Gimme Some Sugar and Some Beer Bread

I was inspired this past week to start a new series in this little blog of mine. It’s called Gimme Some Sugar and it’s in honor of the amazing Grandmas, Mamaws and Nanas that seem to have an unending supply of sugar in the form of kisses and hugs and fried fruit pies and casseroles… I want to pay homage to the recipes that are decades old and have been passed down from generation to generation.

This really started January 1, 2008 with a new set of resolutions. I decided that it was important for me to learn how to live more like a grandma.   (On a side note, I wonder if my husband still freaks out when I say things like that or if by now he’s used to bizarre things coming out of my mouth.)  Recently I’ve had a desire to learn how to make and preserve my own jam, knit scarves, grow my own veggies and make more food from scratch – everyone should know how to make a proper piecrust right??   And this past weekend my grandma-esque new years resolution and my food blog came together as one.

For Easter, Steve and I hopped on a plane to Texas and drove an hour from the city to a small town (I’m guessing population 500, cow population 5,000) to the warm and inviting home of my Mamaw and Papaw.  There are a lot of things that grandparents are good for: hugs, advice, bubble gum, homemade pies, fishing, casseroles, candy dishes and knitted scarves and as this past weekend is proof of, they are very good at keeping their grandkids stuffed to the brim with delicious food all hours of the day. After we settled in and played with their new puppy, Sam, Mamaw and I got to work in the kitchen. We made asparagus casserole, spring pea salad, pie crusts, lemon pie, coconut cream pie, fried fruit pies, scalloped potatoes, potato salad and so on and so on but the one item that really got me excited was the beer bread. I’m new to beer bread but I love it and I’ve been searching for a good recipe so when the first chore  Mamaw gave me was the make her mother’s beer bread I jumped at the opportunity. When it comes to food I am easily excited…

I had no idea how simple it would be to make fresh bread! Baking any kind of homemade bread always seemed a little daunting to me but this was simple. Four ingredients. No yeast. One bowl. One pan. Butter. Need I say more? I ate beer bread all weekend long.

This recipe calls for self-rising flour but if you don’t have any you can use 1 cup flour + 1 tablespoon baking power + 1/4 teaspoon salt. The beauty of this bread is that you can use whatever kind of beer you have handy. I personally like a good strong beer (no light beer for me!) so I would probably use a bottle of Blue Moon or Newcastle. Mamaw and I used a bottle of Lone Star beer. Perfect for a loaf of Texas Beer Bread if you ask me! It’s best if the beer is room temperature but it’s not necessary.

Texas Beer Bread
10 minutes prep time  40 minutes bake time

3 1/2 cups self-rising flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 12oz. bottle of good quality beer
1 stick of butter, melted

Heat over to 450º. Mix flour, sugar and beer in a bowl. Batter will be thick. Place it into a greased 8 or 9 inch loaf pan and bake for 30 minutes. Top will melted butter and bake an additional 10 minutes. Serve warm with pretty much anything. More butter, jam, eggs, radishes…yum, my mouth is watering.

Thanks Mamaw! Love you!