St. Patrick’s Day is coming up, and I have 2 bottles of Guinness in my refrigerator. I feel like popping the tops and drinking them would be appropriate but not very original. What to do? Search Pinterest for recipes that use Guinness, of course! I found a couple to help me put those bottles of Guinness to good use, starting with Guinness Irish Soda Bread.
Delicious and easy to make homemade beer bread. Enjoy a deep flavor with without kneading.
The Ingredients
What’s better than a short grocery list of inexpensive and easy to find items? No grocery list. Yup, I didn’t have to buy a single ingredient to make this soda bread recipe. The ingredients are all kitchen staples like flour, salt, baking soda, and butter. How great is that? A few dollars for the Guinness isn’t bad if you already have the rest of the ingredients, and you’ll have 5 bottles left over to enjoy.
The Process
Making the soda bread was easy, but it took me a lot longer to prep than the 5 minutes listed in the recipe. In fact, it took me 15 minutes to get it ready to go into the oven, and I’m really not sure why.
The directions were clear, and the steps went pretty smoothly. The biggest issue was the dough was very sticky, and that made it difficult to work with at first. Getting onto a floured surface and being able to flour my hands did help a lot, though.
Baking for 25 minutes gave me the hollow sound the author said indicated the bread was done. I let it rest for a few minutes and sliced into it. Unfortunately, I discovered a doughy, underbaked spot in the middle of my bread. I tried baking it for another 5 minutes, but it didn’t seem to help.
Fortunately, the underdone spot was pretty small, and I was able to cut it out of the sliced bread. I would recommend baking for the full 30 minutes and letting the bread sit for a good while to ensure it’s fully cooked.
