The Best Thing Since...

Here's another great recipe from This Can't Be Vegan. The original link is http://www.thiscantbevegan.com/2012/04/sweet-beer-bread.html, and all pictures have been taken from there.

Let me share a secret with you guys. I absolutely hate baking. With a passion. There are just too many ingredients for this science that is just a tad too precise for my liking, and it yields minimal results. While fresh baked goods are so tempting and delicious, the fact of the matter is I can't afford to eat enough of any particular baked good to get full, so I feel like I have wasted all of my budgeted food preparation time and energy. I love to cook, and my mom really likes baking, so holidays balance out very well for us.

With all that said, it might seem strange that I am posting a recipe for a loaf of bread, but this bread could not be easier to make unless it was self assembling. It only has 4 ingredients, one of which is beer, and it took me about 5 minutes to pull it all together and hurl it in the oven. Now, I am not a fan of beer. I can drink most ciders, but beer is a taste I have yet to acquire despite a few attempts. I could tell that there was beer in it, but the bread did not taste beer-y at all. Well, until day 2. Then the beer flavor came out a little more, but the bread was still pretty good. So to all my non beer drinkers, you still must try this bread. (Maybe with the "Un"tuna salad from this post: http://veganrecipesrevamped.blogspot.com/2012/05/lazy-week.html. Hint hint. Wink wink.)

You can use any kind of beer you see fit. I tried it out with a dark hand brewed variety, but I am looking forward to testing out all different kinds. Different varieties of beer will add different flavors to the bread. Just get experimental!

This tastes ridiculously good when it's hot and fresh out of the oven, and gets a little more doughy on day 2. If you're like me, you might not have a problem doughy.

The main thing that I changed in this recipe was using turbinado sugar instead of the regular granulated. Trying to get just a bit more natural everyday. It turned out magnificently! Tomorrow, I'm thinking of adding cocoa powder to make a cocoa bread. I'll let you know how that turns out.

Since there are only 4 ingredients, I will forgo the shopping list, and hop right to it.

Recipe

• 3 c. self rising flour
• 1/2 c. sugar (or turbinado sugar)
• 12 oz. bottle of beer
• 1/4 c. non dairy butter, melted (such as Earth Balance)

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. In a large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, and beer until well combined.
3. Pour into a lightly greased 9x5-inch loaf pan.
4. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes.
5. Remove from the oven, and pour melted butter over top. Bake an additional 10 minutes.
Serves 8-10.