I don’t know if you know who Chelsea Winter is, probably not if you’re not from New Zealand and don’t have an interest in all the cooking shows. Actually I’ve never watched Master Chef but I had stumbled across Chelsea’s Facebook page. I’ve mentioned her before. I love her down to earth banter with her followers (likers). She comes across as a really good sort.
Anyway, many people have passed on favourable comments about a Beer Bread. I couldn’t find the recipe, or what I thought was the recipe they were all commenting on (and sharing photos of). Chelsea has lots of recipes on her website, pretty generous really. She also has a cook book out. Something I must get around to buying or borrowing from the library.
I found a recipe for Marmite and Cheese Beer Bread Bites. I have to say I was pretty enthusiastic to give this recipe a try. It began with asking Mr Fussy whether I could use one of his bottles of beer. Mr Fussy informed me his beer was too good to be used. That left me with buying my own beer. As Julie pointed out on my Facebook page, cheap is more often found in a 6 pack. What would I do with 5 other beers that would be beneath Mr Fussy to consume?
I went beer shopping. Now what I know about Beer is close to zero. I don’t like it. And you’d be right in wondering why I’d want to bake/cook with it. I expected that like wine, the alcohol would be cooked out and you’d be left with a flavour. I merrily went on my way and put a 4 pack of Moa Pale Ale into my shopping basket. The other 3 would be going into Mr Fussy’s beer fridge, and since it was the “good stuff” he’d be more than happy to accommodate it.
I’m going to cut to the chase. The recipe was dead simple to make. I added some cooked bacon since Mr Fussy tends to think all meals should include meat, and well, bacon makes everything (savoury) better. But, and it’s quite a big but, I ended up having crumpets for lunch. Why? Well the flavour of beer was so strong. Perhaps using the good stuff was my downfall. Would the flavour have been lessened with “cheap swill” as Mr Fussy put it.
I also found trying to twist a teaspoon with marmite on it, through the centre of the muffin was near impossible. I only added marmite to 4 of them. Mr Fussy doesn’t like Marmite (I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s never tried it), instead favouring Bovril (which I’ll never try). Mr Fussy was very happy with the flavour of the muffins/bread bites and is happily having left overs (frozen) for lunch. He tells me that if you add pesto the flavour of the cheese comes through.
So there you go. If you’re keen on a nice beer flavoured savoury bite, then these will be right up your alley. Or there’s always crumpets for a quick fuss-free weekend lunch.
Next week I’ll post the cheesecake recipes I’ve been baking. It’s Randall (my brother) and Kade’s wedding this Saturday and my sisters (Natalie and Bee) and I are making some individual cheesecakes as part of their dessert table. The baking has been more testing recipes and flavours. All will be revealed sometime after the weekend. Celebrations commence on Friday with us heading to Timaru just as soon as the cheesecakes have baked and cooled, and don’t end until after some jet-boat activities Sunday afternoon.
Till then …
On to the plate 