Cheddar Beer Bread

 

1 1/4 cups beer

1 1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp granulated sugar

3 1/4 cups bread flour

1/3 buttermilk powder

1/2 cup aged cheddar cheese

2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese

1 1/4 tsp bread machine yeast

1. Measure ingredients into baking pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer.  Insert pan into over chamber.
2. Select Sweet Cycle.

THINGS I CHANGED:

• I set the bread machine to basic because my machine is basic and does not have a sweet cycle.  No worries.  Bread was just fine.
• Rarely do I have aged Cheddar cheese lying about.  I used Mexican cheese blend instead.  Again, totally fine.

THINGS I LEARNED:

• This is not the same as the Tastefully Simple beer bread.  Not at all.  It's good, but not the same.
• The recipe says that you can add dry mustard powder to sharpen the cheese flavor, but I didn't do that.  I didn't learn anything from it, but I thought I'd mention it.
• The recipe also says you can make the bread with water or lite beer. 
• The beer you use can change the taste of the bread.  It's fairly subtle, but if you really hate a particular kind of beer, I wouldn't recommend using it in your beer bread.  Frankly, I wouldn't recommend buying beer you can't stand, but that's another subject entirely.

OVERALL OPINIONS:

Bill: Liked it.

Emma: Liked it.

Georgia: Loved it.  She my bread and meat eater, so this is no shock.

Me: I liked it but was a little disappointed that it didn't taste more like the beer bread I'm used to.  After I got over that, I appreciated it very much for what it was: good bread.

Deluxe Brownies

Family size bownie mix (plus ingredients to make it)

Bag of chocolate chips

Bag of mini marshmallows

Peanut butter sauce/topping

1. Make the brownies according to package directions.
2. When you take the brownies out of the oven, immediately cover them with as many chocolate chips as it takes to completely cover the top.  Allow the chips to melt for a minute or so, then spread them smooth with a flat spreader and allow them to cool a little more.
3. After the chips have mostly cooled but are still a little sticky, add a layer of mini marshmallows -- just enough to cover the top of the chocolate chips.  Allow the brownies and topping to cool completely.
4. When the brownies are completely cool, and the topping is firm, drizzle the peanut butter sauce over the top.

THINGS I CHANGED:

• Nothing.  This is my own on-the-fly recipe, so I did just as I said above.  I suppose this may be the only time I have no changes whatsoever.

THINGS I LEARNED:

• Making a crazy-good dessert with just the stuff you have in your pantry is a good possibility if you're a little creative.

OVERALL OPINIONS:

Everyone liked these.  I had one person say that maybe there was just a little too much peanut butter topping, but that could be easily remedied, and it was only one person about of about ten who tried them.  :)