
Considering tomorrow is the first day of March, I thought it would be good to dive into some St. Patrick’s Day baking. Not that you should wait for March 17th to make these beer bread muffins – oh, no – make them now!
If you’re new to bread making, then I’d like to suggest beer bread as your first effort. It’s an easy fix with big payoff. I developed this cheesy version to dip into my favorite Irish stew. I baked the dough in a muffin tin because my favorite part of beer bread is the golden slightly chewy exterior, and you get more of that in muffin form.
If you’ve got an extra 46 seconds to spare, then I suggest watching the quick video I made. It’ll show you exactly how easy this bread is to throw together. You may be surprised to know that it has grated apple in the batter, but you won’t taste it in the end product. It helps keep the interior soft and adds just a hint of sweetness.
I use 3 ounces of smoked gouda with bacon in this recipe, but if you can’t find smoked gouda with bacon in it, you can use regular smoked gouda and add in crisp-cooked crumbled bacon.

I don’t always use the same beer in my batches of dough, but this one is good to use if you can find it locally. Hap & Harry’s lager already has ‘bready’ flavor which really adds a nice note to the baked muffins.

Beer bread is usually best eaten the same day, but these kept well for a couple of days stored in an air-tight container. Serve these warm, split down the center with a large pat of salted butter.

Bacon Smoked Gouda Beer Bread Muffins
Ingredients
- 3 cups 360g all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon + 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 medium peeled and grated granny smith apple about 50g
- 3 oz. smoked Gouda with bacon grated (I like Yancy’s Fancy brand)
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 1 1/2 cups beer one 12 oz. bottle
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F. Spray the cavities of a standard-size cupcake tin with baking spray.
- Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Add the apple and Gouda and toss so the ingredients are well dispersed and coated in flour. Add the sugar, butter and beer. Stir well until all the ingredients are well incorporated.
- Fill the cupcake cavities 3/4 full of the dough. Bake the muffins for 20-23 minutes, or until the bread is well-raised and golden on top. Remove from the oven and turn muffins out onto a wire rack. Serve muffins warm, split in the center and each with a large pat of salted butter in the center.
- Store muffins air-tight.
Tempted to lick my screen right about now! These look SO good!! I can already taste the flavor combinations of these babies. My local grocery stores don't carry this beer brand so I might have to go to our liquor stores and hunt them (or something similar) down, lol. I love breads/muffins/buscuits and find that dinner without them is just wrong. Definitely putting this on my table soon 🙂
You had me at bacon.
Yessss please!! What's not to love about these?? Heavenly!
Sues
love it going to try it one day thanks for sharing
turned out to be so round and fluffy, finally 1 thing everyone likes and sit together and eat
This looks so beautiful and I love the flavors going on. Thanks for sharing!