How to Make Beer Bread better Than The Beer Bread Mix in 2021

Bread and beer are foods that have been eaten since ancient times and have common roots.  So it will not be strange for me today to tell you how to make beer bread and trust me it is better than making it from beer bread mix.

Both foods are based on cereals and fermentation occurs both as a consequence of the intervention of yeasts. Although I used a roasted red beer, almost black, type stout, you can make this same recipe with Ale type or Lager beer without any problem.

And the only difference you will notice is that the interior color of the bread will be whiter than this mine. In any case, the result is a delicious bread, and also suitable for everyone because the alcohol in beer evaporates.

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Ingredients for a kilo beer bread mix

• 200 ml of beer
• 100 of water
• 200 gr of sourdough
• 500 gr of strength flour
• 10 gr of salt

Recipe of Beer Bread Mix

You can find many bread recipes in which the beer is used since it contains yeast and even its bubbles of carbon dioxide help the fermentation of the bread dough.

We start by dissolving the sourdough in the beer and stirring a little so that it mixes well. If you do not have sourdough, you can prepare a mixture of 100 gr of wholemeal flour and 100 ml of water.

After that add an envelope of dry yeast and let it react for a couple of hours. And use that mixture that also weighs 200 gr instead of sourdough with similar results, although it will have slightly less flavor.

In the bowl, we add the strength flour, and we mix it. We dissolve the salt in the 100 ml of water and we also incorporate it, mixing until we obtain a more or less compact mass, which will be slightly sticky at first.

After kneading it in two 5-minute batches with a break of ten between each, it will begin to be more manageable.

We leave the dough in the bowl and give it a fold every half hour to a total of 4 folds in two hours. You will see how it increases in size and how the folds help to form the gluten network.

Once it has risen, we give it the desired shape and leave it in a banetón or in a basket with a rag so that it is light with its final shape. Here a large increase in volume occurs after the rest of about 3 hours at room temperature.

To give it a fun shape , I glued four oblique cuts with the scissors like a waffle, and then folded the piquito back into a curl when folded.

Then I baked it for 50 minutes at 220º with the oven tray full of water so that there was a lot of humidity inside.

Important, you have to let the bread cool down very slowly so that the interior is finished cooking. Although it smells divinely, you have to wait until it is very cold before cutting it.

The crust is very crispy and the interior is full of alveoli, with a rather fluffy crumb.

Processing time | 50 minutes of oven plus kneading and rest

Difficulty | Half

Tasting

This beer bread is great for toasting as it maintains its humidity very well for a few days making it great for breakfast.

Of course, if you use it to make some toasts and put some anchovies on top, to give an example, you can jump to tears. Now that you know how to make beer bread mix, who dares to make theirs?

Black beer bread

After the beer bread mix, we are encouraged to level up and prepare dark beer bread . Delicious and perfect for you to try something a little more elaborate.

You may wonder, dark beer on bread? Yes, just as it is delicious in the Guinness chocolate cake or in the traditional Irish meat stew. The beer brings body, flavor, and power to the recipe, a real discovery.

Few breads are actually complicated. If we stop to think about it, in most bread recipes you just have to mix the ingredients in the established order, stir, knead and let the yeast work its magic and ferment.

In some cases there are seconds mixed, in others not. Then it is a matter of baking and period.

This dark beer bread falls into the category of those breads that have two kneaded . But come on, they are two “kneads” of nothing. The first is five minutes long and the second shorter.

It can be on your table in a matter of hours.

You only need yeast (dry or fresh), flour, sugar, beer, and salt and you want to enjoy a few good slices of homemade bread with a plate of cold cuts and cheeses, with butter and jam or to slice the sauce from any of our stews and stews.

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Preparation of dark beer bread

1. In a large, deep bowl, mix the two types of flour, reserving 20 grams of the strength flour to add it later if necessary.
2. Add the dry baker’s yeast and sugar. Mix well and make a hole in the center.
3. Pour the beer inside and stir gently to avoid creating foam, while integrating the flour and forming a porridge. At this time we add the salt and continue mixing all the ingredients.

• When we cannot work the mixture because it is too dense, we transfer it to a lightly floured work surface. We knead for five minutes.
• If the dough is sticky, we can add a little of the flour that we have reserved, but it is recommended to use the minimum.
• The best method to “tame” the dough is to knead with the help of a scraper, collecting and gathering the dough as we work it. With the kneading, it will lose the stickiness and will become more manageable, soft, smooth, and elastic.
• After the five minutes of kneading, we cover it with a rag or with an inverted bowl and let it rest for 20 minutes. When the time passes we knead again five more minutes.
• We roll the dough and put it in a wide and deep container previously greased with oil. We cover it with a clean cloth and let it rest for 90-120 minutes or until the dough doubles its volume.
• Then pass the dough to the lightly floured worktop and degas, pressing the dough gently.
• We roll the dough again and place it on a baking tray. Cover with a large bowl and leave to ferment again until it doubles in volume, another 90-120 minutes.

Baking and final presentation of beer bread

1. Half an hour before baking our bread, we turn on the oven at 230 ºC.
2. Once the bread and the oven are ready, we grenate the first one making a cross section with a very sharp knife or a blade and sprinkle it with flour.
3. We put in the oven and place a container with water at the base, so that it generates steam and forms a crispy crust.
4. We cook the bread for 15 minutes at 230 ºC. Then we lower the temperature to 200ºC and bake for 30 more minutes.
5. After this time, we remove the bread from the oven and let it cool on a metal rack.

Tips for a perfect dark beer bread

• So that the foam does not deceive us when weighing the beer, we can measure it in advance and let it rest. Then we rectify the amount so that we have exactly what the recipe asks for.
• Raising times are approximate and will be more or less long depending on the ambient temperature. The higher the temperature, the faster the bread will rise and vice versa.
• The ideal temperature is 23-25 ​​ºC and the most recommended is to leave the bread to rise in a place away from currents and rises and with a constant temperature.
• Dry baker’s yeast can be substituted for fresh yeast. In this case, you have to use triple the amount, that is, 13.5 grams.
• If you don’t have a dark beer, you can use blond beer. The flavor and, especially the color, of the bread will be different, but equally delicious.
• Being made with yeast, this bread lasts 48 hours in good condition. Then it is advisable to freeze it, either in pieces, sliced ​​, or whole.

Now that you have learned how to make beer bread as well as black bear bread. I don’t think you will ever need to buy the beer bread mix again. As these recipes result in the bread that is much much better than any mix.