Name: Cheesy Beer Bread with Quinoa, Millet and Jalapeño Peppers
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 70 min
Ingredients: 13 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour (3 cups); 2 tsp baking powder; 1 tsp baking soda; 1 1/2 tsp sea salt; 1 cup buttermilk; 1 cup beer (I used Negro Modelo, but see Cook's Note's); 1/2 cup olive oil; 1/2 cup melted unsalted butter; 2 Tbsp honey; 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese (I used Dubliner and Grafton, see Cook's Notes); 1/2 cup cooked grains; 2 - 4 Tbsp minced jalapeño pepper (depending how much kick you want)

Moist cheesy beer bread baked with cooked quinoa and millet for extra nutrition.

This week’s theme for Food Network’s FN Dish blog is cheese. I would be helpless in the kitchen without cheese, so it was challenging to decide what to make. Cheese has brokered many vegetarian – carnivore tussles in our kitchen. When I want to make farro more appealing to the Carnivorous Maximus’ palate, I add cheese. Likewise, Parmesan cheese has found its way onto my kale chips.

Disclaimer: Before we go any further, I want to remind everyone I’m a wimpy vegetarian. Most hard cheeses use animal rennet in the cheesemaking process. If you’re a new vegetarian, I urge you to read the packages. Whole Foods is one store (I’m sure there are others) that has done a great job in locating a wide range of cheeses that use vegetable rennet.

After considering lots of dishes, I ultimately made something I’ve never made before. Carnivorous Maximus is in the hospital making a record-breaking recovery (he tackled stairs today with crutches and had hip surgery yesterday), and I wanted to make something for the nurses. It’s Nurses Week all week. So I made this cheesy beer bread, modeling it off a recipe I dog-eared last summer but never got around to making in The New Southwest by Meagan Micozzi.

First of all, there are a couple things you need to know about this bread if you make it:

The balance of liquid to dry ingredients is weighted towards wet, resulting in a dense, moist bread that’s reminiscent of pound cake.
The flavor is a little bitter from the beer. If that doesn’t sound exciting to you, I recommend using Pale Ale instead of the darker beer I used.

Cook’s Tips:

I used two different cheddar cheeses for the same reason I use two different kinds of apples in apple pies: it introduced more flavor depth. Honestly, Monterey Jack would be great in this bread too. Especially Pepper Jack.

I stirred in a little minced jalapeño pepper for a hint of a kick. Nix it if you don’t want that kick.

I added some honey to bring in a little sweetness to balance out the bitterness, and added more salt for the same reason.

The original recipe calls for 1 cup olive oil, but I switched it to ½ cup olive oil and ½ cup unsalted butter. Olive oil can bring in additional bitterness, depending on the type of olive oil.

I added cooked quinoa and millet to the batter because I had in on hand from this salad, and love to add cooked grains to quick breads for more flavor and nutrients. You can eliminate this addition if you wish, and not make any other changes, but I urge you to consider adding them. It’s a great way to punch up the nutrition of any bread you make.

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5 from 2 votes