As much as I love to drink, I’m a total light weight. I blame my cursed Asian genes. Every time I drink, my entire body turns bright red. I tried looking up the reason for this embarrassing epidermal experience but most of what’s online is incomprehensible (read: too much big science talk). Basically, I’m an extremely cheap date. I can nurse one drink all night and get pretty buzzed from it.
I didn’t really start drinking until law school, which, besides from the hardcore studying, felt like three years of high school. I was with the same group of 200 students the entire time, in the same building. We had lockers downstairs, a low-budget cafeteria, we joined clubs and sports teams, and there were parties every Friday afternoon. More specifically, boozing parties called “Beer Ups.” The purpose behind beer-ups was to raise money – each Friday, a different club would host it, sometimes with sponsors (free stuff, yay!), and we’d all crowd into the caf to buy beer and complain about school. It was fabulous. We.drank.a.lot. Even all five foot two inches of lil’ ol’ Asian me.
One of my finer moments.
Now that I’m in the work force, I can say that my colleagues still drink. A.lot. Now it’s for survival. A way to cope. Otherwise we’d go crazy. Why else would we keep scotch in our desk drawers and break it out every Friday afternoon at 3 p.m.? Or send the articling student to the liquor store to pick up a few six packs? Or drown our sorrows…excuse me, enjoy a few glasses of wine at lunch?
Sadly, my current firm is very proper so those boozehound shenanigans don’t happen to me anymore. Instead, I drink (my one glass) alone at home. And put booze in my baking. Like this amazing cheesy beer bread that I made from a recipe my friend, Jen, of Juanita’s Cocina posted here a few weeks ago.
Make it, pop it in the oven, let your home be pleasantly overwhelmed by the incredible aroma of it baking, and sip on a beer while you wait. Perfection.
The two bottles of beer I sacrificed for this recipe. Great to drink, fabulous in bread.
Cheesy beer bread (adapted from Juanita’s Cocina)
2 cups shredded cheese, reserve 1/2 cup for topping the bread (I used three types: cheddar, mozzarella and Monterey Jack)
1/2 cup chopped green onion
6 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp baking powder
24 ounces of beer (2 bottles) (I used one light and one medium-bodied)
2 tbsp honey
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease two regular loaf pans.
In a large bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Add 1 1/2 cups of the shredded cheese and green onion; toss together so that everything is well combined.
Add the beer and honey to the flour mixture. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated and there are no dry bits of flour. Don’t worry if your dough is lumpy, it’s supposed to be that way.
Divide the dough between the loaf pans and smooth the top of the dough. Bake for about 40-50 minutes (at the halfway mark, pull the bread out and cover the tops with the reserved 1/2 cup of shredded cheese. Place back into oven and continue baking), or until the top of the loaves is a golden brown and a tester inserted into the center of the loaves comes out clean.
Quickly top the bread with the reserved cheese and continue baking.
Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before turning them out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
I didn’t wait for the bread to cool completely before I started eating it. I can’t even begin to tell you how tasty it was. The salty cheese and fresh green onion complement each other perfectly. The crust of the bread is gloriously crispy and it has an incredibly soft, dense crumb inside. You can really taste that yeasty tang from the beer.
The Husband loved it – actually, neither of us could stop eating it. The recipe makes two loaves and we didn’t have any problem polishing them both off (although next time, I’d probably freeze one of the loaves to save for later). This bread is wicked good toasted. I didn’t butter it or use it for sandwiches, which I’m sure would be amazing, but it was just so darn good on it’s own.
Cheers!
Goodness!!! I need to try this. Enough is enough. Nancy, that pic of u is so hilarious in the cutest of ways. I’ve always been a lightweight drinker myself lol 🙂 Thanks for sharing such a fabulous bread, Nancy!
Haha look at you, crazy party girl! That’s funny–I don’t think my mom drank until law school either. What law school does to you. Sigh. Anyhoo, that was a great lead in to this AMAZING looking bread! Why don’t we (as a collective society) put cheese in our bread more often? I think that would solve about 50% of all problems. The other 50% shall be solved with cake!
Nancy!
This bread looks FABULOUS! LOVE it!! As for the drinking. . I do not turn red but many of my friends do. . hey, whatevah. . no big deal. As for the nursing one drink, we’ll have to do something about that! 😛 . . I’m totally not a lush but I do enjoy my wine with dinner! 🙂 LOVE this bread! totally going to try this recipe!
Ditto to Alice’s comments about the tantalizing looks of your cheesy beer bread. Your photos make me want a slab of cheese and crusty bread right now!
My niece’s hubby is a big beer fan so I think he will be doubly delighted when I make him a loaf of your bread…And of course I’ll make one for home so my husband and I can feel like grownups…You see, even at our advanced age we prefer lemonade and diet coke to fermented grape juice and distilled wheat…But once in a while we act like adults and imbibe with the rest of the gang =)
P.s. True story: My husband never drank beer at parties until our Buddhist Temple Ballroom class started holding end-of-a-class series cocktail parties.
I don’t like beer but i dooooo like beer bread! And cheeeeesyness yumm
Giiiiiirl, Imma be makin’ this again! YUM!
I don’t drink alcohol at all, but have heard beer bread is so good. And it certainly looks great!
That looks amazing! I love beer bread! Going to have to try this recipe.
YUM! This looks so good! So I am under the impression that the reason typically Asians will get red in the face and obviously react to alcohol is because of not having certain enzymes to break the alcohol down. There is some imbalance with the pH levels in your blood. Anyways, an Asian friend of mine told me he read that if you eat fatty foods (maybe before drinking?) and hold your breath more (lol) it will help prevent this…now I have no idea if it is true but very interesting nonetheless!
