Honey Beer Bread — The easiest beer bread ever! No kneading, no yeast, and guaranteed soft and fluffy results every time!
Quick Beer Bread Recipe
I hate beer. But I loved this bread. You will too. And it’s ridiculously easy.
Hate may be too strong of a word about my feelings for beer, but not really. In college, if the choice was drink beer at a party because it’s all there was or stay sober, I stayed sober. I was the built in designated driver.
I really don’t know what it is about beer that I despise so much. I love wine and champagne, but not beer, which is odd because I dig yeasty, cultured, and vinegary things. I like to ferment, pickle, and make homemade kombucha and kefir.
Beer does wonders for this bread, and the bread does not taste like beer. If it did, I wouldn’t love it so much.
And let’s cover this since I know I’ll be asked. Most of the alcohol bakes off and what you’re left with is wonderfully textured bread, with great depth of flavor.
The bread is one of the best sandwich-like breads I’ve ever made, either quick bread or yeast. I have others that are very good, but they’re yeasted breads and require rising, kneading, and you’re looking at a 4+ hour event with lots more work.
The bread is about as sweet as storebought honey-whole wheat sandwich bread. Although there’s no whole wheat flour in the bread, it has a wheaty, nutty quality which I love, courtesy of the beer.
I used one teaspoon each of cinnamon and nutmeg, as well as a dash of molasses, all of which add warming undertones and little bursts of comforting flavors.
They’re very subtle, but present. It’s the nutmeg that I notice most, and it plays wonderfully off the honey and maple.
This honey beer bread is ridiculously soft and moist. It’s on the denser side, as is to be expected without using yeast, but it’s not a crusty bread, which is music to my ears.
I baked it late one night last week, and woke up to photograph it, only to find it was raining and continued to rain all day. Horrible weather for food photography, but great weather for curling up with soft, squishy bread.
It’s total comfort food. I’m not even that much of a bread eater, and I loved it.
Effortless, goofproof, and tastes amazing. Cannot ask for anything more!
What’s in Honey Beer Bread?
To make this easy beer bread, you’ll need:
- Vegetable oil
- Molasses
- Honey
- Pure maple syrup
- Ground cinnamon and nutmeg
- Salt
- All-purpose flour
- Baking powder
- Beer
How to Make Honey Beer Bread
The honey beer bread is so simple to make you’ll think you’re doing something wrong.
You combine all the ingredients in one bowl, pour beer over them, stir, and that’s it. You cannot mess this up.
My one suggestion is to let the homemade beer bread cool completely before slicing it. The bread needs time to set up.
Ways to Use Beer Bread
As a sidebar recipe, I made bread pudding with it. In a medium bowl, I beat 1 egg with about 1/2 cup milk, 1/3 cup granulated sugar, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and then put 3 slices of bread (torn apart) into the egg-milk mixture and let it soak for 10 minutes.
Then I pressed it into an 8×4 pan and baked at 350F for 17 minutes. It was some seriously good bread pudding.
Or use the bread for Pumpkin Cinnamon Overnight Pull-Apart French Toast or in place of the Hawaiian bread in Hawaiian Bread and Maple Banana Baked French Toast.
What’s the Best Beer for Beer Bread?
Since I’m not a beer drinker, I stood in front of the beer case forever and had no idea what I was grabbing.
I finally settled on Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale because pumpkin anything sounds good. But no, the bread doesn’t taste like pumpkin, although I wish it did.
I really don’t think there’s a wrong beer for the bread. I want to make more of it, trying a variety of beers to see how they effect the taste. Since I don’t know one from the other, it’ll be random potluck. Sounds fun.
Tips for the Best Beer Bread
I used honey from Trader Joe’s. If you have fancy honey and want to use it, go for it.
If you don’t have real maple syrup, no biggie. Use what you have, and that goes for the beer, too. Just make sure to use pure maple syrup, NOT pancake syrup.
If you plan to make sandwiches with the bread or dip it with chili or soup, or let it go stale and make croutons with it, or use it as the dipper for hummus or on a cheese platter, you may want to either omit or dial back the cinnamon and nutmeg.
You could also go savory with the spices, adding a pinch of garlic or onion powder, curry, oregano, dill, or whatever flavors you like.
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Honey Maple Beer Bread
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
- 2 tablespoons light, mild, or medium molasses (not blackstrap)
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt, optional and to taste
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 12 ounces beer (I used Blue Moon Harvest Pumpkin Ale
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375F. Spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with floured cooking spray, or grease and flour the pan; set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, add the first 9 ingredients (through baking powder). Tip: Measure the oil in a 1/4-cup measure, filling it halfway (there’s 4 tablespoons in 1/4-cup, so halfway is 2 tablespoons). By adding the oil first, it coats the measuring cup so the subsequent sticky ingredients (molasses, honey, maple) will slide right out.
