Yum - but when would I eat this?

"If you wanted to be really rogue you could dump every single ingredient into the loaf pan itself, mix, bake and eat." Sarah Kate Gillingham/Kitchn

The above Badass smoky chilli cheese bear bread was one of the recipes I found when I was writing about yesterday's website Saucy Gander. It looked so decadently scrumptious that I saved the photograph for another post. And here it is, because I have less time today and this is probably going to be one of those - a list of recipes for variations of a particular dish - kind of posts.

It also reminded me of Deb Perelman of Smitten Kitchen's Cheddar, beer and mustard pull-apart bread which I may have mentioned in an oddments post some time. I certainly meant to feature it some time because that too looked really tempting. So I was possibly not surprised when the Saucy Gander lady said in her recipe that: "The bread was closely based on a beer dough from Smitten Kitchen" . I should note however, that the Smitten Kitchen recipe is quite complicated when it comes to assembling the loaf before it is put in the tin - although there are plentiful pictures to demonstrate the process.

One of the things I found interesting as I browsed the net was the origin of the idea for this kind of bread. There is no classic dish, but Deb Perelman was inspired by the British Welsh Rarebit - the seasonings for which are shown here - for her version, and although Saucy Gander used her recipe for inspiration it had entirely different flavours the most difficult of which is persimmon. Yes it is in season now, but they are not common, so I'm not sure what you would use instead - but now I think of it I have some persimmon chutney because a friend gave me a bag of them a year or so ago. Gochujang is the next substitute flavour - instead of the tabasco perhaps?; and then there is smoked paprika and garlic. All of which I guess demonstrates that you can throw in whatever takes your fancy.

Before I move on to some actual recipes and an attempted answer to my opening question, I should mention a couple of things which are kind of technique related. The beer is apparently a leavening agent - well if you think about it of course it is because:

"Beer is grain, yeast and water—it’s liquid bread!" Jon Hickman/Medium

Which didn't actually stop both Saucy Gander and Deb Perelman using sourdough starter (Saucy Gander) and yeast (Deb Perelman) to rise their bread. Others too.

And it adds flavour too - depending on the kind of beer you use. Most of the recipes I found used a light beer but the last one I found went for Guinness - Cheddar and chive Guinness bread - Sarah Kate Gillingham/Kitchn.

And she reminded us on the choice of beer:

"the darker you go, the more bitter the bread will be. In this case, I like it bitter, especially when offset by something sweet. Toasted with a smidge of butter and honey? Now that’s a great snack." Sarah Kate Gillingham/Kitchn

And the same thought would need to be considered for the choice of flour and whether you added sweeteners - honey, sugar, maple syrup - to your mix.

The other technique which came up over and over again was to pour melted butter over the top of your bread before you put it in the oven to bake. Apparently it gives a shiny glaze and a crusty top. Though why you should just do this for beer bread I don't know.

I mentioned sweeteners so before I get on to other cheesy beer breads, here is one without the cheese, which I only feature because it too was from Saucy Gander - Honey beer bread. This time she does not use yeast or sourdough starter - jut baking powder, which I have to say, along with using self-raising flour, was the leavening agent of majority choice when it coms to beer breads.

So what other recipes did I find? Well as always there are thousands, from very simple beer bread in which the beer is purely there as a replacement for water (or milk) to this which is not really a beer and cheese bread, but rather a beer and cheese fondue encased in a hollowed out bread shell. This Bacon, beer, cheese bread bowl from Host the Toast - purely an example - was recommended for large parties, like for the Super Bowl in this instance. And of course you could flavour the molten cheese and beer with whatever you fancied.

I also noted that the big names in the cooking world, mostly did not bother with a beer and cheese bread. I suspect it's a bit 'infra dig' as we used to say. And even Deb Perelman introduced her piece with this paragraph of comments about how we all like things that we possibly shouldn't:

"You might have created a monster. I went back and forth, again and again, before sharing the recipe for potato chip cookies. My presumption was that most sane people would find them revolting; that the comment section would be a string of “eww”s. Silly me! It turns out that a whole lot of you are closet potato chip sandwich lovers, and worse. You put Doritos on your pizza! You put Cheetos on your tuna! I am clearly among my brethren.

So here are a few picks from the infinite world of foodie blogs with just a couple from 'proper' food sources. Let's start with those two - Beer bread with cheddar and chives - from The Guardian's waste not chef, Tom Hunt - whose bread is actually rolls, and who makes a virtue of using the dregs of a bottle of beer - do people actually ever have leftover beer? and Cheese, beer and bacon pull apart damper from delicous.

And three from the web and the homes of mostly American ladies - Beer cheese bread - I am Homesteader - which she describes as soft and buttery; Easy beer cheese bread - The Curious Plate and Beer bread with cheddar - Small Town Woman.

When we have soup I like to accompany it with some kind of fancy bread - or foccacia or savoury scones, and these breads would be perfect. However there are only two of us and so we will be left with half a loaf at least. What to do with it? It generally needs to be used relatively fast, because it goes off much quicker than ordinary bread, and to my mind it doesn't really lend itself to toast - although reheating in the oven would work I guess. It definitely needs freshening up in some way. You could hold a party - or invite your family over for something it would accompany nicely. Alas my family is not very much into soup. Although you can serve it with all sorts of other things as a nibble kind of course. Caramelised onions? More cheese?

Three of my contributing recipe creators had suggestions:

"I bet the leftovers would be fantastic reheated with scrambled eggs." Deb Perelman/Smitten Kitchen

"They’re a serious treat, and wonderful straight from the oven or dipped into a hearty stew." Tom Hunt

I'm not sure about dipping them into a stew - I suspect they might disintegrate.

or

"Scrambled eggs, poached eggs, or make egg sandwiches. Trust me, you will love it." Small Town Woman

Or just eat as is - reheated in the microwave perhaps. Made into a savoury crunchy crumble to scatter over stuff? Crumbled and used as a stuffing for things with other stuff? Or simply freeze it for another time.

And Deb Perelman has a good suggestion for how to eat her:

"floppy, Slinky or card catalog of a loaf of bread that made me immediately want to finish that cold beer in the fridge." Deb Perelman/Smitten Kitchen

YEARS GONE BY

May 6

2025 - Boredom leads to an idea and to teenagers

2024 - Chicken butter cream - the real deal?

2023 - Tasters

2022 - A Stephanie for the street library

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - Nothing

2018 - Nothing

2017 - Nothing