I have been sort of… bored recently. There’s lots of things coming up on my calendar to do, but at the moment I don’t have any big projects or anything. Not a lot of going on but the doldrums of the day to day. It can wear on you. Or, at least, it wears on me. But I was doing some planning and realized that State Fair baking registration is around the corner! Which means it’s time to get experimenting, strategizing, and planning again.
I will try not to have it be the only thing I talk about like it was last year. But it will be a focus on the blog. This year, I was looking at the category list, and thought I would give another chance to the “beer bread” category. Initially, I thought it was useless to try and stand out in that category, because beer bread was always the same thing to me. It’s not a very variable recipe – flour, beer, baking powder, butter. But then I thought… why not make it more exciting?? There’s lots of different beers, there can be lots of different beer breads!
The rules stipulate you have to use a MN local-brewed beer, which is helpful for inspiration. I didn’t want to just put a high quality beer into a basic beer bread though. So I figured, why not play off the flavors of the beer? Do something unique? So I went to the store and got some inspiration.
I have a few ideas, and I’m starting with the sweetest one: chocolate beer bread with chocolate chips, using a chocolate peanut butter porter.
The beer in this actually really works. It stands out. With some beer breads, the beer doesn’t really come through. But in this one, it was both chocolate-y and has the beer flavor. Like a chocolate Guinness cake! But not Guinness.
I thought this was a pretty unique idea, but it’s hard to say whether the State Fair competition will have seen other more creative beer breads like this. Or maybe it won’t be what they want at all. Back to that classic “is this what they want?” question circle I asked myself all last summer. Oh well. I think it’s tasty.
The only problem with this bread is that I’m not exactly sure when you eat it. It’s not a dinner food, obviously. It’s slightly denser than a banana bread, and the beer flavor makes it a bit of a weird breakfast. So… I guess it’s just an afternoon snack bread? It’s not alcoholic, just gives you that taste of beer for an afternoon pick-me-up.
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PinIngredients
- 12 oz dark beer (like peanut butter porter)
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
- 2 3/4 cups self rising flour (or, 2 3/4 cups flour + 1 tablespoon baking powder)
- 1/4 cup cocoa powder
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Chocolate chips? Garnish with pretzel bits?
Instructions
- Heat oven to 350F. Grease a loaf pan and cut a piece of parchment to create a sling left to right side of the pan.
- In a large bowl, whisk together beer, sugar, and melted butter. Switch to a spatula and mix in flour, cocoa powder, and salt and stir to combine.
- Transfer batter to the prepared pan. Bake loaf at 350F for 60 mins and the center toothpicks clean. During that time the bread will rise, and develop a crust on the outside. Remove from pan with that handy parchment sling while still hot and cool completely (ideally on a wire rack) before slicing and serving.