If it’s soup season, it’s also bread season in my book! What’s a great bowl of soup without a hunk of bread to clean the bottom of the bowl? Sad and lonely. That’s a sad and lonely bowl of soup. My Easy 3 Step Beer Bread is the perfect pairing.

It’s fluffy, buttery, crusty, and doesn’t require the fuss of traditional bread baking. Just mix your ingredients in right in the loaf pan, top with melted butter, and bake. Easy as 1-2-3. While the recipe can be wrapped up in three steps, the flavor variations are nearly endless! From sweet to savory, this recipe has a wider range than Mariah Carey! Oh, and you can mix and bake everything in the same pan, great news for those who loath the excess of dirty dishes baking can create.

Keys to Success

Don’t under – bake. When baked through you won’t have any problems popping this bread right out of the pan. If the bread is under-baked, there could be some sticking to the bottom of the loaf pan. A toothpick should come cleanly out of the center of the bread when the bread is fully baked.
Don’t over-mix. If this dough is over mixed it will get tough instead of light and fluffy. I like to use a fork and bring the mixture from the edges to the center all the way around the loaf pan. There might still be some flour on the sides of the loaf pan. That’s OK. Once the dough looks like all of the dry has mixed with the wet stop mixing.
Choose your favorite beer! The bread will taste like the beer you use. To please all palates I typically use a light beer, but on occasion I’ll get fancy and use a craft beer. I like using a dark American Lager when pairing with something meaty like beef stew.

Flavor Variations

Cheesy Bacon Beer Bread – Add 3/4 cup of shredded cheddar cheese, 1/2 cup of bacon bits to the dough. Sprinkle additional shredded cheese on top 1/2 way through baking.
Rosemary Parmesan Beer Bread – Add 3/4 cup of shredded parmesan cheese and 2 teaspoons of dried rosemary to the dough. Sprinkle additional cheese on to 1/2 way through baking
Cinnamon Brown Sugar Beer Bread – Mix 1/4 cup dark brown sugar with 3 teaspoons of cinnamon. Once dough is almost completely combined, evenly add most the mixture and use the fork tines to push the mixture down into the bread, leave enough sugar mixture to sprinkle over the top. Sprinkle the remaining sugar over the top of the butter before baking.

I could keep going and going and going, BUT, I’d love to hear your ideas. If you’ve tried a great beer bread variation, leave it in the comments below so I can give it a try!