While curiously browsing through Wal-Mart’s Christmas shopping specials of snacks and gift bundles, I stumbled across a small box on the bottom shelf. The box was left lonely in the corner, the only one of its kind. It was shyly shoved toward the back with no other matches in sight, set as an outcast amongst the groups of Budweiser BBQ sauce sets, Ritz crackers, and tin packages of cookies. However, seeing “Beer Bread” on the label was enough to make me to stop and investigate.
The bottle was an Amber Harvest Mills Baking product, a Cheese Beer Bread Mix! I had never seen such a creation, so I rotated the bottle to learn what was included inside and how it was made. What I had in my hand was a bread mix that lacked one key ingredient: Beer. Apparently, this 16 oz bottle, and 12 ounces of your favorite beer is enough to bake delicious cheese-bread. It did mention, though, that light beer is not recommended and that ginger ale can be used as a substitute to create a lighter flavor. The price was advertised for $5.00, but after adding beer and tax, the cost for the bread ends up being closer to 6 bucks.
The directions were simple:
- Empty bread mix into a bowl, and add beer (or ginger ale)
- Mix with a wooden spoon until moist (*Do not over-mix)
- Pour into a greased and floured 9” x 5” loaf pan
- Bake in a preheated 375° oven for 45-50 minutes, or until done
I followed said directions by adding a 12 oz can of my favorite beer (Milwaukee’s Best Ice) and anxiously wait 45 excruciating minutes for the concoction to bake. After taking it out of the oven, I gave it some time to cool off, then sliced up my cheese bread and found that I enjoyed this delicious treat quite a bit!
The convenience of this all-included, simple, mix was a huge plus to the rating of this product. The taste also had a huge positive influence on my overall opinion. I will, however, stress that the “greased and floured pan” step of the instructions needs to be followed. Unfortunately, I ignored this step and suffered through a hard crust that was difficult to remove from the pan. Other than that though, there were no problems with the mix! I greatly enjoyed the product and plan on purchasing another in the upcoming week.