Bacon-Cheddar and Jalapeño Beer Bread

You likely can tell that I took bread out of a hand while it was being eaten for this pic. The person was okay with this and thought I'd taken one before the cut the loaf open.

I really needed to bake, but also really needed that baking to be wicked easy. The reason I selected this specific option instead of any of the many others, though, is because of buyer’s remorse. Longer ago than I care to admit, I saw some Hormel bacon bits with chile flavor on clearance. They were really cheap, and in that moment, I deluded myself into thinking anyone in my house would want to eat these. Because really, no one was going to eat them. They lived in the pantry for several months until I rediscovered them. At this point, I was a bit ashamed I bought them at all, a lot wanted to throw them away, and even more ashamed of wanting to throw them away. Bread it is, then.

With bacon and chile, the mind naturally can’t help but recall the glory of cheese when paired with these ingredients. In case you actually needed a reason to put cheese in something. I rummaged around my overfilled fridge (that Child Tester says “looks empty,” presumably due to the absence of watermelon and apple sauce?) and discovered some briefly enjoyed and then discarded Aldi cheddar cubes of hers. Perfect. Even less work to make this loaf, then! Then I looked to see if there was a beer I could steal from Ross, since gods know I haven’t been making any lately. There was not. When he came home for his lunch break, I asked him to pick up beer on his way home. He looked surprised and delighted before assenting. Normally I tell him to drink whiskey instead because his beer takes up too much space in the overfull fridge. Or just put beer in the fridge when there’s less food. Either way works for me, but with beer I can do a better bacon/chile/cheese/beer QUICK bread, and then it’ll be even simpler for me during a busy week!

All this works really well in my mind, except for one thing. Technically, this is supposed to be a fermenting-related blog, and we all know I haven’t really been treating it that way lately. Should I do this with sourdough even though I don’t want to? Should I go quick bread because I’m not the only one out there who’s having a crazy week? What to do, what to do‽ I decided to turn to the Facebook group to poll what they think about bread/similar recipes, and by the time I was ready to bake, results overwhelming favored a mix of styles. I did a little happy dance and went about my quick bread business! This was spectacular with posole, so you know. Normally I would make tortillas, but as is clear by now, I was too lazy. The linked posole recipe is not how I made this, because I specifically wanted a pantry meal, but it is more like how people should make it (at least the first time).

Child Tester (7) said, “eh, i’ll try a bite,” largely just trying to eat a polite portion despite her apathy toward chiles. When she did, she said, with a surprised tone, “I love it!” Victory!

If you want to do this as a sourdough, you’ll simply make the following changes: 1 cup sourdough starter = baking powder + 1/2 cup flour + 3/4 cup fluid. So pull out the powder and that much flour/beer and you’ll be good to go to do this as a sourdough loaf! NOTE: this is an extremely high hydration dough, so if you want to do this as a freestanding loaf, you are going to need to add more flour until it’s a dough instead of more like a batter.

Here’s what you’ll need

3 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 to 1.5 teaspoon(s) salt

2 tablespoons honey (optional - this is in there solely because I had this much left over after starting some elderflower mead, but it does play nicely with the other flavors)

3 ounce package of jalapeño bacon bits (or use 3 ounces of bacon bits and some chile you have in the house already)

6 ounces of cheese (I used cheddar cubes, which I cut up roughly)

12 ounce beer (or other fluid)

Here’s what you’ll do

Mix together the flour, salt, and baking powder. Then mix in the honey (this won’t mix in well; it’s okay), then the bacon and cheese. Then mix in your beer.

Bake Time!

Preheat oven to 375F/190C/GM5. Transfer to a well oiled loaf pan (standard size, not the small ones. I only have a huge pan, so my loaf is relatively flat) and bake for 70 minutes. It should pull away from the sides and tester should come out clean once it’s ready. You have to check this, and especially because of the cheese. If it’s not set, check it every 5-10 minutes. I’ve never had one take longer than 90, but ymmv. Ideally you will cool this to room temperature before cutting, and particularly so the cheese can set properly.