Pumpkin Spice Beer Bread

 

I first learned to make beer bread in college, and if you know any college students that want to cook more, I suggest you tell them about it. Beer bread is that ideal college recipe for a few reasons:

1) One of the main ingredients is beer – duh.
2) There are only 3 other ingredients, and all of them are cheap and don’t go bad when left in your cabinet for 9 months.
3) There’s minimal dishwashing required after making this – this is helpful when you’re roommate has left so many dirty dishes that you can’t actually reach your sink.
4) This bread is perfect for breakfast or a snack between meals, which is great when things are so busy you’ve started to forget what time of day it is.

Luckily, making this bread is one of the few things I still remember from college. Except now that I’m a super awesome career woman (sort of) I’ve dressed it up a little. As in, I’ve added some spices, nuts, and…wait for it…pumpkin ale! I know, I’ve grown up a lot since my college days.

Pumpkin Spiced Beer Bread

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For this recipe I used pecans, but I would also recommend walnuts, sliced almonds or even pistachios. For pumpkin ale I used Blue Moon, but any brand you prefer would work just fine.

3 cups all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1 12 oz bottle of Pumpkin Ale

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9”x5” loaf pan.

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and all the spices. Stir together until well combined. Stir in the nuts as well. Make a well in the center of the bowl and pour in the beer. The beer will foam up –this is good. Carefully fold the dry ingredients into the center of the well to incorporate. Mix only until just combined – do not over mix or it will destroy the bubbles and the bread will be dense.

Pour the dough into loaf pan gently smooth out the top with a spatula (I actually don’t do this step, but if you want a prettier loaf you can choose to do it.) Bake in the oven for 50 – 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the dough comes out clean.

Tagged as: Beer, Bread, Pumpkin, Thanksgiving