Guinness Brown Bread That Takes Me Back to Ireland – Thanks to Ina Garten

It's been over a decade since I last visited Ireland, but the memories remain vivid—like boarding a tiny plane that felt like it was taking off from a sheep pasture. We explored breathtaking sights and savored so many wonderful foods, but one thing stands out above the rest: the bread. Irish brown bread, especially when thickly sliced and slathered with rich Irish butter, is simply unforgettable. It's hearty, slightly sweet, with that perfect malty depth—no one does it quite like they do.

 For years, I've tried to recreate that magic at home without success. My attempts always fell short of the real thing. Then I discovered Ina Garten's Irish Guinness Brown Bread from her cookbook Cooking for Jeffrey, and everything changed. This quick bread captures that nostalgic flavor beautifully, and it's incredibly easy—no yeast, no kneading, just a couple of bowls and a wooden spoon (or your hands). I've been enjoying thick slices at breakfast, with tea, alongside soup—honestly, at every chance I get. It's that good, and it brings back Ireland every time.

Whether you're planning a St. Patrick's Day meal or just craving comforting homemade bread, this is one you'll want to try. The Guinness adds wonderful depth without overpowering, and a pat of salted Kerrygold butter on top makes it pure heaven.

Irish Guinness Brown Bread

Adapted from Ina Garten's Cooking for Jeffrey

1 c. quick-cooking oats (not instant), plus extra for sprinkling on top

2¼ c. whole wheat flour

¼ c. all-purpose flour

½ c. dark brown sugar, lightly packed

2¼ t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder

2 t. kosher salt

1 (11- to 12-ounce) bottle Guinness Extra Stout beer, room temperature

1 c. buttermilk, shaken

5 T. unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for brushing the pan

1 t. pure vanilla extract

Salted butter (such as Kerrygold), for serving

Preheat the oven to 450°F.

 In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the oats, whole wheat flour, all-purpose flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt until well combined.

 In a separate bowl or large measuring cup, whisk the room-temperature Guinness, buttermilk, melted butter, and vanilla extract until smooth.

 Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet mixture. Using your hands or a sturdy spoon, stir gently from the center outward until everything is just combined. The batter will be loose and wet, more like thick cake batter than traditional bread dough—that's perfect.

Generously brush a 9 × 5 × 2½-inch loaf pan with melted butter (or spray with baking spray for easy release). Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smooth the top if needed, and sprinkle generously with extra oats.

 Place the pan in the oven, then immediately reduce the temperature to 400°F. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden and firm.

Remove from the oven and let the bread cool in the pan for 5–10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

 Slice thickly and serve with plenty of salted butter. It's wonderful warm, at room temperature, or even toasted the next day.

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Summer Plum Bread – A Sweet Seasonal Delight

 

As a kid, I turned my nose up at plums, but now I’m counting down the days to plum season. My mother’s legendary plum pies were the star of our annual Christmas boutique, with people lining up to snag a slice before they vanished. Those memories inspired me to dive into plum desserts as an adult, and this Summer Plum Bread is my first venture into turning that juicy, tart fruit into a quick bread. Let me tell you, it’s a game-changer.This loaf is a perfect escape from the usual banana or zucchini bread. It’s vibrant, slightly exotic, and screams summer with every bite. The plums add a juicy pop of flavor, balanced by the subtle warmth of orange oil and the satisfying crunch of Demerara sugar on top. It’s tender, moist, and just sweet enough to feel like a treat without overwhelming. Whether you’re serving it for breakfast, a mid-afternoon snack, or even dessert, this bread is a crowd-pleaser that’s as easy to make as it is delicious.

Summer Plum Bread

1 ½ c. pitted, chopped Melissa’s organic plums
1 T. flour
1 c. sugar
½ c. butter
½ t. vanilla extract
½ t. orange oil 
2 large eggs
1½ c. flour
½ t. salt
¼ t. baking soda
1/3 c. sour cream (not low fat)
¼ c. Demerara sugar

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a 9x5-inch loaf pan with Baker’s Joy and set aside.

  In a medium bowl, toss chopped plums with 1 tablespoon of flour to coat; set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in vanilla extract and orange oil, then add eggs one at a time, mixing well.

Sift 1½ cups flour, salt, and baking soda into a separate bowl. With the mixer on low speed, alternate adding the dry mixture and sour cream to the egg mixture until smooth. Gently fold in the flour-coated plums.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and sprinkle Demerara sugar on top. Bake for 45-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes, then invert onto a wire rack to cool completely.

