Buttery Beer Bread

Once a month, I attend a luncheon for non-profit fundraising professionals. We're usually treated to guest speakers and I always leave having learned one new thing and having met one new person. But, the biggest treat of all is a lunch staple: beer bread. I have no idea who caters the meal, but what I do know is that the delicious bread is a crowd pleaser. (Seriously...one month it wasn't there and the attendees almost revolted!)

I've been raving about the beer bread to my mom for almost a year, so this past week we decided to try and bake our own. We used this recipe we found online. While my dad barbequed ribs, we got busy with the side dish of buttery beer bread.

Here's what we needed:

3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 bottle, 12 ounces, beer (we used Guinness)
1 stick unsalted butter, melted

First, mix together the dry ingredients - flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Once those have been thoroughly combined, add the beer. We used Guinness but the recipe didn't specify what kind to use. Using a wooden spoon, mix the beer into the dry ingredients until you have a doughy consistency.

Dry ingredients with Guinness.

Mixed into dough.

 

While I was making the dough, my mom was buttering the glass baking dish.  After the dish was buttered, we added half of the melted butter stick, then the dough, and then topped the dough with more melted butter. It feels really excessive to be greasing the dish with butter and then added multiple layers of melted butter, but when baking the butter hardens to form the crust, so don't skimp on the butter! It is totally worth it. :)

 

Butter layer #1.

Butter layer #2.

 

Now, it's time to bake. We baked the bread for about 60 minutes at 350 degrees. We had to check and add a few more minutes towards the end, but it was worth the wait. It came out of the oven zizzling and perfectly golden brown.

 

 

The perfect slice!

 

The beer bread was really good. It was buttery and sweet, and the outside had the perfect crunch. It was a little different from the bread I eat at my monthly luncheons. It was darker in color and thicker in texture, which maybe is due to the dark beer. Regardless, it was delicious and we talked about making it again with chili or stews.

 

I wish I would have taken a picture of the beer bread and ribs because our dinner was so delicious, and they each complimented each other so well. I was just really excited to eat!

Mini Blueberry Lemon Bundt Cakes

It's been a crazy few weeks for the Girls Team. Between work obligations and out of town trips, we haven't been able to give MIHM the attention it deserves lately. Newly refreshed and ready to go, we were happy to be back in full force this week. We wanted our project to really connect with the reason why we created MIHM - something that served as a challenge, but built on our strengths. So with that said, we decided to bake mini blueberry lemon bundt cakes. Sure, we consider ourselves seasoned bakers, but bundt cakes are a treat we haven't attempted yet!

We found a really great, easy to follow recipe online. If you're interested in the details, click here. Here's the ingredient list:

For the Cake

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 1 teaspoon for blueberries and zest
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1 cup granulated sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
2 cups blueberries
2 tablespoons grated lemon zestjuice of one lemon
Nonstick cooking spray, for pan

For the Cream Cheese Glaze

1 (4 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 tablespoon butter, softened
2 cups confectioners’ sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon milk

After preheating the oven to 350 degrees, combine the dry ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

 

Then mix butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla extract and lemon juice together. Once combined, slowly add the dry ingredients and sour cream into the mixer.

 

 

While I was battling the mixer (I had some momentary lapses in common sense, sending batter flying through the kitchen), my mom was tossing the fresh blueberries with lemon zest and flour.

 

 

After the berries are ready, gently fold them into the batter. Heavily grease the bundt cake pan (or in our case, the super cute mini bundt cake pan) and place the cakes in the oven.

 

 

Because we were making mini cakes, and the recipe we used was for one large cake, some google searching helped us determine that we only needed to bake the bundt cakes for 20-25 minutes. When we took them out of the oven, they looked (and smelled!) amazing.

 

 

My mom made the cream cheese glaze as the cakes were cooling. I forgot to get a picture of this part, so for directions, refer to the linked recipe above. We drizzled the glaze over the bundt cake for the final touch!

 

 

First of all, how beautiful do these look?! We were both so impressed by appearance alone. They came out of the oven light brown, not burnt or dark, and the blueberries were equally dispursed throughout the cake. Honestly, throwing all modesty aside, they look professionally made. :)

 

My dad and Nelson helped the Girls Team taste test and our mini blueberry lemon bundt cakes received rave reviews! The lemon flavoring was just tarte enough, and the blueberries were so sweet. Our cake was nice and fluffy, cooked to perfection. These are my favorite baking item we've done on MIHM so far. I will definitely add these to my staple baking list. Aside from tasting great, the mini size makes them a cute little treat to share.

 

Speaking of sharing, since we made 12 cakes, I brought some to work to share with a few co-workers.

 

 

 

Project Linus Blankets - Update!

Last month the Girls Team started to crochet blankets for Project Linus, a non-profit organization that donates volunteer-made blankets to children in the community. This week we wanted to track our progress on this project. If you missed our original post, check it out here.

My mom is crocheting individual squares. She is flying through this part! Once she is done with the squares, she will be sewing them together to make the full blanket. Even though she's been crocheting for years, she's never sewn squares together so that will be her challenge with this project!

How cute are these squares?!

Almost ready to be sewn together.

 

I'm using three colors of yarn and crocheting a blanket for a pre-teen girl. Since this is the first time I've ever crocheted, I'm learning the basic stitches of chains, single crochet and double crochet to make this blanket. Inititally, I thought the yarn would stretch out, so I didn't exactly measure the width when I started. This was a mistake! Project Linus has size specifications for each age group. The smallest blanket allowed needs to measure 30 inches by 30 inches to be used for infants. After many nights spent crocheting, I realized that my blanket wouldn't be big enough. Huge bummer!!

My orginal blanket, measuring 23 inches by 18

 inches, wasn't going to cut it.

 

Starting over! My new blanket measures 45 inches in width.

 

At first I was really annoyed I had to start over because I spent about 3 weeks on my first blanket. But this is my first time crocheting and it wouldn't be a learning experience without a few bumps in the road. Good thing I watch a lot of TV because I'll need a lot of time to finish my new, larger blanket!

 

Crocheting is a lot easier now that I've had some practice. At first I thought it was harder than knitting, but now I think they are just about equal. The Girls Team will keep plugging along and we'll make sure to post the final blankets when they are completed and ready to donate!