Easiest Delicious Homemade Bread
This is one of those almost too good to be true recipes, beautiful souls. In under an hour, with 3-4 ingredients, you too can have your house filled with the aroma of fresh, homemade bread. No yeast, no kneading, no waiting to rise, and, it takes less than an hour total from mixing to munching. Is THAT even possible? YOU BET!
3 cups self-rising flour (I prefer Gold Medal brand, as it helps me bake a superior finished product)
1/2c sugar (I prefer dark brown sugar)
12oz beer (I prefer Ninkasi Brewing Company’s Vanilla Oatis Oatmeal Stout)
OPTIONAL: Topped with a pat of butter, or vegan butter if that’s your chosen path
Mix together thoroughly, bake at 375 for 15-55 minutes depending on pan – muffin pan about 15-17 mins, loaf about 55, ramekins for big buns about 17-20. I am fortunate to have a seasoned stone muffin pan, so I didn’t need to grease my pan at all, but in a regular metal muffin tin or laof pan, I would probably give it a little coconut oil greasing.
The finished product is soft, chewy, fluffy, and dense, and also hearty enough to make a great breakfast roll. I served these rolls with old world Shepherd’s Pie, Veggie Stews, Meat stews, Chicken Soup, Bachelor-friendly meatloaf, dinner parties, potlucks, and beyond. The notes below should help you understand what I figured out to make the best, easiest delicious homemade bread.
Self-Rising Flour – It’s as no fuss as a flour gets, and I tried it with making my own self-rising flour with all-purpose flour, wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt. I tried Gold Medal brand, King Arthur, and despite numerous attempts, with various flours and beers, nothing came close to the texture of the Gold Medal brand.
As far as the sugar goes – I tried with regular white sugar in years past with a variety of beers and also with brown sugar, and hands down, brown sugar for the win. It adds a little more moisture and keeps the bread softer and more pliable. I can’t say how coconut sugar would be as I leaned on the science of the beer and actual sugar working together for this one as it’s the reason you don’t need yeast. And this one was a family favorite for nearly a decade (before we figured out we’re both gluten-intolerant). If you have a free standing mixer like a Kitchen-Aid, Use the paddle attachment, toss your ingredients in the bowl, and on medium low, mix until it has a little bit of a sticky texture but pulls clean from your mixing bowl. It’s a pretty easy to handle dough.
Now the beer… I tried it with everything from Blue Moon’s hefeweisen, IPA, stout, and porter, I tried Guinness (that worked waaaay better in my guinness chocolate brownies) and above and beyond my wildest bakery dreams, Vanilla Oatis from Ninkasi Brewing Co. in Eugene, OR, became my go-to for this recipe. It’s an oatmeal stout with vanilla, slightly sweet, and the brown sugar in the recipe plus this beer even has a slight hint of thee best oatmeal cookie you’ve ever had.
Everyone who ate this bread was blown away. There is no alcohol or beer flavor as the alcohol cooks off during baking. The hef and ipa gave a slightly bitter undertone and it came out more dry. And, a 6-pack will give you 6 loaves of bread and cost you far less than picking up a loaf from your local bakery and you can make it fresh 24/7. It comes together so fast and gives you confidence in baking bread without the precision and fuss. And unfortunately, this doesn’t work for gluten-free folks. Aside from the self-rising flour, I wouldn’t want to try it with a gluten-free beer. It wouldn’t be the same for us. 🙂
Oh! Butter is completely optional, and something I like to put a little pat on top of each roll about 2 minutes before finished baking. If you leave the butter off, voila, it’s vegan! Seriously, how easy is THAT?!?! Love at first bite, friends.