Apple Beer Bread

It's almost St. Patrick's Day! In my world, this is reason to celebrate. I rank St. P's Day as my third favorite holiday to celebrate behind Halloween and Cinco de Mayo (I like the costume and drinking holidays best). In honor of this green, beer-fueled holiday I whipped up a batch of Apple Beer Bread last Sunday.

Starting your Sunday morning off with a Guinness is highly preferred, just saying.

I found a base recipe to work from over at A Spicy Perspective, modifying a few things as I went along. I used two kinds of sugar in place of one as I also replaced the molasses with honey, I didn't have enough apple butter so I went with a mix of apple butter and apple sauce (delicious results), and I opted for Guinness as my beer of choice. So far the feedback from taste testers has been positive! I know I ate nearly a half a loaf the first day I may this bread.

As my buddy here helped me get in the festive spirit last year with a whiskey tasting (omg was that a lot of whiskey!), I encourage you all to find a bit of Irish fever and have (safe) fun this year! Happy St. Patrick's Day from foodie land!

Apple Beer Bread
Adapted from: Irish Apple Beer Bread

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 eggs, room temperature
• 1 cup Apple Butter
• 1 cup Apple Sauce 
• 12 oz. Guinness
• 1 tbsp honey
• 4 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour two standard loaf pans. If using the dark style pans, you may end up shaving 10 minutes off of your baking time so be aware while baking. 

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs, apple butter, apple sauce, beer and honey then mix well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together. Slowly add to the wet mixture. Beat to combine.

Pour the batter evenly into the prepared loaf pans. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf, comes out clean. I checked mine every 20 minutes, and rotated halfway through. 

Cool in the loaf pans for 10 minutes before gently inverting to release the loaves. Once completely cool, wrap well to store.