This bread is best enjoyed fresh, but it also freezes beautifully for those moments when you need a taste of summer in the off-season. Pair it with a cup of coffee or tea, and you’ve got a perfect moment of bliss.

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Cream Cheese Nut Bread

 

It seems that, lately, I have had no time for baking or cooking. Today I had a hankering (I tend to hanker a lot) for a comforting quick bread for tomorrow’s breakfast.  I pulled out a recipe for an old favorite, warming and deliciously scenting the kitchen in the going. This is an easy recipe to make, and you probably have all of the ingredients on hand.  It does take up a number of bowls, but the end result is well worth it.

This moist, dense, nutty loaf is made all the better with an almond-flavored ribbon of cream cheese running right through the center. This cream cheese filling can be used with almost any of your favorite quick bread recipes, by the way, but do give this one a try, and then experiment by adding it to other favorites.  It makes an already delicious quick loaf all the better.  As an added note, this bread gets better every day. Cream Cheese Nutbread

 To make filling:

 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

1/3 c. sugar

½ t. almond extract

1 large egg, room temperature

 Beat the above ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl on high speed until smooth and creamy. Set aside.

To make bread:

 2 large eggs, room temperature

½ c. canola oil

½ c. whole milk

1 t. freshly grated lemon peel

2¼ c. flour

1/3 c. sugar

1/3 c. firmly packed light brown sugar

1 t. baking soda

1 t. kosher salt

1 c. chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Spray a 9” x 5” loaf pan with PAM and dust thoroughly with granulated sugar (or, a cinnamon-sugar mixture, if you prefer).  Set aside.

Beat eggs until frothy and lemon colored.  Slowly add oil, milk, and lemon rind, mixing until well blended.

 In separate bowl, stir together flour, sugars, soda, salt, and nuts.  Add this dry mixture, all at once, to the wet mixture and mix until just moistened.  Do not over mix.  Spoon half of bread batter into loaf pan, smoothing as you go.  Top with all of the cream cheese mixture, then spoon the remaining half of the dough on top, spreading to cover as well as you can.  Bake for 1 hour.  Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 15 minutes before inverting onto a wire rack to cool completely.

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Spicy Cheesy Beer Bread

 

Gardens. What can you do? I was telling a friend the other day that both my cucumber vines and melon vines are loaded with blossoms. I was quite proud of this until I noticed over the weekend when I was watering that they are all male.  MALE!!! I don’t have a female blossom on either of these plants. This means that for all of my watering, fertilizing, coddling, etc., I may not end up with a single cucumber or melon. Male blossoms do not produce offspring. It works the same way in humans, but I digress.

Photo credit: Missouri Botanical Garden

  On the other hand, I have a bumper crop of jalapeños, and because I do, I’m always looking for new ways in which to use them. I made shrimp boil foil packs for dinner the other day (cut the recipe in half, made two, had them two nights in a row and it was wonderful to not have to cook those two days ). They called for some sort of bread and because I used a little bit of beer in the foil packs, I thought I would use the remaining beer to make beer bread. I wanted to do something different with my beer bread recipe so decided to add more cheese, more seasoning, and jalapeños. It was fantastic! It would be a wonderful assortment with soup, stew, chili, any type of salad, or a Mexican meal. It’s easy to put together, you just stir and dump. This is a must try.

Spicy Cheesy Beer Bread

 3 c. flour

2½ T. sugar

1 T. baking powder

1 t. kosher salt

¼ t. Old Bay Seasoning

1½ c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1 jalapeño, minced

12 oz. beer

3 T. melted butter

GARLIC BUTTER TOPPING:

2½ T. melted butter

1 t. dried parsley

½ t. garlic powder

 Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9"x5" loaf pan with PAM; set aside.

 In a large mixing bowl place flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and Old Bay; stir to combine. Fold in the shredded cheese and jalapeño. Make a little well in the center and gently pour in the beer, stirring to thoroughly combine.

Measure half of the melted butter into the bottom of the prepared loaf pan. Use a pastry brush to spread it up the sides and distribute evenly on the bottom. Transfer batter to pan, spreading it out into an even layer.

 Pour the remaining half of the melted butter over the top of the batter, brushing it around so it evenly coats the top.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center tests clean.

Whisk together garlic butter topping ingredients and pour over the top of the hot bread as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Allow bread to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, and then turn out onto a wire rack to finish cooling.

This bread does not keep well, so you’d be wise to eat it within two days. It freezes quite well, however, and makes excellent toast.

