When I visit a craft fair, I feel like a child (who has just been fed about 30 pixie sticks) that is allowed to run loose in a toy store. No matter how many fairs I attend, they are always simultaneously exciting and overwhelming. For memorial day, my mother and I visited Boalsburg, a quaint, historic Pennsylvania town that claims to be the birthplace of Memorial Day. Whether or not this is true, they sure do act like its a big deal. They have a parade, a carnival, a 5k, museum tours, music, and a beautiful craft fair on a street lined with lovely Victorian homes. Though the craft fair isn't particularly large, the diversity in the products is quite impressive. There is jam, jewelry, photography, clay, these really neat collapsible baskets... and, the most enticing part for my mother, a huge stand filled with pies selling for $2 a slice. The entire street is decorated with beautiful artwork and products and filled with excited people and cheerful music. The whole environment is the perfect unofficial welcome for a long, relaxing and joyful summer.
My favorite part of craft fairs is the variety of displays, as I alluded to above, but my second favorite part is that most of the stands selling food products offer free samples. Every food stand lays out their products like a miniature buffet table just tempting me as I try to discreetly pass by. Of course, most of the time I cannot avoid tasting the products (and REALLY it's just rude to pass by without tasting, right?).
One of the food stands this year was selling products from the Tastefully Simple line. Out of all the samples they had laid out, I chose to sample the beer bread (which is odd because I am 19 and know/care very little about beer). I am GLAD I chose to sample the beer bread though! It was dense and lightly sweet with a crunchy, buttery crust. If it was socially acceptable, I probably could have stood there and taken every single one of their beer bread samples.
During the two hour ride home, I decided to look on my phone for a copy cat recipe. I knew it had to be complicated. The recipe had to have some crazy ingredient ( like concentrated fairy dust) or require some unusual technique (such as stir the bread while patting your stomach and spinning in circles) to be THAT delicious. Luckily, I was wrong.... It's such an easy recipe and process! It only requires 4 ingredients and about an hour and fifteen minutes total time from start to pulling that yummy loaf out of the oven. Depending on what type of beer you use, the flavor can be anything you want. ( I let my mom select the beer since I honestly couldn't tell you what a good beer tastes like) But, because there are so few ingredients, make sure you select a beer you really enjoy since the flavor is really exhibited.
*Note: My bread didn't taste exactly like the Tastefully Simple bread, but I actually liked it more. Since we chose a dark beer and brown sugar, the bread was dense and had a sweet, molasses flavor.
Unbelievably Easy Beer Bread
modified from Simply Fresh Cooking
- 3 cups self rising flour
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 12 ounces Beer (one that you really like- I used Dogfish Head as per my mother's request)
- 2 tbs. butter or benecol (benecol doesn't crisp like butter so the crust came out a little soft)
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Measure and sift the flour into a bowl.
3. Whisk the sugar into the flour until evenly distributed.
4. Pour beer into the mixture and stir until combined (the mixture should be a little lumpy).
5. Pour into a bread pan and place in the oven. Bake for 50 minutes.
6. Melt the butter and pour over the bread's crust. Bake for another 10 minutes.
*WARNING* the smell is amazing and WILL fill your entire house!
* My brother gets some credit for this bread. Even though he is working hard in medical school right now, he is the reason my mom found the Dogfish Head beer in the fridge. Wish I could send some of the bread to ya bro!
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