Recipes / Bread
Herb and garlic beer bread
A beer bread loaf with honey, fresh herbs and garlic butter brushed over the top, baked in a covered kettle braai or the oven to serve with braaied meat.
- Prep
- 15 min
- On the fire
- 50 min
- Plan ahead
- 10 minutes cooling in the tin
- Serves
- 1 loaf, 10 to 12 slices
- Done at
- 200°F (93°C)
Ingredients
Garlic butter
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Set up for indirect heat: light the outside burners (or one side of a two-burner grill) and leave the burner under the food off.
- Close the lid and adjust the lit burners until the lid thermometer reads the temperature in the recipe. Put a drip tray under meat.
- Gas holds a steady heat, so you can skip any step that adds fresh coals. Go by a thermometer in the food rather than the clock.
- Set the kettle braai up for indirect cooking with low coals on both sides and none in the middle. Aim for about 180°C (350°F) under the lid.
- Melt the butter with the garlic in a small pan at the edge of the grid or on the stove. Take it off the heat as soon as the garlic sizzles.
- Grease a loaf tin of about 22 x 12 cm (9 x 5 inches) with a little of the garlic butter.
- Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and herbs in a large bowl.
- Stir the honey into the beer, then pour it into the flour with half of the garlic butter. Mix until just combined.
- Spoon the dough into the tin, level it and brush the rest of the garlic butter over the top.
- Put the tin in the middle of the grid, away from the coals, close the lid and bake for 45 to 55 minutes. Turn the tin halfway through.
- Cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out and slice.
Done when: the top is golden and crisp, the loaf sounds hollow when you tap the base, a skewer in the middle comes out clean, and the centre reads about 93°C (200°F).
Tips
- In the oven, bake at 180°C (350°F) for 45 to 50 minutes.
- Use a light lager. A hoppy or bitter beer makes the herbs taste harsh.
- Use 500 g (4 cups) self-raising flour instead of the flour and baking powder if that is what you have, and cut the salt to 1 teaspoon.
Beer bread is a simple quick loaf: flour and raising agent, a little honey or sugar, and a can of beer. This version adds garlic and herbs, so it can stand in for the braai garlic bread at the side of the fire. It bakes in the kettle while the meat cooks over the other coals, and it needs no proving like roosterkoek does.
Source
Adapted from Cookbook:Beer Bread at Wikibooks. This adaptation is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.