Bread is the carbohydrate of my people
While cereal-based loaf recipes date back to around 10,000 BC, around 2000 years ago Pliny the Elder reported that Gauls and Iberians used the foam from beer to produce "a lighter kind of bread than other peoples.”
My recent baking has been an adventure with beer as I’ve tried using various drinks to constitute loaves.
The beer flavour is subtle and I found that a Guinness-style stout added a richness that enhanced the bread, while a soft drink created a thick glossy crust.
A simple loaf made with a can of Coke, a teaspoon of salt and three cups of self-raising flour produced a crunchy damper-like bread that tasted great with butter.
The most popular results have gone for a sweeter bread that included three tablespoons of brown sugar (or treacle) and a cup of cut-up dried dates, as well as a teaspoon of dried ginger and half teaspoons of nutmeg and cinnamon.
Experiments continue with a savoury cumin flavour, as well as another loaf spiced with a teaspoon of Caraway seeds (shown with pumpkin seeds added to roast outside).
Next I want to try a loaf from flour, salt, sparkling tonic water and a teaspoon of oregano.
