Beer & Bread, Cinderella Style
Shelley Munro is in the house and she even included a recipe combining the two most favorite foods in the world. I love fresh bread, but I'm too lazy to bake half the time, so this might be perfect for me. Greg actually has some craft beer in the fridge he doesn't like so I'm going to try this with them.
Oh, and don't forget to enter Shelley's contest. There's a link at the end of this post.
Cinderella Breaks Bread
by Shelley Munro
Most of you are familiar with the tale of Cinderella. Youāll have read the book as a child, seen the Disney version at the movies or taken your own children and grandchildren to watch Cinderella catch her prince.
Recently, I ventured in self-publishing territory with the publication of One Night of Misbehavior. As you might guess from my intro, my story is a modern retelling of Cinderella, and the gorgeous cover was designed by my wonderful host, Maria under her Book Cover Diva guise.
Charlotte Dixon, my poor hapless Cinderella, has good reasons for staying under the roof of her wicked stepmother and slaving away day after day, cooking, cleaning and looking after Gran. Sheās a creative person who enjoys design, photography and scrapbooking. Charlotte and Gran spend their free time trying all sorts of crafts.
Cooking is another creative outlet, one Charlotte enjoysāwhen her stepmother and stepsiblings remember to leave something for her to eat after her hard work. During the course of One Night of Misbehavior Charlotte makes pasta dishes, salads for her diet-conscious stepsisters and steampunk cupcakes. She also makes focaccia bread.
Today I thought Iād give you another bread recipe from Charlotteās repertoire. Itās the type of bread she makes when her stepmother springs extra guests on her at the last minute or her stepsisters eat every scrap of bread in the house and forget to tell her.
Beer Bread
3 cups of plain flour
1 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
400 ml/12 oz of beer (not low alcohol beer/if your can of beer is smaller make up the difference with water.)
Grated cheddar cheese
Place the flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Add the beer and combine all ingredients well. Place mixture in a greased tin and sprinkle the cheese on the top. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C/400F for 33 minutes. Turn out of tin and cool a littleāif you have the patience!
Notes:
1. I vary the types of flour. The loaf in the photo is made with one cup of wholemeal and two cups of plain white flour.
2. Experiment ā add sunflower seeds, nuts or herbs to the mixture.
3. The original recipe says to cook the loaf for 40 ā 50 minutes. I have a fan oven and 33 minutes is the exact time for a loaf of bread to bake. You know your own oven so just be aware the cooking time can vary.
4. You can free form the loaves but I like mine in a tin because the mixture is on the sticky side.
Doesn't this look good! |
This bread is also a staple in my household. Iāve been making my own bread instead of buying it for about six months now. Beer Bread is my go-to recipe when I donāt have time to mess around with waiting for yeast to do its magic i.e. when I want to concentrate on my edits.
Itās quick, easy to make (as long as I can steal a can of beer from Mr. Munro) and is ready to eat in just over half an hour. It also keeps well and makes excellent toastāif there are leftovers!
CONTEST: Fill out the rafflecopter to win an Amazon gift certificate. What is your favorite type of bread to eat and have you tried making your own?
Shelley Munro lives in New Zealand with her husband and a rambunctious puppy called Bella. When sheās not writing, she loves to travel and bake bread. To learn more about One Night of Misbehavior and Shelleyās other books visit her website at http://www.shelleymunro.com.
Rafflecopter code:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Comments
Nice to see you again!
miztik_rose@yahoo.com
Shelley is on the other side of the world from this blog, so I'm sure she'll pop in later today.
Hubby has gone off to work and I'm wide awake. I don't own a bread machine so I don't know the answer to this. I just bung it in the oven for 33minutes and it's done. The breadthat is.
Maria - this would be a great way to use up beer that isn't to your taste. I sometimes make it with dark beer and it tastes awesome.
Mary - all that bread sounds yummy. I bet your house smells good when you're cooking.
Dezmond - this is the perfect one for you to try.
Maria - thanks for having me to visit today :)
Your recipe sounds awesome though!
The recipe looks delicious, and your book sounds like a lot of fun! Thanks for leading me to a new and lovely blog!
Carole
Hi, Maria!
Re: dark beer
Oh, that would be interesting to try it with two different beers and see how they taste. Greg will be home in 3 weeks. I'll try it for sure.
I've just added your blog to my Reader.
I think Greg will like this.
Congrats on the book Shelley, it sounds fun...you had me at crafts by the way.
Maria, I hope the fur-babies treated you well for Mother's Day :)
Typical. ;-)
Have long wanted to find and not researched a recipe to make homemade bread without using a yeast dough, or buying another bread maker to waste space when I only use it three or four times than get tired of having to mess with the clean up of something we eat in 5 minutes.
Maria hope the restoration of the house after floor project finished did not overtax you and Greg too much and also hope that water heater job goes smoothly for you guys too.
I only wish I could transport her here--and the bread too. :)
The floor remodeling was longer than we expected, but they did a good job so I can't complain. We still haven't replaced the water heater. That'll have to wait until Greg gets back again.
You can find information about Book Cover Diva and a gallery of covers at the web site.
Here's the direct link to the Gallery. http://bookcoverdiva.blogspot.com/p/portfolio.html
I only put up the covers once the author has published the book--or given me permission.
My hubby likes to make bread too. He's a dab hand at fococcia bread.
Mike - hubby says the same. I have to sneak beer to make bread.