BAKING BREAD WEEK 1: Easy recipe for beer bread + a few good ideas to perk it up

With this recipe you don't need to worry about anything! No sifting or preparing a pre-dough, no hours of waiting to rise, not even any kneading! It is actually a great way for the beginners or those who are not so familiar with the "baking bread at home" to get used to the idea. Just a bowl, a whisk, a loaf tin, a well preheated oven and a few simple ingredients are enough to create a delicious homemade bread. After that a few tasty ideas to make this bread even more interesting in flavour!

Cooked by Georgia Kofina,

from the Greek version of "Olive" magazine of "Proto Thema" newspaper

Ingredients (for 2 medium loaves):
1 large bottle of lager beer (500ml)
500 gr. of self-raising flour
1 tbsp. of granulated sugar
½ tsp of salt
2 tbsp. of olive oil + extra oil to brush the tins
4 tsp of sesame seeds

If you want to turn it into a sweet bread:
3 additional tbsp. of granulated sugar
½ tea-cup of roughly chopped walnuts
½ tea-cup of raisins of your choice
¼ tsp of ground cinnamon

Method:
Preheat the oven to 180°C, air function. Grease with some oil 2 medium size loaf tins and sprinkle both with half of the sesame seeds

Empty the beer in a large bowl and gradually add, while constantly mixing with a whisk, the flour until you end up with a thick batter. Add the oil, the sugar and the salt and whisk a bit more until they are incorporated to the rest of the ingredients. The basic dough is ready!

Divide the dough into the two tins and sprinkle on top with the rest of the sesame seeds.

Put in the oven and bake for about 1 hour or until the breads are nicely coloured.

Take out of the oven, leave for a few minutes, carefully turn them on a metal rack and allow to cool completely before you slice and serve.

Other ideas:
a) add in the mixture finely chopped dried fruits or various seeds like flax, pumpkin seeds etc

b) you can replace half of the self-raising flour with wholemeal. In this case you add in the mixture 1 tbsp of baking powder