bread & beer

Quite possibly my two favourite food groups. Combined (!) no less....

And while this post is about making "beer-bread", it's actually more about the-best-bread-baking-book- I've-ever-found. Really, if you want to make bread at home, you need Emmanuel Hadjiandreou's "How to Make Bread". Aside from having a nice range of breads from sweet to sour to flat AND all the basics, this author has a very unique way of prepping the dough that doesn't involve a lot of kneading (as satisfying as that can be) yet magically turns a ragged, floury mess into a smooth and beautiful thing. Just watch...

Full disclosure -- I made this one all wrong... you've probably heard that you should always "read the recipe through before beginning," that's, um, good advice (and no, I wasn't drinking the beer at the time as, sadly, this used up my last one!). It turned out great anyway. I will, however, make it again -- the right way -- because, well, it's BREAD AND BEER!