Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Choco-Cranberry Beer Bread




Things have been a little quiet in the Beetle's kitchen. I've been making peace with my sacrifice of meat for Lent. I'm not a big meat person like my husband, who, by the way, effortlessly gives up meat every Lent. I don't crave meat normally whereas my husband NEEDS meat with every meal. The day I cook a vegetarian meal, the first question he'll ask is, "where the meat at?", regardless of how delicious the dishes may be. For him, a meal is not complete without meat.

Majority of my cooking is based on what my husband would like to eat because left on my own, I'll survive on instant noodles or takeout for every meal. So, I thought giving up meat would be easy, given that (a) I don't crave meat and (b) I wouldn't really feel like cooking meat just for myself. But, ever since Lent began, my eyes have been involuntarily hunting for meat. I have to literally fly past the meat section at the grocery store because I look like a kid standing at the candy store with no money from mom to get candy. It doesn't help when I'm reading my favorite blogs and you have irresistible pictures of chicken, steak, beef or the 5-letter B-word (my favorite). Yeah, even saying it makes me cringe with temptation.

Every day I stand with the fridge door open, hoping the contents in the vegetable drawer will talk to me and tell me what delicious dish I can put them in so I won't miss meat. The ungrateful things aren't really helping, so I grabbed the bottles of beer that had been pushed to the back of the fridge and hunted for a beer bread recipe.






I'm not fond of beer and the husband drinks beer depending on what his mood dictates. So, these bottles had been sitting inside for quite a while. Now, I'm aware of what people say about not cooking with ingredients you don't care about, but, I couldn't care less about that right now. My good friend, Alton Brown, had this lovely video on how to make Beer bread and I got down to business. 


While Alton made a cheese and dill beer bread, I switched up the flavor components and decided to throw in cranberries and chocolate. I needed the chocolate to appease my meat cravings. One thing I would note about Alton's video and recipe are that he uses one whole 12 fl oz bottle of beer, but, to get the texture from his recipe video, I had to leave a few sips behind. Otherwise, it got soggy. So, watch out for that. You want a gooey texture and not a smooth, flowy texture.

I wasn't stopping at the beer bread because I was pulling the big guns out for this one. I remember watching Bobby Flay demonstrate an orange-honey butter on The Worst Cooks in America. I decided to make a cranberry-honey butter to go with my bread. Best. Decision. Ever. I can eat the cranberry-honey butter all by itself, if I wasn't reminded of the fact that it is still butter! Sigh


The combination of the cranberry-honey butter and the bread is amazing, to say the least. You could also overload on chocolate and toast your bread a bit before slathering with some chocolate sauce. *SLURP* Pure yum!

Choco Cranberry Beer Bread (adapted from Alton Brown's Beer Bread recipe)

Ingredients and instructions
  • Nonstick spray
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (do not thaw if frozen)
  • 3/4 cup mini chocolate chips
  • 12 ounces cold beer, ale or stout
  • 1 to 2 tablespoons sunflower seeds, optional

Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Coat the inside of a 9 by 5-inch loaf pan with the nonstick spray and set aside.

Whisk together the all-purpose flour, wheat flour, baking powder, salt, sugar, and chocolate chips in a large mixing bowl. Add in the cranberries and stir in the beer just to combine. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Sprinkle with the sunflower seeds, if using.

Bake on the middle rack of the oven until the bread reaches an internal temperature of 210 degrees F on an instant-read thermometer, about 45 to 55 minutes.

Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Transfer the loaf to a cooling rack for 10 to 15 minutes before slicing and serving.



Cranberry Honey Butter (adapted from Bobby Flay's version on The Worst Cooks of America)
Ingredients and instructions
  • 1 cup cranberry juice, ready-made or home-made*
  • 3/4 stick butter, slightly softened
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons honey
  • Pinch salt
Place cranberry juice in a small non-reactive saucepan over high heat and reduce to 1 - 1 1/2 tablespoons. Place butter in a bowl and add the cranberry syrup, honey, and salt; mix until combined. Scoop into a large ramekin, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.


*Home-made Cranberry Juice

If you're feeling all adventurous and have your kitchen mojo on, make your own cranberry juice as well. Mind you, I've just learnt that cranberries in their fresh state or on their own are very sour and bitter. So, constitute the right amount of sugar according to your taste. I like mine sweeter than bitter so I added more sugar. Taste as you go.

Ingredients and instructions:
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 2 tablespoons orange juice
In a soup kettle, bring water and cranberries to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until berries begin to pop.

Strain through a fine strainer, pressing mixture with a spoon; discard berries. Return cranberry juice to the pan. Stir in the sugar, lemon juice and orange juice. Bring to a boil; cook and stir until sugar is dissolved.

