Three Ingredient Beer Bread is so much better than what you get using a mix, and it is just as easy to make! It doesn’t require you to proof yeast and it’s only three ingredients. Plus it’s so easy to add in other mix-ins, like honey or cheese! As an added bonus, you don’t even need a bread machine.
Tips and Tricks
Use fresh self-rising flour. Self-rising flour, because of the baking powder, only has about a six month shelf life. The further you get out from that six month mark, the less of a rise you are going to get in your bread. Use a great bread pan. See my recommendation above. Avoid overmeasuring your flour. This will lead to dried out bread. Make sure you whisk the flour in the container you are storing it in, and then use a spoon to fill your dry measuring cups before leveling it off. Resist the urge to slice into it right away. Bread really does need to cool before you can slice into it. It needs almost a full hour to get nice solid slices.
In my Pizza Dough recipe, you can see how we add yeast (the leavening agent) to warm water and wait for it to proof before adding it to the flour mixture and letting that dough rise. By using self rising flour, we skip that step in this recipe. It is possible to make a substitute for self-rising flour with all-purpose flour, but keep in mind it won’t be exactly the same because you are changing the protein level. For every one cup of flour you use, you need one teaspoon fresh baking powder and 1/4 teaspoon table salt. So for this recipe, you can replace the self-rising flour with:
3 cups all-purpose flour 3 teaspoons baking powder 3/4 teaspoon table salt
The bread pan you see here is this one from USA Pans. It is my favorite and cooks bread perfectly every single time.
I use a pilsner because it is light and doesn’t have an intense flavor. Though I have only made this recipe with pilsner beers, this bread will work with any type of beer. It also works with soda (read more on that below). This is a great recipe to play around with and figure out what you like.
Overall, soda is a great substitute for beer in this recipe. I think that a lemon lime soda is the best choice because it has the mildest taste of sodas.
I suggest using a gluten-free flour that is meant to replace all-purpose flour one-for-one. I used King Arthur’s brand in this test. You will want to use:
3 cups gluten-free one-for-one flour substitute 3 teaspoons baking powder 3/4 teaspoon table salt
This bread freezes great. Store in an airtight container (a gallon ziplock bag works great), and keep in the freezer for up to three months. It will also work great to cut it into slices, freeze them in a single layer for a few hours, and then transfer them to an airtight container.
Combine the flour and sugar together in a mason jar. Add the mason jar, a bottle of beer, and a bread pan to a basket.
My Bacon Cheese Beer Bread is the simplest of all the variations, but so delicious. This Jalapeño Popper Beer Bread is probably my favorite. It really does taste like a Jalapeño Popper as beer bread. If you want to try something really different and delicious, then this Buffalo Beer Bread is for you. Finally, this Beer Bread Bowl is so fun. Use it as a bowl for my Spinach Dip, and then use the inside of the bowl cut up for dipping.
Crockpot Chili Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup Corn Chowder
If you make my easy beer bread recipe or any of these recipes, please leave me a comment and let me know. I love hearing from you!
