Hi all. I love damper, but thought i'd try something a little different... BEER bread (it's for a worthy cause)!! This recipe is for the 'normal' oven, but i'm sure you co chefs can convert it where necessary ;)

Beer Bread
4 cups SR flour
1/4 cup sugar
375 ml beer (not light and not flat) we love Coopers here!
2 tsp salt
2 eggs slightly beaten

Mix flour with salt and sugar. Add beer & eggs both at once and stir.  You may have to knead the last of the flour with your hands, but its a soft dough so no problem. Place in a well greased loaf pan or make into rolls. Bake at 180 c until done.

To make a pull apart, roll dough into several balls and assemble with cheese and bacon in between in a loaf (or your choice) tin. Sprinkle with cheese and bake as usual.

If you haven't drunk the rest of the six pack you opened to get the beer for this recipe, crack one now and enjoy!

(i can't get pics onto pc at the moment, so if anyone has a go at this, i'd love to see your creations!)
Melissa 8-)

Melissa I have made it in the Cobb I added sliced olives to it.  It worked fine BUT

It tasted a bit hoppy for me and Sparkey didnt like it, he likes sultanas in his  :-*

and he never stopped whingeing about the waste of a good beer.

Sorry I dont have a photo.

Here is the recipe I use.  My daughter doesn't like beer  :'( so when she is around I use the lightest tasting beer I have. I have also been known to add generous amounts of cheese and garlic to cover the beer taste.

3 cups self-rising flour
1/4 - 1/3 cup white sugar
1 12oz. bottle of flat beer

OPTIONS:
a) Add 1/2 cup of filling material of your choice.
EX.: 1/2 cup grated cheese, 1/2 cup dried cranberries,
1/2 cup chopped nuts, 1/2 cup raisins,
1/2 cup chocolate chips, etc.
b) If you like garlic bread, try adding garlic powder, starting with about
1/2 tsp, and increasing the amount with your next bread if you so
desire.
Mix flour and sugar. Add beer, mix well. Add filling material, if desired
and stir until folded. Put into a greased 9” x 5” x 2 3/4” loaf pan.
Insert pan into 12” DO, or use a well greased 8” DO without a pan. Bake
at 375° F for 5 minutes. Lower oven to 325° F and bake for an additional
55 minutes.
Allow to cool in pan (or DO) for about 30 min. to retain shape. Turn out
and slice.
Freezes well. Great toasted!
 

Wayne

Sorry Carolyn....for Sparkey's distress and whinging that is!! Ours didn't taste beer like at all, which I was very surprised about actually :o I make a great beer batter with Coopers as well, and you can taste the beer in it, but it's not very strong. Maybe that makes a difference, the type of beer used... my hubby's a garbo so around xmas time people on his run give him beer and stuff, and this one bloke always gives him Coopers home brew - I don't really drink it, just use it for cooking (sorry guys, I can hear the gasps from here!!)lol, so maybe it was an old batch or something. I'll try it again with a 'real' coopers ale and get back to you. It was such an easy dough to make and with the cheese and bacon it turned out fab - my hubby loved it!! I also added some mediterranean seasoning which I think you'd like with your olives and such! Ours was a bit sweet, so i'll reduce the sugar next time.

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Scouter Wayne -  Interesting you use the beer flat.  I know when I use lemonade in this type of cooking its always used fizzy and it makes for a very light end result and I am sure when I made the beer damper I would have used the beer fizzy.

Melissa - I had thought that different beers would make the taste milder but really I get such a good result from using lemonade I now buy a couple of small cans as a part of my camping pantry and I dont feel you taste it.  I dont tend to add more than a pinch of sugar to any breads/scones/damper.

Its great we can now get all these seasonings, although I have to agree that cheese and bacon is hard to beat.

I love all of these type of things toasted the next day.

The spit picture is great  :D

wrote on Feb 4^th, 2008 at 5:30am:

Scouter Wayne -  Interesting you use the beer flat.  I know when I use lemonade in this type of cooking its always used fizzy and it makes for a very light end result and I am sure when I made the beer damper I would have used the beer fizzy.

Ya the recipe calls for it to be flat but I have never had beer go flat.  That would be against the law wouldn't it  :o :o :o So I usually end up opening a new can.

Yeah, I know, horses for courses but one of the old timers, Dave Blinco, cooking at the Camp Oven Cooking Festival at Millmerran said in his damper cooking demo, "Don't waste yer beer in the damper, yer drink it while the damper is cooking".
I competed in a damper cooking comp last year and taking his advice just used water in my recipe while nearly all the other competitors used beer. The judges were looking at taste , texture and appearance. Not boasting but I won the first round and the final using a basic recipe with Sunshine powdered milk, warm water a spoon of raw sugar and no more clues I don't need too much competition.              lol

pd