A larger-than-usual crowd meeting up at your house for dinner? This Onion Beer Bread would add a lot to the menu. It’s delicious, of course, but it’s also very easy to whip up. Unlike more conventional breads, this one doesn’t involve yeast or require multiple risings. And except for the rosemary, you probably have all the ingredients in the house.
The dough is a basic mix of flour, sugar, salt and leavener combined with your choice of beer, topped with buttery onions, garlic and more butter. The result has a very moist and tender crumb.
Fair warning, though — this dough is thick and sticky. It will look like nothing but a lumpy mess when you put it in the pan and spread it out. Twenty minutes later, after it’s been baked, it will be transformed into enticing, golden, glistening bread.
The best gizmo for spreading the dough in the pan is a baker’s tool known as an offset metal spatula, but a rubber spatula will also get the job done. Whichever you use, grease it by dipping it into the onion butter mixture so that it won’t stick to the batter as you spread it. And, by the way, the surface of the bread doesn’t need to be perfectly smooth. This is rustic bread.
Onion Beer Bread will make your whole house smell heavenly as it bakes. I recommend serving it right out of the oven, but it’s still darn tasty at room temperature or even cold.
ONION BEER BREAD
Start to finish: 60 minutes (20 active)
Servings: 12
1 stick butter
2 cups thin sliced onion rings (about 1 medium onion)
2 teaspoons minced garlic
360 grams (about 3 cups) unbleached flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon table salt
One 12-ounce bottle beer (your choice)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh rosemary
Nutritional information: 201 calories; 71 calories from fat; 8 g fat (5 g saturated; 0 g trans fats); 20 mg cholesterol; 394 mg sodium; 26 g carbohydrates; 1 g fiber; 1 g sugar; 3 g protein.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.