Everyone's Irish on St. Patty's Day!

"May the sun shine all day long,
Everything go right and nothing go wrong.
May those you love bring love back to you
And may all the wishes you wish come true!"

-Irish toast/blessing

I hope everyone had a great St. Patrick's Day yesterday and made smart choices....like drinking green beer and eating corned beef. My friend Allison and I went to Hooley's in La Mesa last night and had some yummy Irish noms. Lookie!

Grilled corned beef sandwich on rye bread with cheese and grilled onions....then washed it all down with a "pint" of Guinness. Yup, definitely got St. Patty's right this year.


So going back a few days, when I decided I wanted to start a blog, one of the things I knew I wanted to do is try new recipes and share my experiences/experiments, whether they worked or not. I was sitting on the couch with Scott, paging through my Williams-Sonoma Baking cookbook when one recipe caught Scott's attention...Beer Batter Bread. Of course it would catch his attention...this coming from the man that gave me a "beer education" shortly after we started dating. I was kinda wary at first because my mom, who is a phenomenal cook, said the one thing she hated making in culinary school was bread. If my mom didn't like making bread, then I may be in serious trouble. I thought I'd at least give it a try. So in honor of the man who pushed and encouraged me to start this blog...and also in honor of St. Patty's Day, here is an easy recipe for everyone:


Beer Batter Bread

• 3 cups unbleached all-purpose (plain) flour
• 3 tablespoons firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 bottle (12 fl oz/375 ml) beer, unopened and at room temperature (SUESHINE NOTE: The cookbook says that the bread will taken on the flavor of the beer you choose. I would think you would want to use a darker beer if you really want to have the beer flavor but I used Carta Blanca since it's one of the Mister's favorites...still turned out pretty tasty)
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing and serving

• Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan.
• In a bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and salt. Open the beer and add it all at once; it will foam up. Stir briskly just until combined, about 20 strokes. The batter should be slightly lumpy. Pour into the prepared loaf pan and drizzle with the melted butter.
• Bake until the top is crusty and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 35-40 minutes.(SUESHINE NOTE: Mine took a little longer...not sure if it was my oven. After 40 minutes, the middle was still kinda doughy. I put it in for an extra 8 minutes)
• Let rest in the pan for 5 minutes, then turn the loaf out onto a rack. Serve warm or at room temperature the day it is made. Cut into thick slices and accompany with plenty of butter.

Source: The Williams-Sonoma Baking Book, pg. 81

The end result? Success!!

It would probably be really good to use this bread to recreate my St. Patrick's Day dinner (since I'm not a big fan of rye bread). What did I end up using the bread for? At first, I just cut a few warm slices and put lots of butter on it like the recipe says. The crust was really crunchy and buttery. Scott had another (but probably not the healthiest) idea to make grilled cheese sandwiches with extra sharp cheddar. I made them tonight and that was one damn fine grilled cheese sandwich!! Only problem: It was really heavy....I probably could do a few curls between bites hehe.  Also probably not the best thing to eat as a diabetic since it's all carbs but everything in moderation....not like I'm going to eat this every night (as tempting as it might be).

<3 Lil Ms. Sueshine