Yeasted Beer Bread

While shopping last weekend, my husband and I discovered Leinenkugels had a new brew called Canoe Paddler. We're big fans of Leinie's, so we grabbed a 12-pack. Lo and behold, we got carded at the ripe young ages of 29, 30 and 16 months. As luck would have it, my purse was in the car, so we decided we'd pick some up later rather than traipsing through our snowy slush to get my purse for our impulse buy.

Fast forward two days, and I purchased the beer without getting carded. Apparently AJ and I without my husband are much more mature (regardless of the fact that we both wear animal stocking hats). I cracked one open for my husband for dinner ... only to have him inform me he just took painkillers for his headache and wouldn't imbibe. Since society frowns upon pregnant women drinking, I decided to convert that bottle into beer bread to avoid wasting it. Closet Cooking provided me the recipe.

Yeasted Beer Bread
2 1/2 tsp. dry active yeast
1 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. butter (melted)
12 oz. beer (about 110°F)
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 tsp. salt

Mix the yeast, sugar and butter into the beer and let it sit until the yeast has dissolved, about 10 minutes.

Mix the flours and salt.

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until they form a dough. Knead until smooth and elastic, adding more floor if it is too sticky.

Place the dough in a large greased bowl, cover and let it rise until it has doubled in size, about an hour.

Punch the dough down, dump onto a floured surface, lightly knead for a minute and let rest for a few minutes.

Form the dough into the shape that you want it, place it on a sheet of parchment paper, cover it and let it rise until doubled in size, about 1.5 hours.

Transfer the loaf on the parchment paper onto a baking sheet, slash the top of the dough a few times and dust with flour.

Place in a preheated 400°F oven and bake until the crust is golden brown, about 25 to 30 minutes. Makes 1 large loaf.