The entire internet has seemingly been baking homemade bread for weeks, with the exception of those of us who weren’t prescient enough to buy yeast before the COVID-19 hoarding began in earnest. My husband Mark and I bake bread (using this easy, no knead recipe) during the cooler months only, because our kitchen gets unbearable when we use the oven, so it didn’t occur to us to stock up on yeast given the season. The endless stream of rustic sourdough boules, beautiful baguette batons and fluffy sandwich loaves infiltrating my social media feeds however left me feeling, at worst, desperately craving a homemade loaf and, most importantly, the aroma of freshly baked bread and at best — left out. Who doesn’t love a fun internet bread war?
Finally, I couldn’t take it any longer and was going to at least make a nice lemon pound cake. After informing Mark about the pound cake project, he recalled a bread recipe he came across at TasteOfHome.Com, using beer in place of yeast. What follows is my inspiration, which served to curb both my hankering for lemon pound cake and the craving for fresh bread. So hot kitchen be damned, y’all, I’m tapping into the bread wars! (For the record, we have since bartered with a friend, swapping baking powder for yeast, and my off-season bread baking is in full effect. The COVID economy is real.)
Lemon Honey Beer Bread
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup honey
- 3 cups self-rising flour
- 1 bottle (12 ounces) beer
- 2 lemons
- 1½ cups powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon blueberry preserves
- 1 teaspoon slivered almonds
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Remove zest of one lemon. In a mixing bowl, combine flour, honey, lemon zest and beer. Stir until batter forms. Grease an 8-inch by 4-inch loaf pan. Pour batter into pan and bake 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. While bread bakes, remove zest from the other lemon and set aside. Half and juice both lemons. It should yield about ½ cup lemon juice. Combine powdered sugar and half of lemon juice with a whisk, stir in lemon zest and set aside. After bread has cooled, poke about 10 or 15 holes evenly across the top with testing toothpick. Pour reserved, straight lemon juice over the top and allow bread to completely cool. Once it is cool, remove bread and place on wire rack. Pour glaze over top, allowing it to drip over sides. Let it sit for about 10 minutes before serving. Top with blueberry preserves and slivered almonds.
