Blue Cheese & Beer Garlic Bread

Ingredients

1 tablespoon oil
1 small yellow onion, finely chopped
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 cloves garlic, minced
13.5 oz (approx 3 cups) all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups blue cheese, crumbled
1 (12 ounces/340 ml) bottled beer (lager)
cooking spray
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

Heat the oil in a pan over medium-low heat, add the onions and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until they’re golden brown. Season with pepper and add the garlic. Fry for a minute more and remove from the heat.
Heat the oil in a pan over medium-low heat, and add the onions. Cook, stirring occasionally, until browned, about 10 minutes. Season generously with black pepper and add in the garlic. Cook for a minute, then remove from heat.
In a separate bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Create a well in the centre and add the onion, garlic, blue cheese and beer. Combine until moist but be cautious not to overmix.
Grease a 9″ x 5″ baking pan, and pour in the batter. Pour half the melted butter over the top and bake for 35 minutes in an oven preheated to 375F / 190C. Remove from the oven, pour over the last half of melted butter, and bake for the remaining 25 minutes or until the bread turns golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out into a wire rack until ready to eat.

My Notes

This was my first attempt at making homemade bread, and I was very impressed with myself and my results. 😉
We used cheap lager and a mild, creamy blue cheese but next time a sharper one would be ideal. I don’t use cooking spray so I just greased my silicone loaf pans with some butter. This took about 50 min in my oven, and I think I left it at 180C. This is a rustic-type bread, sort of crumbly and there’s no chance you’ll be able to slice it thin and put it in the toaster!
I froze a couple of slices, wrapped in clingfilm and inside an airtight plastic container. When we thawed those out in the fridge a few weeks later, they were just as nice as the fresh-baked ones, so I think this freezes OK.