes really good. The alcohol evaporates during cooking, so it can’t get you drunk. (It isn’t illegal for minors to eat food prepared with alcohol, by the way.) This is a really good recipe for beer bread that I got from the Joy of Cooking. Here are the ingredients you need:

• 3 1/2 cups bread flour (You can use all-purpose flour instead since bread flour is kind of expensive. I only got it cause it was on sale.)
• 1/4 cup cooked brown or white rice (I used brown rice. I bought it in bulk. I cook a pot of brown rice every weekend so I have it for lunch during the rest of the week. So I usually have it sitting around for recipes.)
• 1 tbsp wheat bran (I bought it in bulk with a glass jar at Whole Foods. If you bring your own jars and containers to customer service, they’ll give you the tare and then you can fill them up in the bulk aisle. That’s what the “34” is on the jar in the picture.)
• 1 tbsp plus 3/4 tsp yeast (I bought it in a glass jar that I’ll reuse.)
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 cup strong beer, ale or stout (I used some Austrian beer that I found at Whole Foods. Its called Stiegl Weisse.)
• 1/4 cup milk or buttermilk

Combine flour, rice, wheat bran, yeast, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl.

Add beer and buttermilk. Mix until you have a ball of dough.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 8-10 minutes, or until smooth and elastic. Don’t forget to knead the bread… I forgot. I’m kind of embarrassed. I have never done this. And I didn’t realize that I did it until just now. Well I’m happy to say that the bread turned out fine. But if you make it, knead it. Don’t do what I did. After you knead the bread, put it in a greased bowl and cover with a towel. Let rise for an hour and a half.

My bread didn’t rise very much since I didn’t knead it. If you knead yours, it should double in bulk. Deflate the dough with your fist.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Roll it out into a rectangle.

Roll the rectangle up into a log. Place the log in a greased loaf pan.

Cover with a towel and let the dough rise for an hour or until crested over the top of the loaf pan. Even though I didn’t knead it, it rose up nicely.

Bake for 40-45 minutes at 350 degrees, or until loaf is nicely browned and sounds hollow when tapped.

Remove the bread from the pan and let it cool on a rack.

Enjoy! If you liked this bread post, check out my oat raisin bread and my homemade burger buns.