HONEY . BEER . BREAD … Really, need I say more?

Alright, so let’s dig in!

NOTE #1: The original pin also notes that “If you’re a big fan of beer-cheese bread, add a cup or so of cheddar (or your favorite cheese) into the batter to give it the queso-kick.” Now that is a pro-tip I can get behind!

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

NOTE #2: Gimme Some Oven has GREAT advice of popping the honey into the microwave for a few seconds, which makes it EXPONENTIALLY easier to stir in.

At first, I thought I was going to put my gorgeous new stand mixer to use again, but as I read on, the original recipe noted that the mixing should be done by hand with a wooden spoon, so I just ended up using it’s awesome bowl.

Don’t worry about lumps or anything. You just want to get everyone together here, it doesn’t have to be a perfect solution…kind of like a UN peace resolution.

Serve immediately.

Mine definitely didn’t turn out as golden brown, but I honestly didn’t care because it smelled  SO good that I just wanted to eat it like yesterday!

Review

The ingredients: The recipe from this pin lists all the ingredients in a very neat and useful way and details the quantities really well. In terms of ingredient availability, everything that was used today you probably either already have in your fridge/pantry or you can easily find in your local supermarket. I ended up using Blue Moon beer, cause that just happened to be in my fridge this week and I didn’t want to use my penguin’s high gravity fancy beers, but feel free to use whatever you can think of. I’m sure one of those specialty beers with a fun flavor would do great!

The recipe: Gimme Some Oven does a fantastic job with the instruction in this recipe. The directions are very clear, detailed and even offer several great baking tips, like heating up the honey in the microwave for a few seconds to help it mix better, and adding a cheese to the honey beer bread mixture for a cheesier variety of this deliciousness. The original pin unfortunately doesn’t provide step-by-step visuals, so if you need more detail follow 2girlsandapin as we prepared this delicious bread, since we like to take pictures of every minuscule detail!

The flavor: This honey beer bread was absolutely fantastic! I actually served it with the Wendy’s Chili we talked about earlier. It went beautifully with the chili, but I would have loved it just as much on its own. As a matter of fact, I totally had it as a snack throughout the day. It was so scrumptious, with just the right amount of sweetness that was not at all too overpowering, working perfectly with the always great faint aroma of beer. I think the 4 Tablespoons of butter were more than enough, and with any more you risk having a bread that’s just way too greasy. It was perfectly crunchy and crusty on the outside with a decadent, soft, buttery middle. Mmmmm, just delicious! And SO easy to make!

Issues: The only issue I had with this recipe is that it didn’t turn out as golden brown as the original pins. I don’t know if that had something to do with the fact that I’m totally D.I.Y.-ing this process using my rinky dink camera phone (which is still recovering from the Big Drop-your-cell-phone-into-mashed-bananas-and-milk-while-trying-to-take-pictures-for-the-banana-bread-post Incident of 2012), so my pictures just don’t turn out as gorgeous or if I should have stuck with baking my bread for 50 as opposed to 55 minutes I did. I mean, I am using a very temperamental oven, so that may be part of the problem, but I really don’t know for sure. All I know is that, even though my bread didn’t look AS gorgeous as Gimme Some Oven‘s, this pin is a definite win solely on how absolutely delicious it was.

Comments: To reiterate some comments I’ve made previously and in case you missed it… this bread was AMAZING!  Also, the lovely original pin lists a few very useful comments, such as heating the honey up in a microwave for a few seconds before mixing for easier pouring; possibly adding some shredded cheese to the mix for a cheesy variety; and offering to double the amount of butter if you’d like, although I can comfortably say you REALLY don’t need to.

Also, Gimme Some Oven insists on mixing the batter with a wooden spoon (which we love, btw… as previously noted in a lot of our baking posts) and instructs to mix the batter “until just mixed,” most likely for the purposed of not over-beating the batter. So, even though I REALLY, REALLY wanted to use my awesome, new stand mixer, I decided to follow along, and I’m glad I did!

Final Verdict: I give this recipe a well-deserving 10/10. It was absolutely delicious and scrumptious! As I said before, with words like “honey,” “beer,” and “bread” in the title, you can’t really go wrong….but now we know for sure – it is OH SO RIGHT! The significant other raved and raved about this one, so it is most definitely a keeper! Especially since it’s so easy to follow and make. Highly, highly recommend.

UPDATE: Both the significant other and I were so impressed by this bread, that I made it again 2 days later! Since I had the chance to have a re-do, I was able to adjust the temperature and baking time to my temperamental oven, and it turned out even better!