Delicious Reading: Banana Beer Bread and How Sweet Eats

“All I ask is three beers a piece for each of my co-workers … I think a man workin’ outdoors feels more like a man if he can have a bottle of suds. That’s only my opinion.”

— Andy Dufresne, “The Shawshank Redemption”

Brooke Clubbs

I never liked beer when I was growing up, unless my mom was cooking bratwurst in it. When I spent a semester in London, I tried cider, and in Ireland, I sampled Guinness. I stuck with hard lemonade. It’s only been in the last few years I have started to appreciate certain beers, especially fruit beers. I really only like them in the summertime and only on certain occasions: with barbecue or after yard work. I guess what I am saying is, I don’t go through a lot of beer. But when the weather turned warmer, I picked up a carton with six bottles of Schlafly raspberry hefeweizen as an impulse buy at Aldi. When I got home to stow them in our garage fridge, I was chagrined to face a few bottles of last summer’s beer, Angry Orchard Rose, still occupying shelf space. I did a quick Google search to see if it would still be good. The answers I found implied drinking it wouldn’t kill me, but it wouldn’t taste as good as it did last year. I started thinking of other ways to use it. It was too fruity to use with brats or in a cheese dip. Then I thought about beer bread. Could it be made sweet instead of savory? Indeed it could. And not only did I find a recipe where I could use up old beer, I found one in which I could use up old bananas, too! I am my Depression-era grandma’s granddaughter.

The blog that housed the recipe I sought is howsweeteats.com. The creator, Jessica Merchant, has authored two cookbooks, “Seriously Delish” and “The Pretty Dish.” She is not a formally-trained chef, but describes herself as “totally self-taught/mom-taught/grandma-taught.” She learns by trial and error and shares her successes with her readers, offering recipes for healthy dishes, as well as indulgent ones. She’s big on seasonal ingredients and celebrations.

I think this recipe fits both because it is the perfect time to use up last year’s beer on something you can bake before the mercury rises and the Southeast Missouri humidity kicks in.

BANANA BEER BREAD

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 3 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 12 ounces of your favorite beer

• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

BROWN BUTTER VANILLA GLAZE

• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter

• 1 cup powdered sugar

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1 tablespoon milk, if needed

• Pinch of salt

INSTRUCTIONS

Note: This is NOT banana bread! This is nothing like your classic banana bread recipe. This is a beer bread with some bananas in it!

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Spray a 9 x 5 loaf pan with nonstick spray.

Over a large bowl, sift together all-purpose flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Stir in the mashed bananas. Pour in the beer and stir until a batter forms. It will be thick. Spoon the batter in the greased loaf pan. Pour the melted butter over top. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and set in the middle. Remove pan from oven and let cool for about 30 minutes.

Drizzle with brown butter vanilla glaze and slice.

To make the glaze, add the butter to a small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk constantly until the butter begins to bubble. As soon as brown bits start to appear in the bottom of the pan, remove it from the heat. This will take at least 5 minutes. Add the brown butter to a bowl and whisk in the sugar and vanilla extract. If the mixture is too thick to drizzle, whisk in milk as needed. Pour over the cake once it has cooled.

Makes one 9 x 5-inch loaf.