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Lemon Blueberry Loaf

 

I was craving blueberries, so when I found them on sale at the local market, I had to pick up a pint. I wasn’t paying very close attention at the time, so just grabbed one at random. When I got them home I found that they were the smallest blueberries that I think I have ever seen. In addition, they were pretty tart. Suffice to say that everything I had planned on doing with the blueberries suddenly screeched to a halt and I had to come up with a contingency plan. Because I had been craving lemon as well as blueberries, this Lemon Blueberry Loaf was like the answer to a prayer.Lemon Blueberry Loaf

 Loaf:

1½ c. flour, plus 1 tablespoon extra

1 t. baking powder

½ t. kosher salt

⅓ c. butter, softened

1 c. sugar

2 large eggs

2 t. fresh lemon zest

2 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice

½ c. whole milk

1 c. fresh blueberries

Lemon glaze:

1 c. powdered sugar

3 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Zest of 1 lemon

 Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with Baker’s Joy.

 In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.

 In a separate large bowl, cream together the softened butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, followed by the lemon zest and lemon juice until well combined.

 Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients, alternating with the milk. Begin and ending with the flour mixture, mixing just until combined.

 Reserve about a dozen blueberries and toss the remaining in 1 tablespoon of flour thereby preventing them from dropping to the bottom of loaf during baking step. Gently fold in the coated blueberries.

 Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan, smooth the top with a spatula, and scatter the reserved blueberries over the top, pressing down lightly.

Bake for 50-55 minutes, or until cake tests done.

Remove from the oven and cool in the pan for 10 minutes before transferring it to a wire rack.

 Lemon glaze:

In a small bowl, whisk together powdered sugar, lemon zest, and lemon juice until smooth and glossy.

 Drizzle the glaze over the cooled Lemon Blueberry Loaf, allowing it to drip down the sides.

 Let the glaze set for a few minutes before slicing and serving.

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Carrot Zucchini Bread with Raisins and Walnuts

Let me preface this by saying that this is going to sound a little crazy. Bear with me. For the past 25 years, I have owned various food processors that, for one reason or other, have not contained a shredding disc. I never really considered that to be of great importance until my most recently purchased food processor (read: about 10 years ago) conked out and I had to get a new one. I decided to get one with a little larger bowl due to reasons I will not disclose here. It came with both a slicing and shredding disc, so I decided to give that shredding disk a workout. I couldn’t believe all that I had been missing over the years. Somehow I felt as though life had shortchanged me. Suffice it to say that within the course of about five minutes I had shredded 4 pounds of carrots. Don’t ask me why. I just couldn’t believe the speed at which I was getting this done. It never occurred to me that I was actually going to have to use those carrots. As a consequence, I have been making carrot EVERYTHING. First stop is this delicious, carroty, appropriately seasonal zucchini bread. It is loaded with so many delicious bits and bobs, that it just has to be good for you. As far as the taste, fabulous!

Carrot Zucchini Bread with Raisins and Walnuts

1½ c. flour
½ t. salt
½ t. baking soda
½ t. baking powder
½ T. ground cinnamon

¼ t. allspice
1/8 t. cloves
2 large eggs
½ c. vegetable oil
¾ c. granulated sugar
½ c. brown sugar, packed
½ T. vanilla extract

1 c. grated zucchini

1 c. grated carrots

½ c. golden raisins

½ c. chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 325° F. Spray a 9” x 5” loaf pan with Baker’s Joy.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and cloves; set aside.

In a large bowl beat together eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugars until creamy. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, beating well. Fold in zucchini, carrots, raisins, and nuts. 

Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until loaf tests done. Cool in pan for 20 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.

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Harvest Spice Bread

This is a wonderful transitional loaf that will take you from fall into winter. The reason it’s transitional is because it contains 1/2 cup of pumpkin purée that you no doubt have lurking in the back of your refrigerator from other pumpkin things you made in the fall. It also has crisp apples, crunchy carrots, and walnuts. The next time I make this, and I will, I’m going to add rum soaked raisins (or cranberries). I like breads that are packed with goodness, and this particular one lends itself to that very thing.

Harvest Spice Bread

From sallysbakingaddiction.com

1¾ cup flour
1 t. baking soda
¾ t. salt
2 t. ground cinnamon
¼ t. freshly grated nutmeg
¼ t. ground cloves
¼ t. ground ginger
½ c. vegetable oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
½ c. granulated sugar
 ½ c. dark brown sugar
½ c. pumpkin purée
1 heaping cup (about one large) peeled and shredded apple
¾ c. (about 2 large) peeled and shredded carrots
2 T. milk
1 c. chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350° F. Spray a 9” x 5” loaf pan with Baker’s Joy; set aside.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the oil, eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar, pumpkin, shredded apple, shredded carrot, and milk together until combined. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon until combined. Fold in walnuts.

