Beer Bread

I first had beer bread at my brother's house at least a year ago. I remembered it was good and so decided to try making some myself tonight.

Ingredients
3 cups flour (sifted)
3 teaspoons baking powder (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)
1 teaspoon salt (omit if using Self-Rising Flour)
1/4 cup sugar
1 (12 ounce) can beer
1/2 cup melted butter (1/4 cup will do just fine)

Optional Ingredients
Any spices you like.
I added oregano and garlic powder.

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Mix dry ingredients and beer. (and butter if soft crust desired)
Pour into a greased loaf pan.
Pour melted butter over mixture if crispy crust desired.
Bake 1 hour, remove from pan and cool for at least 15 minutes.


For the beer, I used an irish red. I didn't have any self-rising flour, so I went the baking powder and salt route (as listed above). I also put about 2/3 of the butter in the mixer while it was mixing, and saved the rest out to pour over the dough in the bread pan before baking; one of the websites I was referring to said this would make the crust nice and crispy. Yum!!

Note: I used a glass bread pan; they absorb heat evenly and hold that heat evenly around bread loaves as they bake. I greased the pan with olive oil using a misto sprayer.