The inspiration/motivation/duress to bake this bread came from my father, who, in the run up to Christmas, watched Channel 4’s River Cottage: Three Go Mad Christmas Special. Though I never actually watched the programme, he sold it to me on the basis that a) they suggested it went well with cheese and b) it contained beer.
You can find the basic recipe here on the Channel 4 website
and though on the whole I did stick to it, I did make a couple of amendments.
First, having no wholemeal self-raising flour, I used 70g wholemeal bread flour
and an extra 80g white self-raising flour (I figured that substituting the
whole 150g for bread flour would be detrimental to the bread, and I am sure I
had some logic for this at the time). Second, I baked it for nearly two hours,
rather than the one and a half stated. There was no need to prove it, with the
beer operating as the raising agent and once prepared, the mixture resembled
that of banana bread.
The finished product was far better than I expected. As
recommended, we ate it with cheese and it made such a lovely alternative to
crackers. Wrapped up it easily lasted a couple of days and is a loaf I would
definitely bake again. I used an Adnams Broadside as my beer of choice, but I
am sure different beers would provide different tastes.
Beer, bread, and cheese. Grand.
I, like your dad, saw the episode of River Cottage where they made this bread. Very good recipe, looks delicious and would be a good bread for beginners (as well as the intermediate who are out to experiment with flavours).
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your take on the recipe Lauren :O)
It was scrummy
ReplyDeleteI can't stand drinking beer but love it baked into cakes/bread/anything! Your loaf looks lovely and anything that goes well with cheese is alright with me!
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