Sweet Potato Beer Bread
A savory no yeast quick loaf made with mashed roasted sweet potato and a bottle of brown ale, with melted butter poured over the top for a dark craggy crust.
Servings 12 slices
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder fresh
- 1 ½ teaspoons fine salt
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon black pepper coarsely ground
Wet Ingredients
- 1 cup mashed roasted sweet potato cooled
- 12 ounces beer brown ale or amber, room temperature
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter melted, for pouring over the top
- ½ teaspoon flaky sea salt for the top
Instructions
Mix the Batter
- Heat the oven to 375 degrees F and grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan well, including the corners.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, brown sugar and black pepper together for 30 seconds to break up any clumps.
- Add the cooled mashed sweet potato and pour the room temperature beer over the top. Stir with a sturdy spoon for just 12 to 15 strokes, stopping while the batter is still rough with a few dry streaks.
Bake
- Scrape the batter into the pan and push it roughly level.
- Pour the melted butter evenly over the surface of the batter. Do not stir it in. Crack the flaky sea salt over the top.
- Bake 50 to 60 minutes, until the top is deep brown and split and a skewer in the center comes out clean.
- Rest in the pan 10 minutes, turn out onto a rack and cool 20 minutes more before cutting thick slices.
Notes
- Butter over, not in: Poured over the raw batter, the melted butter fries the top into a dark craggy crust. Stirred in, it just enriches the crumb.
- Count the strokes: Twelve to fifteen. Overmixing turns the crumb rubbery.
- Choose the beer: Brown ale or amber is the sweet spot. Stout gives a darker bitter loaf, lager a mild one, and a hoppy IPA turns harsh as it bakes.
- Room temperature beer: Cold beer foams over and loses the carbonation that gives the loaf lift.
- Roast, do not boil: Boiled sweet potato is waterlogged and this batter is already at its moisture limit.