Jalapeno and Cheddar Beer Bread - No Knead and Yeast Free!

Who doesn't love the warm aroma of freshly baked bread coming out of the oven?

We had a few bottles of beer left over recently, and with delicious crusty homemade loaves popping up all over my Instagram feed, I decided to look up a simple beer bread recipe. Unfortunately most bread recipes require yeast but I was keen to see if I could substitute with something I already had at home. Enter stage right: leftover flat beer! The natural yeast in beer makes it a perfect substitute for store-bought varieties. Plus, using up the leftover beer meant we wouldn't have to throw out the bottles, which meant we weren't contributing to food waste.

I'd like to preface this article with a quick disclaimer, I have a long history of failed baking experiments. Stodgy muffins, cracked cakes, uncooked scones, the list goes on. But this recipe is the simplest and my most successful by far. If you're looking for a quick and delicious homemade bread recipe to carry you through what may (fingers crossed) be our last few weeks of lockdown, give this one a go.

If you do try it, please let me know in the comments below - I'd love to hear how it worked out for you! 

Ingredients

- Three cups of self-raising flour

- 245ml of beer (roughly three quarters of a bottle)

- 1/4 teaspoon of salt

- Half a cup of cheddar cheese 

- Half a cup of drained and sliced jalapenos 

Method 

- Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit or 180 degrees celsius 

- Combine the flour, beer and salt in a large mixing bowl until just combined

- Add the jalapenos and cheese to the mixture and mix a little more

- Transfer mixture to a lightly greased baking tray and shape into a little mould with your hands, or transfer to your bread pan

- Bake for about 40 minutes depending on your oven, or when a knife comes out clean 

Notes and Substitutes

- If you only have plain flour, you will need to add 1 tablespoon of baking soda to help the bread rise.

- I used Asahi Light beer as that's what I had, and could not taste the beer at all. I haven't tried with full strength beer, but I imagine the taste would not be too different (maybe avoid the Guinness). 

- The jalapenos and cheddar are optional. You can simply add them to the top rather than in the mixture (I did this the first time), or leave out altogether. I loved the flavour, so I added them directly into the mixture the second time. You could also substitute with olives, sun dried tomatoes, onion or herbs to name a few.

- This mixture will make you a small loaf, which you can slice up and freeze for later if necessary. If you're looking for plastic-free zip lock bags, check out our reusable ones here. 

Shop our pure Linen Table Napkins in Snow.

Have you been baking some delicious recipes recently? Let me know in the comments below what are your go-to homemade baked goods.