• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

The Lavender Homefront

  • Home
  • About Me
  • Work with Me!
  • Privacy Policy & Disclosure
  • Home
    • DIY
    • Food Preservation
    • Recipes
    • Up-Cycling & Repurposing
  • Garden
    • Flowers
    • Herbs
    • Vegetables
  • Life
    • Self Care
    • Pregnancy and Birth
    • Natural Parenting

Dutch Oven No Knead Beer Bread

September 4, 2017 by Elizabeth 2 Comments

This post may contain affiliate links. This means I may make a small commission from a sale used through a link in my blog. Please visit my Privacy Policy and Disclosure page to find out more.

Homemade bread, is there anything like it? I absolutely love tearing off a piece as soon as it’s pulled out of the oven. However, it can be a pain to make: kneading and waiting, kneading and waiting, kneading and waiting. That’s why I opt for this amazing No Knead Beer Bread.

no knead beer bread sitting on a table

No Knead Beer Bread is So Easy To Make and A Perfect High Altitude Bread Recipe

High altitude baking is no joke. Forget the “light as air” madeleine cookies, or the puff pastry. Basically, forget any kind of French baking (even though it’s my favorite) because high altitude simply doesn’t support it. I know there are people out there that can bake well in high altitude, I’m not one of them.

Because of my high altitude living, normal bread baking and cake baking comes with it’s own headaches. Since there is just too much work involved to get that light, fluffy, sandwich bread, I instead opt for a heavier bread most of the time. Which is why I love this no knead beer bread.

There are moments when I take my time and spend hours kneading, prepping and baking sandwich bread. At high altitude, those breads require so much more work and I’m not a big sandwich eater, so this bread is one of my go to’s if I need a quick, easy bread that requires little effort.

Related: Make Your Own Homemade Butter

No knead beer bread is a slightly heavier bread, very easy to make, and goes with soups, chowders or just some butter and jam. Even your novice baker can handle it. I tried it and use this bread recipe frequently because of how easy it is to bake.

A quick Overview of What You’ll Need to Bake this Amazing Bread

  • 1 1/2 Teaspoons of Active Dry Yeast
  • 1/2 Cup of Warm Water
  • 4 1/2 Cups of All Purpose Flour, Divided
  • 1 12oz Bottle of Beer
  • 1 1/2 Teaspoons Fine Salt
  • A Pinch of Flour for Dusting
  • 1 Tablespoon of Cornmeal (Optional)

Step 1 – Preparing the Yeast

activating yeast for beer bread in a bowl

First you’ll get a large mixing bowl and combine your yeast, warm water and 1/2 cup of flour. Once combined, cover and let sit for about 30 minutes in someplace warm. If it’s winter (which is the perfect time to make this heavy bread), I turn the oven on early and I leave it on top of the oven.

Step 2 – Adding The Rest of the Ingredients

active yeast for no knead bread in a bowl

After about 30 minutes, your mixture will look a little weird and bubbly. Add the remaining flour (4 cups), beer and salt.

Tips for Choosing A Beer

bear sitting on the counter for beer bread

When picking out a beer, I try to pick a dark beer that already kind of smells like bread or hops. I think they give the bread a lot of flavor and also help it to rise a lot better than the lighter beers. I have tried this recipe with “chocolate” beer and “coffee” beer. Neither of them tasted pleasant and I would not recommend!

Step 3 – Preparing the Dough

mixed beer bread dough before rising

Next, mix the ingredients with a bread mixing attachment on your stand mixture until the result is a thick, sticky dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. You can mix the dough by hand, it will probably take a bit longer. Then the dough will have to be covered to let it rise, this time for 2 hours, in a nice warm spot.

After about 2 hours your dough should be about double the size. If for some reason it has not risen like it should, either your location is too cold, or your yeast has gone bad. If your yeast has gone bad, it’s not likely to be salvageable. If your area is just not warm enough, place in a warm area and wait a bit longer (maybe an hour). Check on it here and there until it doubles in size.

beer bread dough dobuled in size

Step 5 – Getting Your Dough Ready to Bake

Once your dough has doubled, take out a dutch oven and line it with parchment paper. I used a 10″ Lodge dutch oven. Make sure to place the dough right in the middle and then sprinkle the top of your bread with a bit of flour.

Use a sharp knife to cut slits into the top of the dough, this allows your dough to rise larger. Feel free to make pretty patterns with the gentle cuts in the dough. They will show well once the bread has baked.

dough in dutch oven

Cover your dough one more time and wait for about 30 to 40 minutes, again, in a warm spot. It will rise once more.

If your oven has not been turned on yet, pre-heat your oven to 425 degrees.

Fill a loaf pan or some other deep, bake-able dish with water and place it at the bottom rack of your oven. This will make sure that there is enough humidity for your bread. This is a really important step in any dry climate, so make sure not to skip it!

At last, your dough is ready to be baked!

risen dough ready to be baked

Step 6 – Baking Your Beer Bread

Place your beautiful dough in the oven and bake for a 30 minutes with the lid on. Then remove the lid and bake for an additional 5-10 minutes with the lid off. The loaf will be golden brown when done.

High altitude peeps, there is absolutely no substitution that I have made to this bread to convert it to high altitude. This recipe works both at 7,000ft and at sea level! It’s one of the reason I love this bread so much.

no knead beer bread sliced on a table

Now, remove the beautifully baked bread and enjoy! I usually let it cool a bit before slicing so that it maintains it’s form. Otherwise, dig right in while it’s still warm.

I love this bread with chowders and stews on cold days. Or, this goes great for a quick breakfast with some homemade butter and strawberry jam!

PIN THIS FOR LATER
dutch oven no knead beer bread pinnable image

Related posts:

How to Get a Perfect Finish With Chalk Paint
Harvesting Lavender
5 Reasons Why You Should Do It Yourself

Filed Under: Home, Homesteading, Recipes Tagged With: Bread baking, Easy recipes, High Altitude

Previous Post: « Make Your Own Butter
Next Post: Having a Miscarriage was Harder Than I Thought »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. G Sullivan says

    October 3, 2017 at 1:13 am

    I can smell it baking. The weather is finally fall-ish here, so now’s a good time to try this out!

    Reply
    • Semi-Crunchy Mama says

      October 3, 2017 at 3:19 pm

      It’s delicious and easy! Let me know how it works for you!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




Primary Sidebar

About Me

Author of Lavender Homefront Standing among trees

Thank you for visiting! I'm an outdoor loving, mom of 4, doing my best to live sustainably! Join me in learning gardening tips, upcycling techniques, DIY projects and natural parenting tips. Let's create a sustainable home and healthy life!

FOLLOW ME

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Featured Posts

Chalk Painting for Beginners

Bleaching Pinecones for Decoration

Apple Butter

How to Pick Out Furniture to Chalk Paint

Categories

Use the code LAVENDERHOMEFRONTFREE for a $40 dollar giftcard!

simply earth essential oils subscription box

Get Updates!

Footer

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
Country_Chic_Chalk_Paint

Amazon Associates Disclosure

The Lavender Homefront is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Copyright © 2021 · Midnight theme

Copyright © 2021 · Midnight Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish.Accept Read More
Privacy & Cookies Policy

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled

Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.

Non-necessary

Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.