Maple Stout Bread

Fall is here. The weather is turning cooler in DC, and my mind is swimming with visions of comfort food I will be making over the next few months. One thing that I don't make very often are breakfast loaves or breads. I had some Guinness beer that I wanted to use, so I found this great recipe in my Cooking Light magazine for a Maple Stout bread. I'm not the best at baking and I was a bit skeptical when seeing this bake that I had done something wrong (the middle was taking a lot longer to cook). But, it ended up great and a co-worker even commented that it was just the right level of soft because there's nothing worse than a dry breakfast bread. So if I can do this, so can you!

Maple Stout Bread

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour (or 7.88 oz)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 6 TB butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup stout beer, like Guinness
• 1/2 cup fat-free sour cream
• 5 TB maple syrup, divided
• Baking spray with flour
• 5 TB powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Weigh or lightly spoon flour into dry measuring cups; level with a knife. Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, stirring well with a whisk. Place butter and brown sugar in a large mixing bowl; beat with a mixer at high speed until well blended. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla. Combine beer, sour cream, and 1/4 cup syrup, stirring well with a whisk. Beating at low speed, add flour mixture and beer mixture alternately to the butter mixture, beginning and ending with flour mixture; beat just until combined.

Scrape batter into a 9x5 inch loaf pan coated with baking spray. Bake for 45 minutes until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs clining. Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack. remove from pan; cool completely on wire rack.

Place powdered sugar in a smal bowl. Add remaining 1 TB syrup, stir until smooth. Drizzle glaze over cooled bread; let stand until set, if desired.