I will most definitely be trying this recipe!!
hmmm. . .I don’t know about drinking Beck’s (yeah I’m a beer snob) but I’ll bake with it. I love baking with beer, pass me a slice or two! Also it must be a law school thing with all this drinking, because my once didn’t drink very much alcohol friend, sure does drink a lot now that she’s a lawyer. 🙂
Haha you and my dad are one and the same, he can carry maybe half a glass? Jokes!! Haha but still 😛
I don’t know my capacity yet for drink but for this bread, it’s pretty expendable 😉
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Nice one, boozehound! I have Asian genes too and can be a cheap date. I enjoy a drink, but binge drinking isn’t all that fun to me since I get a headache followed by illness fairly quickly.
Love this recipe! It looks easy and very appealing.
I have yet to try a beer bread recipe; I have no idea why because I love beer and always have plenty around .. maybe I’m just too reluctant to part with it! But this looks amazing and I should try it soon!
I love baking beer breads. Yours looks so cheesy and delish, Nancy! Pinning!
Okay, this is seriously looking good. *drool* Any chance you’ll be moving next door to me soon?!
LOL – your picture cracks me up. You go girl! I always go slow on drinking, mainly because beer is not my favorites. But adding that to bread – heck yeah!
Your finer moment looks like a ton of fun. I’m with you. I’m a totally light weight. I have a two cocktail limit. My husband loves that I’m such a cheap date. I much prefer my beer in the form of bread. Carbs=delicious.
Sounds fabulous! I’m not a beer drinker, but I’m gonna have to try this bread! Yum!
Ah, we have so much in common. I am such a lightweight (and of course, I’m not drinking at all right now!) But I do love a good beer bread. This looks fabulous. You can’t go wrong with cheese and bread in my book! Thank you for sharing!
I love beer bread, and I can already see this is a great recipe. Maybe even the best. Can’t wait to try it!
Thank you for your sweet words of condolence, my friend. I am truly touched. xo
PS…from one lightweight to another, your beer bread is just my style…and no embarrassing escapades after indulging 🙂
lol I love that pic of you. But I too am a lightweight and not much into the drinking beer scene so this bread is absolutely perfect for me. It looks beautiful and so moist! yum!
I’m thinking this would saddle nicely with a bowl of chili:)
I have to make this. I can almost smell the goodness just from your pictures.
I’m a lightweight and can’t blame it on Asian genes…I just have my one glass and all done. Although that glass in that photo is a little bigger than the size I’m talking about. Oh, man…this is a bread. A gorgeous and wonderful bread, Nancy.
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Just in the process of making a loaf having halved the recipe for the sake of self control and waistline, judging from the smell wafting around my kitchen I’m going to regret having my sensible head on…will let you know how it turns out, can’t wait!!! X
Hey Emma! I’m so thrilled that you tried the recipe. How’d it turn out? And there’s no sense in being sensible, not when it comes to cheesy, carby goodness like this!
OH MY WORD!!! it was crusty, cheesy heaven with a kick! Have to say you might as well delete the part where you suggest leaving bread to cool….who has that much self control???? I’ve discovered if you have a lovely Kitchen Devil bread knife and repeat the mantra my dad gave me “let the knife do the work let the knife do the work” you can get away with cutting into a hot loaf far too soon without leaving a squidgy doughy lump behind..genius. It was absolutely heavenly with a soft dense middle and crunchy crust, I used Mexican Jalapeño cheese and a little parmesan, combined with the spring onions and beer it was full of yeasty flavour! Thank you so much for making my house smell amazing all day on Sunday! Incredibly easy recipe, only adjustment is I have a fan oven so reduced the converted Fahrenheit by 20 centigrade and baked it at 170 centigrade for 50mins…perfection! x
I’m SO happy it turned out for you, Emma! Lol, I certainly don’t practice what I preach. Although I recommended letting it cool, the Husband and I were cramming pieces of the bread into our mouths almost as soon as it was out of the oven. Have a wonderful day!
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HELP!!! I want to make this tonight but I’m sure this won’t be seen before its time to bake. Anyone know if I can use Whole Wheat flour instead of all purpose? I don’t have 6 cups of AP left but i have an entire bag of WW. Anybody? Anybody??
Hi Chelsea. I’m sure you could use whole wheat flour, it would just alter the taste and texture a bit (it will likely be denser and heavier, which usually happens when WW is used). If you use a combination of whole wheat and all purpose (if you have any AP flour left), it should be fine. Let me know how it turns out!
Wow, that’s what I was looking for, what a material!
existing here at this web site, thanks admin of this website.
Cheesy Beer Quick Bread Oh MY!!!! I love this simple recipe. It looks so delectable cheesy and creamy. I can just imagine how good it taste. I was a rat in another life.” Love Cheese” It just looks “Delicious of Course”!!!!!!
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Ahh, it’s been a lotta years since I’ve seen a Granville Island brewery bottle *sigh*
This loaf looks wonderful, I imagine it alongside a bowl of chili…pinned to try this weekend!
Yummers! I absolutley love cheese bread or savoury cakes. Here in aussie land, we tend to call them savoury slices. Perfect to chug with a beer or to equally enjoy with a cuppa.
I’ve been making “basic” beer bread for years. Was looking for one to make with cheese no honey/maple syrup to serve with chili tonight. I can’t wait to try it but will need to go out and buy a bottle of beer. I’d don’t like beer, but I lover beer bread
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