So we may as well make beer bread

Mondays and Tuesdays make up our usual "weekend." It happens when you're in the tourism industry... But at any rate, we decided to devote this day off for adulting. Josh did lots of cleaning, and I worked on resumes for potential job postings (how's that for gender norms?).

Since days off seem so few and far between, I took the opportunity to do something I hadn't done in a long time: baking. When I lived in Indiana and was finishing up my degree, I had all the time in the world for baking. Usually it was just cookies, but I was a stress baker. I was also a fund-raising baker. And a bored baker. And a social baker for that matter. Come to think of it, I did a lot of baking... now that I'm working all the time, it's hard to decide to put apart the time for baking after work.

So now when I DO bake, I feel like I have to up my game. I opted to make beer bread this go round. I have made wheat bread and soda bread in the past, but this was a new adventure. I was excited to try it since I come from a long line of people who say, "just like Grandma used to buy" but my grandma had actually made beer bread before. It couldn't be *that* hard... I also had a PBR left over from Thanksgiving-- the favorite of Indie kids and elderly Midwesterners alike, and since it has a mild flavor, I figured it would be a great choice for a first attempt.

-3 1/2 cups of flour
-1 Tbs baking powder
-1 tsp salt
-3 Tbs sugar
-12 oz beer (any will do)
-1 beaten egg
-1/4 to 1/2 a stick of melted butter

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a large bowl (glass or metal will work best). Add the beer and egg, and mix well. Let the dough rest in the bowl. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Once the oven is heated up, scrape as much of the dough as you can into a greased loaf pan (I don't have a loaf pan, so I used a Dutch oven instead and floured the bottom. It didn't work as well getting the bread out, but it did give the bread a nice, rounded shape like old-fashioned breads. I think the next time, I'll just use a baking sheet covered in wax paper.). Bake for 50 minutes.

After that 50 minutes, remove the bread from the oven, and pour the melted butter over the top. Bake for an additional 5 to 10 minutes. Let the loaf cool on a wire rack.

This was one of the easiest things I have ever baked from scratch, and this will definitely become at least a bi-weekly tradition for us.