Saint Patrick's Day 2020 was one of the strangest, soberest and surreal St. Paddy's day in history due to the coronavirus pandemic. Stuck at home, unable to attend any parades or take down any pints in the pub, my husband and I turned to canned Guinness to celebrate. We had planned to go to a friends house for a delicious dinner of corned beef and cabbage, which of course was cancelled, leaving us at home with not much more in our fridge but lettuce and some rotting bananas. I mean we were totally okay with having just beer for dinner but, as I stared sadly into our empty fridge, brilliance struck. What if I replaced the milk component in my banana bread recipe with Guinness? It's got yeast in it, right? Definitely worth a try.
And I am so glad I did. This bread is seriously delicious - a thousand times better than my boring old recipe (which has now been thrown out the window). I also swapped out a 1/2 cup of flour for almond flour, thinking the slight nutty flavour would really play off the hoppy tones of the Guinness. Totally worked. YOU HAVE TO TRY THIS! It is great on its own but if you really want to take it to the next level, slather on some butter and take down with a nice stout. Yum!
Guinness Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1/4 c. sugar
- 1/2 c. butter, softened
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 c. Guinness (or other stout beer)
- 4 ripe bananas + 1 for topping
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 c. all purpose flour
- 1/2 c. almond flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/4 c. brown sugar
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat oven to 350F and grease/flour your bread loaf pan
- Step 2 Using a hand mixer, blend sugar and softened butter together. Stir in eggs until well blended.
- Step 3 In a separate bowl, mash 4 bananas. Mix in the Guinness and vanilla, then blend into the egg mixture.
- Step 4 Take a break and drink the rest of your Guinness!
- Step 5 In a third bowl, mix flours, baking soda and salt. Once combined, blend into the wet mixture.
- Step 6 Pour batter into your loaf tin, top with sliced banana and brown sugar, and bake for 40-45min, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
