Recipe: Shock Top Raspberry Wheat Beer Bread

Last fall, my former roommate introduced me to beer bread with a hearty, delicious loaf of bread made using a pumpkin beer.  A couple weeks ago, one of my friends gave me a couple slices of Shock Top Apple Crisp beer bread.  So Sunday evening as our weekend together came to an end, the boyfriend G and I decided to whip up a loaf of our own before he had to leave.  (He lives just under two hours away.)


We picked Shock Top Raspberry Wheat for our bread and used this recipe from Food.com:

Total Time: 1 hour, 3 minutes
Prep Time: 3 minutes
Cook Time: 1 hour

Ingredients for 1 Loaf:

3 cups flour (sifted)
3 teaspoons baking powder (omit if using self-rising flour)
1/4 cup sugar
12 oz. beer (1 can or 1 bottle)
1/2 cup melted butter (1/4 cup will do  fine)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Mix dry ingredients and beer.

3. Pour into greased loaf pan.

4. Pour melted butter over mixture.

5. Bake 1 hour, remove from pan, and cool for at least 15 minutes.

Notes:

This recipe makes a very hearty bread with a crunchy, buttery crust. If you prefer a softer crust (like a traditional bread) mix the butter into the batter instead of pouring it over the top.

Sifting flour for bread is a must-do. Most people just scoop the 1 cup measure in the flour canister and level it off. That compacts the flour and will turn your bread into a "hard biscuit as some have described. If you do not have a flour sifter, use a spoon to spoon the flour into the 1 cup measure.

Beer bread is one of the easiest things to make!  When you use "fruity" beers such as pumpkin, apple, or raspberry, it turns out quite sweet.  We ate ours for dessert. ;)  I think next time we'll be trying a regular wheat beer, bitter beer, or red ale to create a more savory loaf vs. sweet.  

Have you ever made beer bread before?  If so, what beer did you use?