Garlic Parmesan Beer Bread
Garlic Parmesan Beer Bread- a yeast free, no knead loaf that comes together with just a handful of ingredients to make a simple and delicious side dish.
December 9, 2020 by Nicole Collins
I used to be totally afraid of yeast.
It's really just been within the past year and a half or so that I've learned to work with yeast successfully.
I don't know why, but I could never successfully make anything that required a yeast dough. I don't know if I was killing the yeast or if I was using inactive yeast, but I'd have unsuccessful after unsuccessful attempt to make yeast dough. I tried breads. I tried pizza. I tried desserts. Fail after fail after fail.
I took a cooking class at work last year, and we used fresh yeast to make a few different kinds of breads. If I thought I was afraid of dry yeast, I really went into panic mode with fresh yeast. But, my instructor talked me off the ledge, and I contributed to making a delicious focaccia!
I think that was the moment that my fear of baking with yeast started to subside. In fact, I've become pretty confident in making homemade pizza dough since my Ooni pizza oven arrived a few months ago.
Though I'm not as terrified as I used to be to work with yeast, I still look for shortcuts and ways around using yeast as an ingredient whenever I have the opportunity. And, that's exactly what we're doing in today's recipe.
Today, we're making Garlic Parmesan Beer Bread!
Beer bread is a type of quick bread which basically means that it's leavened with a chemical leavener (like baking powder) as opposed to a natural leavening agent (like yeast). Beer bread is naturally heavier and more dense than your traditional sandwich bread, so it's a little more crumbly. Therefore, it's not intended to be used as a sandwich bread but more so as a snacking bread or side dish.
And let me tell you, this bread is EASY to snack on!
This bread comes together so quickly and with just a handful of ingredients. For our dry ingredients, we need some flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. To those dry ingredients, we're going to add some freshly shredded parmesan cheese.
Now, I'd normally shred or grate fresh parm on the small hole side of the box grater, but I chose to use the big holes on the box grater for this recipe. We want the parmesan to be prominent in this bread, so the bigger pieces of cheese just felt like the right move so that the cheese doesn't disappear into the batter.
After we have our dry ingredients mixed together, all that's left to do is stir in a whole bottle of beer. One of the cool things about beer bread is that the beer kind of acts as a leavening ingredient, but it definitely acts as a flavoring ingredient. So, make sure you use a beer that you like. I prefer a lighter beer in this recipe as opposed to something heavy like a stout, so I went with my current favorite beer, Guinness Blonde.
After we have our beer mixed into our dry ingredients, the batter is ready to go into the loaf pan. But before we pop this baby in the oven, we're going to brush it with a healthy dose of fresh garlic butter. All we need is a little butter, some grated garlic, some dried parsley, and a pinch of salt. Microwave them together to melt everything at once, and brush it all over the top of our bread. Then, the bread goes in the oven for about 45 mins, and that's it!
That easily, we just baked bread!
This bread is bursting at the seems with flavor. It's rich. It's garlicky. It's savory. It's everything you could want out of an uber comforting bite of homemade bread. You can eat it as is, or you can give it a schmear of butter on top. Either way, it's freaking amazing.
So, what do you eat with Garlic Parmesan Beer Bread? EVERYTHING! I served this along side some eggs for breakfast. I served this along side meat and veggies for dinner. I went carbs on carbs and served this with some pasta. And there were many, many moments where I just grabbed a slice on the go as a snack while waltzing by the fridge. So, it's super versatile!
Beer bread, overall, lends itself to endless possibilities of flavor combinations. But, this garlic parmesan bread has easily become my new favorite.
I hope everyone enjoys this one as much as I do! Let's eat!
Garlic Parmesan Beer Bread
Serves: 12 slices Print
Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp salt, plus more to taste
¼ cup sugar
1 cup freshly shredded parmesan cheese
12 oz beer, at room temperature
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic
½ tsp dried parsley
cooking spray
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray the bottom and sides of a 9x5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Set aside.
To a mixing bowl, add flour, baking powder, 1 tsp salt, sugar, and parmesan cheese. Mix to combine. Pour in beer, and gently mix ingredients together until everything is just combined. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
Add butter, parsley, and a pinch of salt to a small microwave safe bowl. Using a microplane, grate garlic into the bowl with the butter. Microwave until the butter is mostly melted, about 30 seconds. Stir the garlic butter mix until fully combined, and gently brush the garlic butter all over the top of the beer bread dough.
Bake the bread for 40-45 mins until the top is a light golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. Use a butter knife to make sure the bread is loosened around the sides. Remove the bread from the pan, and transfer it to a wire cooling rack. Allow bread to cool for 10-15 mins before slicing. Slice into 12 slices, and serve!
Recipe notes:
*Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to a week. Alternately, you can wrap individual slices in plastic wrap and transfer to a freezer safe bag. Thaw as necessary when ready to eat again. You can reheat slices in the toaster oven or even the microwave for just a few seconds.
*Use your favorite beer for this recipe. I used Guinness Blonde.
*I usually grate parmesan cheese on the small side of a box grater, but I used the big holes for this recipe. I wanted the shreds of parmesan to be loud and proud in this bread!
*Grating the garlic with a microplane helps the garlic to melt into the butter instead of having little chunks in the butter. It also helps to distribute it a little better so all of the bread gets some garlicky goodness.
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