- Slowly pour beer over the top. It will bubble and foam. Stir until combined. Batter is thick, gloppy, and dense.
- Turn batter out into prepared pan, smoothing the top lightly with a spatula.
- Bake for about 40 minutes, or until top is domed and set, and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no batter.
- Allow bread to cool in pan for about 15 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Slice using a serrated knife.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Averie, I love this beer bread recipe! AND that you used my favorite pumpkin ale to make it. I drank those blue moons on Saturday night when my friend came over. I obviously know you don’t like beer, but seriously what a great choice for your bread! The honey, the maple, the nutmeg, the molasses, the cinnamon. Oh my. :) I’m craving it all.
The photos are unbelievably gorgeous. I made bread yesterday and it’s always so challenging for me to shoot. Anyway, amazing recipe and flawless photos.
Sally the photos. Ohmygod. You have no idea. Okay so I made this beer bread and was SO EXCITED to take pics. Only to hit a cloudy day and it was cloudy in the a.m. and I thought it would get better, no, it started pouring rain and poured all day. I had to shoot this. It was too good not to. So I literally had to crank up the ISO to 800 to 1000 and shoot at f/3.5 or 4.0 just to even have it not be pitch black. And then hello, LR4. But after all that, to hear you say you like them, thank you :) Makes my day!
And that you love this beer – the whole time I was making this bread I was thinking I bet Sally would really like this! Sounds like I picked a winner (beginner’s luck LOL)
I love wine and champagne too! But beer is just eh. I can handle it but it’s not my favorite. I love cooking and baking with it though!!! Your bread recipes are always so good. Can’t wait to try this one!!
I’m obsessed with beer bread and I bet the maple in here is wonderful!
You had me at no yeast and no knead girl and you had my hubby at beer! I’m right there with you girl, I’m not the biggest fan of beer. I will drink it, but it’s not my fave. I much prefer wine and white wine that is as red makes me feel blah the next morning. I’m totally pinning the 3rd shot down of that loaf of bread because it looks amazing and I love how the top is all browned and not smooth. I could just eat the whole top of the bread with some butter of course and be one happy camper!
xoxo, Jackie
Thanks for pinning and it’s always interesting what people choose to pin – like what I think is my ‘best’ shot vs. others or when I go to blogs and although their leadoff photo is good, I like others better. Anyway, here’s to you enjoying a glass of white wine tonite I hope :)
This looks like my kind of bread! I love it!!
Thanks, Shelly! It’s BEYOND easy, too!
I made this for dinner and my husband said “ooooh–good beer bread!” I totally agree. There is a nice, rich color and flavor to it with just enough “yeastiness” from the beer. It’s moist and dense–my kind of loaf! I put a few TBS of rolled oats in and decided to bake it on the grill. Its probably a little risky, but I used a heavy duty ceramic loaf pan and put a brick on the grate to elevate the pan. We have a gas grill so I can hold the temp steady and the baking time was just about the same. Thanks for thinking of me when you made this–it’s definitely a recipe I love and so easy too!
Super easy, and glad you love it! Good idea to toss in a few tbsp of oats. I was *so close* to doing that with this loaf but wanted to make sure I nailed the recipe first, before starting to tinker with it. Glad to hear the oats were a good call (I knew they would be!) and that you cooked it on your grill in a ceramic loaf pan. WOW! Now that’s a bold move and impressive! Glad it worked out beautifully for you guys!
Can you believe I’ve never made beer bread before?! Okay, that needs to change next weekend!
I’m not a beer drinker either, but I do love me some beer bread!! This looks fantastic Averie!!
I love bread, it’s kind of my addiction ;) this recipe is perfect
I hated beer until I moved to San Diego, craft beer capital and became friends wih the biggest beer snobs…in a good way of course..I’ve ever met. They introduced me to beers I could tolerate :) And now have grown to appreciate but I’d still take a glass of wine over beer any day. And I can think of tons of craft beers that would be delish in this recipe! Bread has always scared me but this recipe sounds like something I might be able to handle! Thanks!
I live in San Diego – I didn’t know you were local!!? And I thought it was just maybe b/c I’m not a beer person that it feels like there’s a TON of craft beer and locally made brews…everywhere. Glad to hear I am not imagining that :)
I’m not a big beer fan either, but I do love baking with it! This looks yummy!
This bread looks so good – just glad the loaf is not in front of me because I’d inhale it!
Found this recipe on Pinterest and made it today. Absolutely will be a go to bread for me now. Really, really good!!
Thanks for trying it Pattie! I just posted teh recipe yesterday and you’re the first person to write to tell me you’ve made it so thank you and glad it’ll be a go-to for you!
I say ‘Ditto!’ of your dislike of Beer. This Bread sounds too good to be true. I’ve got all the ingredients for this recipe… so, I’m excited to try it!
LMK what you think!
All of these breads are gorgeous! Thanks for sharing nom nom nom
I love a twist on the classic. This sounds super yum!