Another, even easier no-knead bread.

I thought the original no-knead bread was the recipe from heaven, but then my friend Stephanie told me about Mark Bittman's beer bread.

You turn on the oven to 350 degrees, dump the ingredients in a bowl, stir the dough quickly, pop it in a bread pan, and bake for 45-60 minutes. Done! No waiting for the dough to rise, no kneading, no remembering to start the bread 24 hours before you want to eat it.

And for any yeast-averse cooks out there, you don't need any dry or cake yeast. The beer provides the yeast. Today I shopped for exotic beers and the best I could do was this Guinness stout. But it does say "foreign extra" and "St. James's Gate Dublin" so that at least sounds exotic. And the label has that cute little harp on it.

For the loaf in this picture I used some cheapo beer called Icebox.

Another loaf coming up for dinner tonight, but this one should taste stouty.


Recipe (modified ever so slightly):

3 tablespoons olive oil or melted butter, plus more for greasing the pan

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup whole-wheat flour

1/2 cup cornmeal

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 12-ounce bottle of beer

1. Heat the oven to 350. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with a little oil or butter. Whisk together the flours, cornmeal, baking powder, sugar and salt. Add the oil or butter and beer, and stir just until everything is combined.

2. Pour into the loaf pan and bake until the loaf is nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, 45 to 60 minutes. Cool on a rack for 15 minutes before removing from the pan and serving.