Spread the batter into prepared pan. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes until bread tests done.

Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before removing and slicing. Cover and store leftover bread at room temperature for up to 4 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 10 days.

 

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Cinnamon Swirl Apple Fritter Bread

When the local supermarket was advertising fresh local peaches, I knew this would be the weekend to make peach cobbler cheesecake, a recipe that I spotted in the new Golden Girls Cheesecake and Cocktails Cookbook. Unfortunately, when I got to the store, there wasn’t a peach in sight. Still, I was in the mood for baked goods. Remembering a recipe that I had seen on the Food Network website, I grabbed a couple of Granny Smith apples and headed home. This is delicious! I tweaked it a good bit in order to add to the depth of flavor. It worked. Your home is going to smell like apple pie is baking when this is in the oven. Stock up on apples, you’re going to want to make this again and again.

Cinnamon Swirl Apple Fritter Bread

Inspired by Food Network

 1/3 c. light brown sugar

2 t. ground cinnamon

Few gratings fresh nutmeg

2 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled and chopped

2/3 c. sugar plus 2 tablespoons

½ c. (1 stick) butter, softened

2 large eggs, room temperature

1½ t. vanilla extract

1½ c. flour

1¾ t. baking powder

1-1/8 t. apple pie spice, divided

1 t. kosher salt

½ c. milk plus 1 to 3 tablespoons

1 c. powdered sugar, sifted

 Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan Baker’s Joy; set aside.

 Mix brown sugar, 1 t. cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a bowl; set aside.

 Toss apples with 2 tablespoons granulated sugar and remaining teaspoon cinnamon in another bowl; set aside.

 Beat butter and remaining 2/3 cup granulated sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. With the mixer on medium speed, add the eggs, 1 at a time; add vanilla extract.

 Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 teaspoon apple pie spice together in another bowl, then add to creamed butter mixture and beat until blended. Mix 1/2 cup milk into batter until smooth.

 Pour half the batter into the prepared loaf pan; add half the chopped apple mixture. Sprinkle half of the brown sugar/cinnamon mixture on top of apple layer.

 Pour the remaining batter over apple layer and top with remaining chopped apples, then the remaining brown sugar/cinnamon mixture. Lightly pat apples into batter; swirl brown sugar mixture through apples using a knife.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean, approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes. Let loaf rest in pan for 20 minutes, and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

 To make glaze:  Mix powdered sugar with 1/8 teaspoon apple pie spice and remaining 1 to 3 tablespoons milk, thinned to desired consistency. Drizzle bread with glaze.

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Fruit and Spice Zucchini Bread

It’s not often that I make quick bread, but when I do, I want a loaf that is full of flavor, and lots of fruit and nuts. This one has all of those things plus the addition of a vegetable. Will your family realize it? No, they won’t. Will they love this quick bread? You bet they will! If you don’t like raisins (Why not?), then leave them out, or replace them with another dried fruit such as dried tart cherries, cranberries, or apricots. If you don’t like walnuts (Again, what is wrong with you? J), then substitute pecans. But, whatever you do, don’t tamper with the spices, because this is the perfect combination. This bread is slightly sweet, with a crunchy top and pleasantly dense interior. It is wonderful as is, with a bit of butter, or a slather of cream cheese. It is as good toasted as it is un-toasted, and will last on the counter for up to three days, if necessary.

 Fruit and Spice Zucchini Bread

 1½ c. flour 

½ t. kosher salt

½ t. baking soda

¼ t. baking powder

1 t. ground cinnamon

½ t. allspice

½ t. cloves

½ t. nutmeg

1 extra large egg

1 c. sugar

1½ t. vanilla extract

½ c. vegetable oil

1½ c. grated Melissa’s organic zucchini

½ c. golden raisins

½ c. chopped walnuts (Optional)

 Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9” x 5” loaf pan with PAM; set aside.

 Sift together flour, salt, soda, baking powder, and spices; set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk egg until frothy. Add sugar, vanilla, and oil, whisking until combined. Fold in zucchini and raisins. Add dry ingredients, mixing well. Stir in nuts, if desired. Pour prepared pan.

 Bake for 1 hour or until loaf tests done.

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