Remove from the heat. Cool. Transfer to a pitcher; cover and refrigerate until chilled. Yield: 1 cup.

24 comments:

  1. this look delicious. love the cranberry honey butter.

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    1. You have to try the cranberry butter - heavenly! You can actually substitute any fruit with the cranberries, I'm sure :)

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  2. Amrita, you genius! This looks divine and amazing!

    Good luck with "no meat"! I say I could do it, but then I've never had to, so I'd probably be craving just like you!

    Gorgeous pictures. And I'm making that butter for this weekend. I'm going to make an English Muffin loaf, and I think that would be perfect!

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    1. Hahah Thanks, Jen! Hope you love the butter, it'll go really well with your english muffin loaf!

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  3. imma say it, this is the weirdest combination ever. who would ever think chocolate + beer + cranberries together. THEN, slather on some cranberry honey butter! what kind of beer did you use?

    i gave up meat last year for Lent and it was hard. when something is taken away from you, something that when you had total access to before, that is all you can fixate on. i gave up my favorite singer this year, i cannot access his FB/twitter feed, listen to his music, read up on his tour or anything. it's difficult. i get made fun of for this but it's something that is dear to me. good luck to you. btw, if your body is craving protein, maybe loading up on tofu or seitan will help?

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    1. Is it weirder that I actually thought this combination would be awesome? :) It totally made sense to me while I was eating it because the tartness of the cranberries was offset by the chocolate chips so well. I used a lager. Alton used an ale for his cheese and dill combo. The lager worked well with the sweeter combination I was going for.

      I gave up video games once because I was addicted to them and it is hard. For the meat, we usually substitute a lot with tofu and the meatless meat subs :)

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  4. This makes me think of the saying, you do not know what you got until it is gone! Bravo to you for struggling through and not eating any meat.
    This is a very creative combination here! Cranberries and chocolate chips are a great way to sweeten up this bread. Also, I do like the fact that it only has 1 tbs of sugar. Wonderful choice of toppings too!

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    1. It is true, Tina, when something is taken away from you, that's when you miss it the most! I loved this combination because the chocolate chips went so well with the tart cranberries. :)

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  5. are you kidding me? the entire recipe has no butter, if i just made the cake portion, just beer??? wow! what a winner. how did this taste without the cranberry butter, or what if i just top it off with small dab of butter? :-)

    Thanks on your Delhi Comments, i'm gonna do a post on my experience. :)

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    1. I KNOW! No butter = guilt-free indulgence even if there is chocolate in there :P This tastes amazing even on its own or with just plain butter...try it, you won't regret it and you can actually play with the flavors too :)

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  6. Wow there's a lot in this post. The bread sounds fascinating, you don't see cranberries with chocolate (or beer, for that matter!) very often. And the butter is a gorgeous color!

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    1. Hahaha I know, as I started I kept on adding stuff to my list of things to do for this. I had a whole bunch of cranberries I wanted to use so I did as much as I could with them :P I can eat any red berry with chocolate, I love that combination :D

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  7. This is one innovative combo - who would have thunk this!!! This is like a guys- meets- girl- meets- love- food kinda bread. Looks stunning and have no doubt the cranberry butter must be stellar. Poor you - hope lent hurries past for both you and hubby :)

    chow! DEVAKI @ weavethousandflavors

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    1. LOL that is the best description of this bread :D

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  8. i am the meat lover at home and the husband can survive on vegetable for days :) This bread sounds delicious and that butter is soo pretty!

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    1. Hahaha it's interesting to see the roles reverse because I've always seen men as the avid meat-eaters...or maybe that's because it's always that way in my family ;)

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  9. Well.. I mostly cook what my husband likes. some things I don't even eat myself.. but it's ok as long as it makes him happy.
    Very nice bread btw, I think it's also very delicious.

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    1. Medeja, there are certain things I've started eating now because I cook them for the husband...if not, I'd never eat them :)

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  10. WOW! What a beautiful bread ... and the spread just makes it all perfect! I love the photo close-up with those sweet little chocolate chips!

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  11. Your bread looks lovely! But what really blew me away was the butter! Such pretty colours!

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  12. That bread is a stunner--I don't drink beer, but I appreciate the flavors it can impart in food. Good luck with your Lenten cravings!

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  13. This looks beautiful and it sounds delicious. The colors here are wonderful for brightening a gray afternoon. I hope you have a great weekend. Blessings...Mary

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  14. What a combo!! I have to admit it's not one I would have put together, but I'm totally intrigued!!! Well done!

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