Nutty Grain Beer Bread

July 29, 2009

Oats, wheat berries, ground flaxseed, sesame seeds and walnuts. These are a few of the things I had sitting around the apartment that were begging to be used. When I stopped by the supermarket on Monday and walked past the beer aisle I caught a glimpse of what all these ingredients had the potential to become – whole grain beer bread!

Much of the dark beer here in Brazil is Malzbier. It’s very low alcohol and some compare it more to root beer than traditional beer. I used to enjoy it when we first arrived, but it is rather sweet. I can’t even think of anything that equates to it in the US. It can be enjoyable as a dessert, but lately I’ve found that it’s just too sweet for my preferences. However, I have learned it is a great addition to beer bread.

Hungry for a nutty, grainy bread to complement my breakfast, and as a base for my overconsumption of goiaba (guava) fruit jam I decided it was time to use of my stash of ingredients and see what would happen.

I did a quick search for a beer bread to guide me and found Peanut Butter Boy’s Whole Grain Beer Bread. This got me off to a good start.

I used mascavo sugar (unrefined cane sugar) and cut back on it a bit due to the sweetness of the beer. Then I soaked my steel cut oats and wheat berries for a ½ hour. Threw everything together and let ‘er bake.

A definite winner. I’ll be making this one again and again. However, I would suggest soaking the grains a bit longer, perhaps 45 minutes, because there were still some rather hard bites to be found. I guess you could choose to sprout them as well, but I didn’t go that far. Also, any dark beer will do.

Fresh from the oven or toasted with jam the bread is full of crunchy texture with the mild sweetness of the dark beer. Hearty, healthy and filling – exactly what I was going for.

Nutty Grain Beer Bread

Adapted from Peanut Butter Boy’s Whole Grain Beer Bread

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 T mascavo sugar
1 T baking powder
1 t salt
2 T sesame seeds
¼ cup chopped walnuts
2 T ground flaxseed
1/3 cup steel cut oats (soaked and drained)
1/3 cup wheat berries (soaked and drained)
1 can (350 ml beer)

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan. In a large bowl, gently mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Stir in the sesame seeds and flaxseed. Next pour in the oats and wheat berries. It is fine if a bit of the soaking liquid goes in to add moisture. Mix well and then begin pouring in the beer a little at time as you stir until the can is empty. Then stir until the dough is well combined.

Pour into your baking pan, spread evenly and bake for 45 min to 1 hr. Once browned and baked through, remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack for about 10 minutes. De-pan and enjoy!

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  • Erica July 29, 2009 at 12:43 pm

    Looks so hearty and delicious! YUM. I love nutty breads. Great recipe. I want to give it a whirl. Hop your Wednesday afternoon is treating you well

  • Michelle @ Find Your Balance July 29, 2009 at 12:51 pm

    Nice! Hey, do you know the diff between muscovado, sucanat and rapadura? I can only find sucanat at the store and wonder what I’m missing…

  • 5 Star Foodie July 29, 2009 at 1:03 pm

    This bread sounds fantastic! I’m curious if my husband ever tried Malzbier. Would you use root beer as a substitute for Malzbier in US?

  • Elizabeth Jarrard July 29, 2009 at 2:01 pm

    YUMMY!! i want to make this for my dad who loves beer bread!

  • lesley July 29, 2009 at 2:52 pm

    Beautiful and delicious looking bread! It’s hard to beat nutty breads.

  • momgateway July 29, 2009 at 3:45 pm

    The sesame seed addition to beer bread sounds delicious to me. I’ve never added nuts to beer bread.

  • Emily July 29, 2009 at 7:18 pm

    That looks like a great loaf!

  • Chow and Chatter July 29, 2009 at 7:54 pm

    this is so cool never heard of beer in bread my hubby wants to watch formula one in sao paulo, do you live nr there, what are the best things in southern brazil. Sorry to bug ya
    rebeccasubbiah at yahoo dot com

  • Chow and Chatter July 29, 2009 at 7:54 pm

    or facebook me!

  • burpandslurp July 29, 2009 at 9:29 pm

    Ooh! Beer bread! I baked this once, but I didn’t have all these fabulous grains! I did add parmesan, sausages, and herbs though!

  • Sophie July 30, 2009 at 1:54 am

    I love the addtion of the beeer! It is a lovely, healthy beer bread!!

    Yummie yum!

  • kat July 30, 2009 at 6:58 am

    Now that is one hearty looking loaf

  • Lori July 30, 2009 at 7:05 am

    So glad everyone likes the bread! I was really happy with how it turned out.

    Michelle – Let me see what I can find on the sugars. I don’t know at the moment.

    5 Star Foodie – root beer would work, but I think a dark beer like Guinness or another stout would be better.

    Chow and Chatter – I’ll drop you a note, but although SP is considered in the south of Brazil we are actually 8 hours south from there, so very south. I don’t know much about the area just where we are living and Curitiba.

  • OysterCulture July 30, 2009 at 7:42 am

    I LOVE beer bread, not sure why I have this obsession and I do not make it all that often, but have wonderful memories of eating it fresh from the oven slathered with apricot jam – oh my!

  • Alison July 30, 2009 at 12:17 pm

    Sounds yummy! I wonder how it’s taste with root beer. Ginger ale might be interesting.

  • sangeeta July 31, 2009 at 3:00 am

    this bread is amazing…the brown color looks tempting…i guess it is due to muscavo sugar….n never heard of a beer bread….
    i make breads with sesame n flax with whole wheat flour and oats n broken wheat on a regular basis , but this combination looks more exciting…whole wheat berries must be chewy in the bread….

  • Lori July 31, 2009 at 11:14 am

    Glad you like the bread! The wheat berries add such a nice texture. And it is the ultimate with a sweet jam. I’ve been using guava and lingonberry!

  • Sagan July 31, 2009 at 2:26 pm

    That looks fantastic! And not even any yeast. I’m going to give this recipe a shot.

  • Tangled Noodle August 1, 2009 at 7:59 pm

    I love breads packed with grains and nuts (& fruit!) – pretty much a complete meal in a one or two slices. I’ve made Irish brown bread with steelcut oats and the texture was great. Wheat berries are what I need to try next; thanks for the tip about soaking them longer – nothing is more jarring than biting down on a really hard bit.

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