Cooking With Beer

I adore beer, I really do. I'm a picky beer drinker, though- none of that Budweiser swill or Michelob nastiness for me. I usually stick with wheat beers like my all-time favorites Blue Moon and Paulaner, but I always enjoy trying new brews. That's how I discovered goodness like Blind Tiger Raspberry Wheat and Warsteiner Premium Dunkel. I like to support local breweries, too, which is how I ended up with a six-pack of Oklahoma-based Choc Beer's Waving Wheat.  I wasn't keen on Choc's bitter, spicy flavor, so after drinking two bottles and forcing Johnny to try one, I was left with three bottles of unwanted beer in the refrigerator. What to do? Throwing it away seemed wrong. Drinking it was unappealing. Thankfully. the March issue of Women's Health arrived with a solution: cook with it!

The issue includes all sorts of delicious-sounding recipes for beer, and today I baked a loaf of Roasted Garlic Beer Bread. Here's the recipe:

Roasted Garlic Beer Bread
from Women's Health Magazine, March 2011

• 2 whole garlic bulbs
• 2 c. whole wheat pastry flour (I only had whole wheat all purpose flour, so I used that.)
• 1 c. all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 2 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 tbsp. fresh rosemary (I used dried rosemary.)
• 3/4 tsp. salt
• 1.5 c. lager or pilsner (I used one bottle of Choc Waving Wheat.)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Remove the papery covering of the garlic and slice off the tops. Wrap heads in foil and bake for 45 minutes, or until garlic is very soft. Let cool.

2. Grease a 9"x5" loaf pan. In a large bowl, squeeze out the soft garlic pulp and mix with flours, sugar, olive oil, baking powder, salt, and rosemary. Add beer and stir until just combined. (Don't overmix.) Pour into loaf pan. Bake for 50-55 minutes until golden and toothpick inserted comes out clean. Let cool before unmolding and slicing.

Overall, the recipe was very easy to put together. I think my garlic could have been roasted a bit longer, as it didn't squeeze out very easily. The bread was very garlicky (surprise!) and had a somewhat dense texture, but I think it's because I didn't use pastry flour. I think it's good and plan on having some for dinner tonight with my pork chops and roasted potatoes!