Cinnamon Sugar Root Beer Bread

This month's GYCO secret ingredient was a doozy for me. Not only do we not drink, but on top of that I'm 7.5 months pregnant so buying beer was not something I was even willing to do. Let me just say… I do like a good beer bread myself, but I don't need the cashier or people standing in line behind me judging me for buying a can/bottle of beer while pregnant and toting my 22 month old. So what to do? What to make, why bread of course and why not try root beer as my alternative? I read quite a few "beer bread" recipes online just as a refresher, so I would have something to go off of and I decided to adapt this Honey Beer Bread recipe by Ali of Gimme Some Oven. While in the adaptation process I thought I'd go all out and top it off with some cinnamon sugar to play up the sweet root beer notes. I love the sweet, subtle flavor of the resulting bread and because I used my mini loaf pan it baked up in less than 30 minutes. This bread makes a great snack or breakfast; I'm excited to make French Toast with my leftover bread – enjoy and happy baking!

Ingredients:

2 c all purpose flour
1 c whole wheat flour
2 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
2 Tbs honey
12 oz root beer, I used A & W
2 Tbs butter, cubed
2 tsp cinnamon sugar

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350º and prepare a large loaf pan with cooking spray. In a large mixing bowl combine the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt. Next add the root beer and honey, mixing with a wooden spoon until just moistened, over mixing will result in a tougher, denser loaf. Add 1 Tbs of the butter to the bottom of the pan, pour in the dough and top with the other 1 Tbs of butter. Sprinkle on the cinnamon sugar and bake for 50-55 minutes until a tester comes out clean and the bread is golden brown. Remove carefully from the oven, cool in the pan 5-10 minutes, remove and cool completely on a wire rack. Slice and serve.

*If making mini loafs, divide the butter up among the wells of the pan and bake for 23-25 minutes. 

Yields 1 loaf or 8 mini

Recipe adapted from Honey Beer Bread by Ali Ebright

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