Cardamom Ale Beer Bread

As painful as it is for me to admit it, I made a really, really terrible beer earlier this year.

I was crafting a recipe for my women's brewing group to make when they came to my house for a brew date. The idea was a Belgian golden strong ale, infused with spiced rum and cardamom, aged on oak. Christmas Ale, for the ladies to take home with them. Sounds good, right ? Well, not so much... 

It tasted good when it was time to bottle, which doesn't normally happen. Usually beer tastes pretty thin and nasty before you have the chance to bottle condition it. This one was different...I should have known. After 4 weeks in the bottle, we opened one and all you could smell was the cardamom! My beautiful, delicious Christmas Ale was ruined ! The taste is almost like perfume, it is literally undrinkable (unless you were dying of thirst, then maybe). But, I am stuck with a bunch of it, so what to do ? 

I have made this beer bread before, and one of the great things about this recipe is that you can change the character of the bread by your choice of beer. So, it doesn't matter what kind of beer you use, and you can add additional spices, cheese, bacon, whatever you might like. 

Luckily for me, the bread tamed down the cardamom a bit, and the bread is really moist and scrumptious. Since we have so much of the cardamom ale left, I think we will be eating a lot of this bread. Good thing it's quick to throw together ! 

Cardamom Ale Beer Bread 

3 cups flour 

1 tablespoon baking soda 

1/4 cup sugar 

1 teaspoon salt 

1 twelve ounce bottle of beer 

1 stick unsalted butter, melted (you can use half if you think this is too much, but I like the butter !)

Preheat oven to 375. Sift together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Slowly stir in beer, and mix just until moistened. Spray a 9 by 5 loaf pan with non-stick spray, and spread dough into pan. Top with the melted butter. Bake for 1 hour until top is golden brown. Let sit 15 minutes before removing from pan.