Honey Beer Bread Recipe | Gimme Some Oven (2024)

FAQs

What is the best beer to make beer bread with? ›

Lighter beers, such as lagers, ales and pilsners, will give your bread a lighter color, and mild taste that just about everyone loves. Darker beers like stouts and porters make a darker-colored loaf and have a stronger beer flavor. Hoppy beers like IPAs will give your bread a more bitter taste.

To carbonate a 5 gallon batch of beer with honey, you can typically replace 5 oz of priming sugar and use 1 cup of honey. Bring 16 oz of water to a boil. Add the 1 cup of honey to the boiling water and stir vigorously. Add this honey solution to the bottom of your bottling bucket, then rack your beer on top of it.

Honey helps extend the shelf life of baked goods, which in particular is important for loaves of bread that need to stay fresh and moist. Honey is a humectant, a substance that prevents moisture transfer in bakery foods. Honey does not give up water easily; in fact, it collects moisture from the atmosphere.

Add Sugar

Sugar acts as a liquifying agent in the dough. Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer.

Can You Use Something Other Than Beer in Beer Bread? Absolutely! Almost any carbonated or noncarbonated beverage can be used, including water, soda pop, milk or buttermilk, fruit juice and even creamed corn! In general substitute 12 fluid ounces of whatever liquid you choose in place of beer.

Adding Honey to the Boil

Since honey is 95% fermentable, most of the sweetness in honey will be lost unless added at later stages in the boil. If you want a subtle honey flavor, add honey between 10 to 30 minutes left in the boil.

Mead (/miːd/), also called hydromel (particularly when low in alcohol content), is an alcoholic beverage made by fermenting honey mixed with water, and sometimes with added ingredients such as fruits, spices, grains, or hops.

The Story of Honey-Beer

Mead is argued as one of the oldest-known fermented beverages ever uncovered, and the history of braggot is not far behind. Honey has been used throughout history as a primary source of sugar in the diet and a fortifying agent in fermented beverages.

If you add too much honey, it can change the hydration of your sourdough bread. Honey is higher in fructose than sugar making it much sweeter. For this reason, when substituting, you'll need to reduce the amount of sugar you use to three quarters (¾) or even half (½) of the amount of honey used.

What kind of honey is best for baking bread? ›

Amber Honey

It has more caramel notes, which makes it the ideal honey for spreading on bread. For baking purposes, you can use it to make Parker House rolls.

Cooking honey at 40 degree Celsius or more can cause negative chemical change that makes it taste bitter. Cooking destroys the potent health benefits of honey.

Fortunately, one of the most glaring baking problems has an easy solution: ensuring your bread stays moist. The key is twofold: use quality ingredients and let the dough stand overnight. If you're using storebought flour, opt for “bread flour,” which will hold better in heat and help create a more tender crumb.

Dense or heavy bread can be caused by not kneading the dough enough, not letting the dough rise enough, or using too much flour. To fix this issue: try kneading the dough for longer or allowing it to rise for a longer period. You can also try adding a little more liquid to the dough or using a higher protein flour.

Onion Soup Mix

You probably didn't expect to see soup mix on a list of bread ingredients, but grandma would add this secret ingredient to give a rich, savory flavor to her bread. All you need to do is dissolve the mix in hot water before adding it to the yeast for your dough.

I used Michelob Ultra with this mix and it came out delicious. I wasn't sure what kind of bread I would get so I was pleasantly surprised at the flavor. It has a somewhat sweet flavor (but not too sweet) so I would probably not use it for sandwiches but it was delicious even without butter.

It's also the phrase you'll find gracing each box of Trader Joe's Beer Bread Mix. The flavor of the finished loaf really depends on what kind of beer you use: Go with a lager for a lighter profile, an IPA for a hearty, hoppy taste, or a stout for a rich result with a slightly darker finished product.

Wheat beers are great for chicken and seafood. If you're cooking pork, beef, and lamb, you will need ales, porters, and stouts. Hearty meat goes well with belgian ales. Stews pair well with ale.

It does not matter if the beer is warm or cold....just mix up and bake...almost fool proof. This bread is so delicious...crusty golden exterior with tender dense inside. This is a good hearty bread that goes well with soup!